This semester I have been exploring how different theories allow me to explore the writing center as an object of study. Different theories allowed me to look at different aspects of the writing center, helping to approach big picture issues or more narrow foci depending on the theory. All theories bring certain things into focus…
Writing Instructor & Scholar
Tag: writing center
Case Study 3: Ecology of the Writing Center
My first case study examined the writing center broadly using Foucault’s archaeological method. My second case study examined my specific writing center in light of Spinuzzi’s activity theory and Latour’s actor-network theory. These theoretical frameworks allowed me to examine either the discursive writing center (Foucault) or my specific writing center (Spinuzzi and Latour) in interesting…
Case Study–Re-proposing My Oos
For my case study project, I have been examining the writing center as my object of study. Depending on the affordances of the various theories I have been seeking to apply, I have looked at the writing center broadly as a concept–a pedagogical principle of one-to-one writing instruction that focuses on helping students be better…
Case Study #2 Outline: Spinuzzi & Latour
Distinction between previous theoretical analysis through/application of Foucault which allowed examination of the discursive writing center and the present analysis using Spinuzzi and Latour, which allows for an activity or action focused network, bringing into focus a specific or local writing center as a network Spinuzzi: Nodes-situatedness & relationships network as a whole made up…
894 Case Study #1: Archaeology of the Writing Center
In The Archaeology of Knowledge, Michel Foucault articulates a methodology that counters the history of ideas, which seeks linearity and continuity within discourse, with one focused on moments of discontinuity and disunity. This methodology, which Foucault labels archaeology, presents an interesting theoretical framework to examine writing centers. This theory takes what appears to be a…
Welcome to Twitter, Kim
Last weekend was a busy one. Friday I presented a project on mind map annotated bibliographies at the Humanities Unbound works-in-progress graduate student conference at ODU and Saturday I presented a paper on interaction patterns of professional tutors in the writing center at the Mid-Atlantic Writing Center Association conference. The day at the humanities unbound…
How do I help you?
Warning: this post is written out of pure frustration. I have worked with all different kinds of students and am constantly challenged to find new ways to approach tutorials to help these different students. It’s one of the things I love about writing center work. But what do you do with a student who, for…
Paper 6: Being a Scholar of Writing Center Studies
To start this reflection, I want to first think about my own development with regards to writing centers. As an undergraduate student, I suffered from the misconceptions that plague many writing centers. I saw the writing center as a place for “bad writers” to get help and assumed that this wasn’t the place for me.…
Paper 5: Epistemological Alignment
In aligning myself within the writing center field, I find that I am highly influenced by foundational texts and scholars in the field. In thinking about the overall mission of a writing center, I agree with North’s (1984) assertion in “Idea” that “Our job is to produce better writers, not better writing. Any given project-a…
Paper 4: Theories, Methods, & a Continuing Quest for Legitimacy
As a field growing from rhetoric and composition, writing center work and scholarship centers on the theory of teaching writing as process. Similarly North’s “Idea” of writing centers as places that support writers as opposed to individual assignments, and Bruffee’s work on collaborative learning through peer tutoring undergird the work and scholarship of writing center…
