Re: Online Writing Consulting

["GUTIERREZ, JENNIFER" <JGUTIERR@uscolo.edu>]

hello all,
in reference to the online writing lab, you each bring up some
good issues. i am the online writing lab coordinator at the 
university of southern colorado. i was hired specifically to 
coordinate the OWL in conjunction with our writing center. 
last semester we piloted the program, so this year is 
the first year we will truly be online. 

we use a software that is much like an e-mail account, only
it operates off of a web browser (i can forward the actual
name to any interesed). students send papers to a general
account, and then our writing center tutors respond to 
them in much the same way they do in the writing center.

we still adhere to the principles of minimalist tutoring. 
although, and you are wise to point this out, it is harder to 
do that online than it is in face-to-face. we have tried 
handling that issue by way of uniform abbreviations that 
indicate the problem, but do not necessarily imply the 
correction. when further explanation is needed, we don't 
hesistate to do that as well.

i have also held OWL training sessions for tutors to help
them conduct their online sessions in a way that helps the
writer become a better writer as opposed to helping them make
papers become better papers. 

i'd be happy to supply any specific examples or more detailed
information to anyone interested: jgutierr@uscolo.edu

---jenn g.

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REPLY FROM: GUTIERREZ, JENNIFER
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From: "jwerchan" <JWerchan@titania.lima.ohio-state.edu>
To: wcenter@ttacs6.ttu.edu
Subject: Re: Online Writing Consulting
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Date: Fri, 23 Oct 1998 08:29:52 -0400
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>I am researching the possibility of implementing an online
writing
>center .............
>What is the best platform/software to use? (How do students
turn in
>papers, and how are they responded to?)
>What are some of the difficulties in communication between the
author
>and the responder?.........

hm....  I know there are list members who do this kind of thing,
but the bit that I snipped above makes me think.   One of the
axioms of our work is that we work mostly on process, not so
much on product.  So unless the online wc assistant also gets a
lot of brainstorming notes, reflection-on-process notes, and 
drafts-in-various-stages, then the on-line wc experience will be
fraught with unpleasantness and frustration.    In other words,
everyone involved will have to be "vaccinated" against treating
the business as writing-as-product.  It is not simple business,
and I'd caution going into it too soon without lots of research.
 Your coming to this list is a good first step in that research,
but just a first of many.

The writing-as-process principle would be hard to communicate to
online wc users, I'd expect.  But then what do i know?   

Good luck to you, anyway.


jw