I am thinking about my final project of promoting the Writing Center. Certainly I want to address that there is a Writing Center and that there are resources for all students. Then I thought-- well what about all of the concerns and questions that people have about the Writing Center. We addressed some of these concern in class-- Will my teacher grade me harder if I go to the Writing Center? Will the tutors actually help me? Will they proofread my paper for me? I decided to look up what other Writing Centers may have trouble with and came across the article "College Composition and the work of the Writing Center" by Nancy Maloney Grimm. She addressed some similar themes-- what is the role of the writing consultants, what is the faculty opinion of the writing center, are the tutors really qualified to help me??
All of these thoughts have led to me to think that we need to address these questions in out advertisements. We need people to know that the Writing Consultants take a course to become Writing Consultants, that most (all??) faculty support the Writing Center, and that Writing Consultants can help at any point of the writing process.
Check out the article: http://www.jstor.org/stable/358600
Allie I think this is a great area to explore. I know in class one time we actually discussed using Writing Centers and harder grading by professors. I know students consider these things when going to the writing center but if we ease their qualms and answer any concerns they have then I am sure the writing center will receive more traffic.
ReplyDeleteThis is an excellent idea. I also knew many who felt that teachers would grade them harder if they sought help from the writing center (the "I expect more from you" complex) and this kept them from making appointments. I think if these issues are addressed when a student first enters the university as a freshmen, then a lot more students would make use of the resources available to them in the writing center.
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