RE: Goal of writing center

[Lerner Neal <NLerner@mcp.edu>]

Donna, I'd like to think that the goal of a writing center is to contribute
to student learning.  Heck, I'd like to think that's the goal of the
institution as a whole (though it seems low on the priority list for some
people and places).  So are WC's about writers or writing?  Both, I'd say,
for both have to do with learning.  It seems the manifestation of learning
to write will show up in the writing itself 

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Donna_Sewell [mailto:dsewell@valdosta.edu]
> Sent: Wednesday, September 29, 1999 4:31 PM
> To: wcenter@ttacs6.ttu.edu
> Subject: Goal of writing center
> 
> 
> Hi folks,
> 
> In being interviewed for an ethnographic study of our writing 
> center, I
> claimed that my vision for the writing center is prompted by Stephen
> North's famous statement that the goal of a writing center is to help
> people become better writers, not necessarily to improve the text. 
> 
> The interviewer asked me if that goal is acceptable to most 
> writing center
> directors and staff members. Unable to imagine who wouldn't agree with
> such a goal, I said that I assumed there was some consensus 
> in the writing
> center community about such a goal. But the more I think about her
> question, the less comfortable I am claiming such consensus. 
> 
> Do you think there is a consensus in the writing center 
> community? And do
> you mind my sharing your responses with the students in my 
> graduate class
> who are conducting the ethnography?
> 
> 				Donna
> 
> Dr. Donna Sewell
> Director of Writing Center
> Assistant Professor of English
> Valdosta State University
> Valdosta, GA 31698
> (912) 333-5946
> 
> Email address: dsewell@valdosta.edu
>