Re: Helpful Articles

["David J. Coogan" <coogan@charlie.cns.iit.edu>]

Beth --

Oh yeah, that clarifies!  And thank you: I *am* the consumate online
tutor, (he says without flinching).  

So. Based on what you've told me, I would give them  . . . 

a)  Nancy Grimm's "Rearticulating the Work of the Writing Center" CCC
1996, 47.4, p. 523--
b)  Nancy Welch's "From Silence to Noise: The Writing Center as Critical
Exile" WCJ, 1993, 14.1, p. 3--
c) John Trimbur's "Peer Tutoring: A Contradiction in Terms, WCJ, 1987,
7.2, p. 21-28

And my reasons?  I would start them off with Trimbur because he manages to
get at the complexity of peer vs teacher status, without arguing for or
against either role.  I would move on to Welch, who does illustrate
that complexity with a discussion of a tutorial she conducted (with a
woman writing about
sexual harrassment, I think.) The theme of exile is provocative (taken
from Kristeva), especially the way she uses it to talk about students'
experiences with writing.  Finally, Grimm takes
a more global position of the center as a space to articulate
heterogeneity, rather than mediate it.  

All these articles position the writing center as an intellectual place,
but they don't (so far as I can remember) make explicit cases for research
in the center.  The conversations they describe, though, involving
cultural exchanges between different discourse communities, are
interesting and very accessible (I think) to anyone who cares about
teaching.

Best of luck, Beth --

Dave Coogan
Illinois Institute of Technology

On Thu, 22 May 1997, Beth Boquet wrote:

> Dave--
> 
> Always the on-line tutor, aren't you? ;)
> 
> Seriously, those are helpful questions you pose.  The task of the 
> Advisory Board is to support the vision of the writing center as a 
> place where serious intellectual work on campus can occur.  Included 
> in that idea, for me at least, is the notion that peer tutors and 
> students can and do have important discussions about their work, that 
> writing centers serve important functions other than simply "serving" 
> the needs of a particular class or a particular instructor.
> 
> So the task is more complex that simply informing people that we 
> exist.  Everyone knows that we exist, I believe.  What we're trying 
> to do is round out the use of the writing center, maximize its 
> potential.  
> 
> During these discussions, I want to be sure to keep us focused on the 
> work of the writing center, avoiding discussions of "why can't 
> students write anymore", blah, blah, blah.  I think that most of the 
> folks on the board are anticipating a more complicated discussion 
> than that one, but I think they probably also think they *know* what 
> the writing center does/can do.  I want to start from where they are 
> and move them farther.
> 
> Also, I guess I should say that the make-up of the board is decidedly 
> theoretical (which probably comes as no surprise to many of you, 
> given my orientation): a philosophy professor, a history professor, a 
> postmodern chemist (who would love that description of him), two 
> feminist theorists (one from business and one from economics), and a 
> colleague from the English department.
> 
> Does this help to clarify at all?
> 
> --Beth Boquet
> eboquet@fair1.fairfield.edu
>