Mid-Atlantic Writing Centers Association
2015 Conference
CONFERENCE SCHEDULE
Friday
3:00 - 8:00 p.m. Registration and Information Table Open (SSC 1st floor, Learning Centers)
4:00 - 6:00 p.m. Workshops (SSC 4th floor) -- $10 for professionals and $7 for students
Workshops
Writing Center in the Learning Commons: Opportunities, Pitfalls, and Administrative Strategies (Room 4044)
Summary: Locating writing centers in “learning commons” is a growing trend in colleges and universities. If your writing center is currently located in a learning commons, or if your school/college is considering moving in this direction, this workshop is for you! Come to this session to talk about opportunities that may emerge from the learning commons model, pitfalls to avoid, and administrative strategies for keeping your center on solid footing.
Presenters: Elizabeth Vincelette, Old Dominion University; Felicia Shearer, Shippensburg University; Karen Johnson, Shippensburg University; Laura Schubert, James Madison University
Assessment with Vision: Making an Assessment Plan for your Center (Room 4046)
Summary: When you think “assessment” you probably think “numbers,” but writing center assessment is all about vision and strategic planning. Writing center directors can and should shape their assessment activities to address questions that are important to them, and to gather information that will help their centers grow and develop. Come to this workshop to discuss strategies for designing effective and meaningful assessments for your center, and to brainstorm ideas for your center's assessment plan.
Presenters: Kurt Schick and Kevin Jefferson, James Madison University
Writing Centers and Disability Services: Collaborating to Empower (Room 4043)
Summary: Is your writing center well-prepared to serve students with physical disabilities? What about students with learning disabilities? In this workshop, which features the Assistant Director of JMU's Office of Disability Services, we will discuss how writing centers can collaborate with Disability Services staff to empower students, train tutors, and embody universal design.
Presenters: Jared Featherstone and Matt Trybus, James Madison University
6:00 - 7:30 p.m. Dinner and Reception (SSC 2nd floor, Bistro)
7:00 - 8:00 p.m. MAWCA Board Meeting (SSC 3200) Open to the public.
Saturday
7:00 a.m. - noon Registration and Information Table Open
7:00 - 8:30 a.m. Breakfast (SSC 2nd floor, Bistro)
7:30 - 8:30 a.m. Meeting of the Special Interest Group (SIG) on Antiracism Activism (SSC 1075)
Summary: This SIG will provide a space for tutors and administrators to share their interest in anti-oppression work and to discuss how to make social justice an integral part of our centers.
Presenters: Jessica Reyes, Towson University; Kelsey Hixson-Bowles, Indiana University of Pennsylvania
8:00 - 8:30 a.m. JMU Writing Center Open House (SSC 1st floor)
8:45 - 9:35 a.m. Session A (SSC 4th floor)
Room: 1075
Title: Amazing Space: Building Place and Community for the Virtual Writing Center
Presenter: Dan Gallagher, David Taylor, Michelle Bowman, Aimee Maxfield, and Anna Dumonchelle; University of Maryland University College
Summary: In a virtual writing center, where neither students nor staff share a physical space, how can community and presence be created? This panel delves into the ways the Effective Writing Center at UMUC makes the virtual feel real.
Room: 1114 (Science & Math Learning Center)
Title: “Show, Don’t Tell”: Consultants as Model-Practitioners of Effective Writing Practices
Presenters: Brennan Thomas, Christi Villareale, April Taylor, Kimberly Marangoni, Samuel Dency, and Jordan Gorusch; St. Francis University
Summary: Our writing center consultants emphasize students’ development and autonomy by modeling rather than describing effective writing strategies for student clientele: In other words, they “show, don’t tell.” This panel examines how this oft-repeated mantra of fiction writers dovetails with Stephen North’s challenge to produce better writers, not merely better writing.
Room: 1121 (University Writing Center)
Title: Locating the Writer: The Architecture and Geography of Writing Centers
Presenters: Walter Stover, D. Alexis Hart, Mackenzie Jordan, Katie Brong, Emily Cronizer; Allegheny College
Summary: Blending theory, data, and student voices, this panel examines the spatial qualities of writing centers in three stages: the journey of the student to the writing center; crossing the threshold into the writing center space; and the interaction of the student writer and the writing consultant with the space itself.
Room: 3202
Title: We All Write, Right? Supporting Writers in All Disciplines
Presenters: Kim Pennesi, Camille Moore, Sara Tantlinger, and Megan Matejcic; Seton Hill University.
Summary: Writing center staff members are often apprehensive because they feel unprepared to work with writing across the curriculum. This interactive workshop will explore participants’ knowledge about various writing conventions, as well as help them develop strategies for strengthening their support of working with writing in all disciplines.
Room: 4041
Title: Writing on the Brain: Evolution, Thought, Speech, Writing, and Tutoring Writing
Presenter: Eric La Freniere; James Madison University
Summary: Janet Emig has pointed out that “writing is markedly bispherical” and “epigenetic, with the complex evolutionary development of thought steadily and graphically visible and available.” Writing reveals traces of brain evolution, and a brain-hemispheric framework can shed light on the interrelationships among evolution, thought, speech, writing, and tutoring writing.
Title: Cultural and Rhetorical Strategies for Improved Tutor Training
Presenter: Nabila Hijazi and James Gray; University of Maryland, College Park
Summary: About 37% of University of Maryland Writing Center clientele are ESL students. However, the UMCP Writing Center tutor training program has only marginally addressed cross-cultural communication and offered general strategies for tutoring ESL students. By using intercultural communication theories, we recommend a series of professional development strategies to improve tutor training.
Room: 4042
Title: Sharing Space with our Community: Service-Learning Tutor Training as Sustainable, Reciprocal Practice
Presenters: Lisa Zimmerelli, Loyola University Maryland; Victoria Brown, St. Paul’s School of Baltimore; Mike Ebmeier, Loyola University Maryland; and Annemarie Malady, Loyola University Maryland
Summary: This presentation demonstrates how service-learning training is a model for sustainability and reciprocity because it blends two service models: community-based writing center projects and the service-learning classroom. Specifically, we will provide course-related resources (syllabi, readings, assignments) and program-related resources (ice-breakers, workshop ideas, assessments, handouts). We will reflect on program changes and detail potential future projects.
Room: 4043
Title: Optimize Interaction with Learning Disabled Students
Presenter: Adrienne Betancourt Nicosia; Montgomery College.
Workshop participants receive a set of tips and engage in further discussion about enhancing tutoring sessions to address revealed and hidden learning disabilities. Within a universal design context, affective and communication approaches respectfully invite revelation of student level and learning concerns and preferences.
Room: 4044
Title: STEM & Writing: The Writing Fellows Program
Presenters: Kody Sharp, Elise Barrella, Taylor O'Donnell, and Olga Pierrakos; James Madison University
Summary: More emphasis must be placed on a firm relationship between STEM and writing centers, as writing is an integral part of STEM, and research is an integral part of writing centers; writing fellows programs are a great introduction of STEM students and professors to the writing center and its methods. This presentation will allow professors and writing fellows to discuss and answer questions about their experience in a writing fellows program.
Room: 4045
Title: Shared Identities: Balancing Faculty Responsibilities as a Writing Center Administrator
Presenters: Tom Earles and Douglas Kern; University of Maryland
Summary: In the spirit of the conference theme of sharing spaces, this roundtable will explore ways in which writing center professionals—particularly directors, assistant directors, coordinators, and other administrators—share themselves and divide their time and energies between the writing center and other responsibilities on campus, such as teaching and service.
Room: 4046
Title: The Art of Disagreement
Presenters: Ava Shafiei, Silvana Smith, and Eileen Chen; Oakton High School.
Summary: Do you like to ask and argue about the bigger questions? Are you not afraid to pursue answers? Join three Center tutors in an engaging and dynamic dialogue about conflicting philosophies and Center values that determine the ideological “space” a peer tutoring center occupies in its academic community.
Room: 4047
Title: Tutors Teaming Up: Creating Good Relationships among Writing Center Tutors
Presenters: Katie Kowalski and Sydney Dolan; Centreville High School.
Summary: Along with sharing spaces with tutees, tutors also have to share space with each other. In this roundtable discussion, Katie, Michelle, and Sydney will lead a conversation about how tutors can create a comfortable, positive, and welcoming work environment. Tutors will learn and explore different techniques for doing so.
Room: 4049
Title: Writing Tutor/Writing Fellow: Navigating Shared Roles and Responsibilities
Presenters: Anissa Sorokin, Rachel Garcia, Michelle Mattern, Disha Patel, and Kelly Purtell; University of Maryland, Baltimore County
Summary: Writing center tutors who are also writing fellows for academic courses must develop rapport, manage authority, and utilize physical space differently as they perform each role; however, some principles remain constant. This panel discusses some of the challenges associated with participating in and administering two distinct peer tutoring programs.
9:45 - 10:35 a.m. Session B (SSC 4th floor)
Room: 1075
Title: Too "Ready to Make Nice"?* Tutor-Student Collaboration and Conflict at a Women's College
Presenters: Katie Hurlock, Zoe Clandorf, Vanessa Evans, Reetu Sinha, and Sharanya Rao; Mary Baldwin College
Summary: A panel from Mary Baldwin College shares five peer-tutoring scenarios that concerned problematic ideas on gender and race. Consultants self-critique their styles and explain what they learned about constructively challenging these perspectives. How do tutors simultaneously maintain a caring, yet challenging and progressive space for conversation in the writing center?
Room: 1114 (Science & Math Learning Center)
Title: Learning Disabilities in the Writing Center: Tutor Perceptions
Presenters: Sasha Yambor and Jen Follett; York College of Pennsylvania
Summary: This panel shares the results of a research study examining tutors’ perceptions of and responses to student writers’ learning disabilities. Implications for tutor education and writing center services are discussed.
Room: 1121 (University Writing Center)
Title: Faculty as Tutors for Developmental Students
Presenters: Lucy Manley and Chris Nosal; Valley Forge Military College
Summary: Panelists will present data from an assessment of the newly implemented faculty tutors program writing center. Eighty percent of students admitted to VFMC are classified as developmental and this research offers perspectives from the writing center administration, faculty tutor, and basic writing students.
Room: 3202
Title: Navigating Shared Spaces: Writing Centers at the Intersection of Disconnect, Discipline, and Design
Presenters: Dani Nier-Weber, Marti Mando, and Catherine Kula; University of Pittsburgh Bradford
Writing assignments can often be found at the nexus of shared spaces in the writing center. Using small group analysis and whole group discussion, this workshop analyzes a variety of assignments from across the disciplines and examines ways consultants negotiate the needs, expectations, and constraints of differently designed writing assignments.
Room: 4041
Title: Helping our Men: Fighting Shames and Getting Black/African American Males Involved in Academic and Professional Writing and Literary Discourse
Presenter: Dionte Harris; University of Maryland, College Park
Summary: Based on Vershawn Young’s concept of code-meshing, Keith Gilyard’s study on language acquisition, and Ronnie Hopkins’ designs of teaching black males, this presentation invites conversation on what writing teachers and tutors can do in creating environments that alleviate the fear and shame of “being wrong” that many black males feel when they write. How can they encourage and communicate respect for multiple standards of English, especially African American Vernacular English, and what are the implications of doing so?
Room: 4042
Title: The Contact Zone: Cross-Disciplinary Space Sharing among Peer Tutors
Presenter: Andrew Houriet; Drexel University
Summary: This presentation explores how non-English majors, in an environment often staffed predominantly by English majors, identify and construct their own identities in a contact zone in which they are the minority.
Title: Sharing the Space with Student Tutors: Where do Professional Tutors Fit in within Writing Center Work?
Presenter: Kim Fahle; Virginia Wesleyan University
Summary: This paper will present a discourse analysis of several tutorial conversations between college student tutees and professional tutors to see the level of collaboration versus instruction that occurs in these types of tutorial conversations.
Room: 4043
Title: A tale of two liaisons: exploring library-writing center alliances
Presenters: Lucy Green and Carolyn Schubert; James Madison University
Summary: In this presentation, a writing center faculty member and a librarian will discuss their partnership at James Madison University, including how they have adapted the library liaison model for writing center use. Attendees will have the opportunity to consider models for writing center-library collaboration at their own institutions.
Room: 4044
Title: Adapting to New Environments: Developing Relationships with Younger Generations
Presenters: Amna Baloul, Brenna Coogan, and Susana Zelaya; Thomas A. Edison High School
Summary: Framed by the perspectives of three high school tutors, this presentation explores the impact of a writing center collaboration with elementary school students as a form of community outreach. Through first-hand experience, the presenters will address the influence of a learner-centered approach on high school tutors and elementary school tutees.
Room: 4046
Title: Behind the Scenes: Getting ESOL Students to Practice English outside of Tutoring Sessions
Presenters: Sydney Hamrick and Delaney Madden; Centreville High School
In this workshop, high school students Sydney Hamrick and Delaney Madden direct two activities expressing different stages of working with ESOL students: putting yourself in the tutee’s shoes, what tutors currently do to help the ESOL students with their English, and what tutors might try in the future to increase the practice of English outside of the classroom.
Room: 4047
Title: The Writing Center as Place; The Writing Center as Space
Presenter: Abbi Bardi; Prince George's Community College
Summary: This presentation will examine the distinction between the place we occupy physically, which is often part of another department or support service, and the space the writing center occupies conceptually, and will discuss the repercussions of sharing place/space and its impact on the identity of the writing center.
Title: DIY Training: Crafting a Tutor Training Guide Together
Presenter: Sandra Eckard; East Stroudsburg University of Pennsylvania
Summary: This presentation will focus on a tutor-generated training guide. The tutors selected the topics they wanted to share, researched strategies in journals and publications, crafted tips for "hands-on" application, and edited the guide that will become part of the regular new tutor training process. This presentation will include the steps in the assignment, the strategies used for keeping tutors on track, the final product sample, and post-project tutor feedback. Samples and prompts will also be provided as takeaways for session participants.
Room: 4049
Title: Contextualizing our Space: A Quantitative Analysis of Writing Center Leadership and Locality
Presenters: Jessica Reyes, Towson University; Kelsey Hixson-Bowles, Indiana University of Pennsylvania
Summary: Presenters report findings from a quantitative study of leadership structures, staff, and campus locations of U.S. post-secondary writing centers gathered from 1,000+ writing-center websites. This presentation will not only question where and who share writing center spaces, but also how we share control of our spaces internally and institutionally.
10:50 - 11:40 a.m. Keynote Address (Grafton Hall): Nathalie Singh-Corcoran, West Virginia University
12:00 - 1:00 p.m. Lunch (SSC 2nd floor Bistro)
1:00 - 2:00 p.m. Poster Sessions (1st floor Atrium and Learning Centers):
Title: Can We Convince Upperclassmen to Come? Survey Says Unlikely
Presenter: Rachel Powelson; Pennsylvania State University
Summary: This peer tutor conducted a survey to determine why upperclassmen use the writing center less than first-year students. The results are then presented and discussed with hopes that the data will help writing centers reach a broader audience.
Title: Reaching a Broader Community: Exploring the Effectiveness of ESL in the Refugee Youth Community
Presenter: Annemarie Malady; Loyola University Maryland
Summary: This presentation involves research into existing literature regarding ESL, ELL and literacy education, specifically dealing with marginalized groups. A case study of three Baltimore County Schools (years K-12) with ESL programs that provide after-school support for refugee youth will be examined. This research finds that there are demographic groups outside of the expected being left out of ESL studies.
Title: We're All in This Together: Community in the West Chester University Writing Center
Presenter: Amanda Scheibner; West Chester University of Pennsylvania
Summary: This poster explores the idea of community within the writing center workspace. Through extensive research and collaboration with other writing centers, several key phrases are directly linked to the community, such as safe space, diversity, and engagement. This poster will build on a previous presentation with additional data collected from IWCA. The West Chester University Writing Center is diverse with tutors from many majors and backgrounds who have contributed to identifying the key phrases.
Title: Overlapping Spaces of Writing Centers & Libraries
Presenter: Erika Germann; Pennsylvania State University Berks Campus
Summary: Situating the work in current research, this poster will examine the overlapping spaces of writing centers and libraries. The poster highlights findings from interviews with peer tutors, research librarians, and the writing center professionals and makes recommendations for campuses based on the research. This poster helps to identify areas where co-referencing between libraries and writing centers is possible.
2:10 - 3:00 p.m. Session C (SSC 4th floor)
Room: 1075
Title: Sharing American Writing Centers with Internal Students and the World: Hello from Japan
Presenters: Erin Coogan, Mahmoud Baloul, Matthew Phuong, and Megan Harris; Thomas A. Edison High
Summary: This presentation explores common mistakes from the application of the American writing center model internationally and sharing American writing centers with international students, while analyzing differences in tutoring English and Japanese. Participants will reflect upon the ways in which their writing center handles social, intellectual, and organizational culture.
Room: 1114 (Science & Math Learning Center)
Title: Sharing space: Process over Product in the Writing Center
Presenter: Shannon McGinley; West Chester University of Pennsylvania
Summary: This presentation is based on empirical research that explores a correlation between the stage of the writing process and the help requested by writers visiting the WCUPA writing center. This original research draws on scholarship from North, Brooks, and Severino and includes similar empirical research by Robinson and Sanford.
Title: "Where's my Voice?": The Need for Graduate Tutor Discourse
Presenter: Joshua Anderson; West Carolina University
Summary: Graduate writing tutors fill a unique role within writing centers. However, very little discourse focuses on graduate tutors. As a writing center community, we need to begin a conversation on proper ways to train and utilize graduate writing tutors.
Room: 1121 (University Writing Center)
Title: Sharing Cyberspace: An Exploration of Online Tutorials
Presenters: Danielle Archambault and Benjamin Morgan; West Chester University of Pennsylvania
Summary: This panel presentation takes the definition of collaboration from Dr. Andrea Lunsford’s article “Collaboration, Control, and the Idea of the Writing Center” and explores creating collaborative tutorials in e-space using the synchronous technology of GoToMeeting.
Room: 3202
Title: Sharing Spaces in Extended Writer-Tutor Relationships
Presenters: Kathleen Hynes and Lynn Shelly; Indiana University of Pennsylvania
Summary: Writing center research has repeatedly found a connection between frequency of tutoring and student success. But does it make a difference whether those writing center tutorials are with the same tutor? This session will utilize an “open fishbowl” format as a means of soliciting input from those attending.
Room: 4041
Title: Outer and Inner Space: Community in Virtual and Actual Writing Center Locations
Presenters: Michan Myer, Emily Howell, Bethany Lee, and Katherine McCamy; Old Dominion University
Summary: This panel considers how a writing center staffed by English graduate students forms a writing community within a larger institutional context, in virtual spaces and in-person. We focus on the theoretical and practical implications of creating virtual spaces, such as a website, help docs, and a “live” office daily log.
Room: 4042
Title: Sharing Collaborative Space: Small-group Tutoring in the Writing Center
Presenters: Sharada Krishnamurthy, Dan DeLuise, Dennis Scharff, Mikaela Langdon, and Mike Fotos; Rowan University
Summary: We will discuss how collaborative space functions in the small-group tutoring model and present the factors that contribute to its successes and failures.
Room: 4043
Title: Sharing of Academic Disciplines in the Writing Center
Presenters: Erik Simmons and Caroline Prendergast; James Madison University
Summary: This panel provides empirical research by presenting findings from two studies that borrow research methods from psychology. It is vital in the progression of writing center space to share academic spaces and methodology of other disciplines.
Room: 4044
Title: Using e-Portfolios as Collaborative Space: A Digital Landscape for the Writing Center
Presenters: Christina McDonald, Deidre Garriott, Marcus Hamilton, and Andrew Rozyski; Virginia Military Institute
Summary: Most Writing center directors and tutors would agree that writing centers are a shared space. Professionals and students work together, and sometimes, the Center shares physical space with other academic services. This panel argues that integrating e-Portfolios into writing centers changes the shared landscape of the writing center in terms of infrastructure, hierarchies, and generative content.
Room: 4045
Title: Shattering the Ice: How Writing Centers Can Work with ESOL Students
Presenters: Sara Khorramshahgol and Alison Gomeiz; Centreville High School.
Summary: In this roundtable discussion, high school writing center tutors Sara Khorramshahgol and Alison Gomeiz will address the question of how writing centers can integrate ESOL students into English-speaking student life. They will pose questions about the different activities that tutors can engage in with their English-learning counterparts to make the experience the most beneficial.
Room: 4046
Title: “But I Don’t Wanna Share!”: A Lesson on Sharing Ideas and Workload with Tutees
Presenters: Kelsey Halvorsen and Eva Du; West Springfield High School
Summary: Kelsey Halvorsen and Eva Du will lead an interactive discussion and present a lecture on how to encourage the sharing of ideas and workload in a tutoring session with tutees who are territorial about their writing and/or are reluctant to write.
Room: 4047
Title: The Student/Tutor Space: Keeping It Safe with the Research Essay
Presenter: Odeana Kramer; Prince George's Community College.
Summary: As writing center tutors we play many roles with students, and often have to navigate challenging scenarios. One of these tutoring spaces we share with students involves the Research Essay, and in this space we are often faced with the challenge of addressing issues of academic dishonesty, whether they are intentional or not. We will explore effective tutoring strategies to help students avoid being charged with academic dishonesty and hone their research and source integration skills.
Room: 4049
Title: Tutorial Spaces: A Comparative Analysis between Writers’ Perceptions about Open and Private Spaces and their Ability to Achieve Writing Goals
Presenters: Karen Johnson, Adrienne Williams, Ariel Slotter, Jess Weidner, and Peter Scheer; Shippensburg University
Summary: Writing centers seek to provide comfortable, productive environments. We sought to examine how shared and private spaces impact writers’ comfort and ability to achieve writing goals by comparing differences between their perceptions about tutoring in open and private spaces. Results provide insight on creating environments that enhance writers’ comfort and goal achievement.
3:10 - 4:10 p.m. Session D (SSC 4th floor)
Room: 1075
Title: Making Tolerance for Ambiguity Visible: How to Do RAD Research on Tolerance
Presenters: Margaret Ervin, Ellen Santa Maria, and Peter Hornbach; West Chester University of Pennsylvania
Summary: Our writing center has been using a rubric with writers to help them develop their tolerance for ambiguity. We define tolerance for ambiguity as the habit of mind that allows a person to stand calmly at the crossroads, knowing full well they are lost, but able to take in the scene, even take the time to smell a rose, and weigh the available data (as it were) before deciding which road to follow. We will present the research we have done this semester using a rubric to help students reach ambiguity, as opposed to helping them reach answers.
Room: #1121 (University Writing Center)
Title: Physical, Departmental, Disciplinary, Cultural, and Pedagogical Shared Spaces: How a Community of Diverse Writing Center Tutors at a Historically Black University Turns Challenges into Opportunities
Presenters: Terry Smith with tutors; University of Maryland Eastern Shore
Summary: Our writing center is in the process of significant change, and my tutors and I will conduct a panel in which we discuss how we make what could be challenges into opportunities as we consider the theoretical and practical aspects of these shared spaces: physical, departmental, disciplinary, cultural, and pedagogical.
Room: 1114 (Science & Math Learning Center)
Title: When Writing Centers Share Space with Other Student Services: Pros and Cons of the One-Stop Shop
Presenters: Sylvia Whitman, Peter Redding, Chelsea Mizell, and Christine Lukban; Marymount University
Summary: Back in the day, writing centers pioneered the academic frontier. Then, as scholars touted the potential of peer-to-peer interactions, consulting was integrated into the settled university community alongside other services—tutoring, advising, faculty development. A combo center’s staff and students ask, What is lost and what is gained in symbiosis?
Room: 3202
Title: University and Secondary School Writing Centers in Partnership: One Model for a Shared Network
Presenter: Tom Deans; University of Connecticut
Summary: Over the last seven years the writing center at the University of Connecticut has nurtured a network of middle and high school peer writing centers. This presentation outlines how our model works and explains why it is replicable in other regions.
Title: Writing Center in the House
Presenter: Justin Hopkins; Franklin and Marshall College
Summary: F&M seeks to integrate the students’ residential and academic experiences through its house system. The Writing Center has been a part of that integration by holding workshops on a variety of topics in one of the College houses. This presentation will describe this sharing of spaces, perhaps inspiring similar initiatives.
Room: 4041
Title: Affective Dimensions of Tutoring and Writing Spaces
Presenters: Susan Lawrence and Alisa Russell; George Mason University
Summary: This panel addresses the affective dimensions of the physical spaces of tutoring and writing, reporting on tutors’ and writers’ perspectives on the kind of spaces that foster a sense of security, focus, and productivity.
Room: #4042
Title: Sharing Style: The Role of Writing Fellows in Facilitating Discussions of Style in the First-Year-Composition Classroom
Presenter: Angela Glotfelter; York College of Pennsylvania.
Summary: In much of modern composition, instruction upon the canon of style has been pushed aside in favor of emphasizing, for instance, arrangement, argument, even grammatical correctness. This presentation investigates what writing fellows in first-year-composition courses can do to share their knowledge of and facilitate discussions about style.
Title: Academic Blogging as a Site for Literacy Training
Presenter: Holly Ryan; Penn State Berks
Summary: Undergraduate tutors should have an opportunity to build professional relationships across institutional borders. One way to make these connections is through a shared blog. This session will describe and share a tri-university social networking assignment. Secondly, it will offer a heuristic for analyzing community-building assignments. Finally, and most importantly perhaps, the article will speculate on how we can(not) use blogs to create a professional literacy practice in our centers.
Room: #4043
Title: The Effectiveness of a Grammar Reference Book for Learning Disabled Writers
Presenter: Craig Medvecky; Loyola University Maryland
Summary: This paper describes “a case study” about how a peer tutor and LD writer worked together to produce a customized grammar book to help her recall grammar rules when writing papers. This helped the LD student to create a unique grammar book, enabling her to work more independently.
Title: The medium is the message and the message is complex: the state of synchronous online tutoring in the writing center
Presenter: Craig Medvecky; Loyola University
Summary: Two years of qualitative data from writing center tutors and clients provide the impetus to examine the state of synchronous online tutoring through the lens of recent scholarship. The presentation will contextualize one center’s efforts in synchronous online writing instruction to shed light on a wider trend in the field.
Room: 4044
Title: Creating a Shared Space for Undergraduate Research through Writing Center Networks: The Naylor Undergraduate Workshop for Writing Studies
Presenters: Cynthia Crimmins, Dominic DelliCarpini, and Megan Schoettler; York College of Pennsylvania
Summary: This panel discusses the creation of a cross-institutional space that responds to our discipline’s call for increasing opportunities for undergraduate research, and how that opportunity might be fostered through existing and new writing center spaces and networks.
Room: 4045
Title: Fix-it Shops and One-stop-shops: Anxiety and Celebration in WC/LC Self-Definition
Presenter: Elizabeth Vincelette; Old Dominion’s University
Summary: This talk explores self-definition of WC and LCs, especially the utopian language found in LC scholarship, comparing it with the often (understandably) defensive language of marginalization in WC research. How does what Jackie Grutsch McKinney identifies as the “writing center grand narrative” compare to a “learning commons grand narrative”?
Title: Writing Center Mission Statements and Discourse
Presenter: Allison Hutchison; University of Maryland, College Park.
Summary: In a discourse and qualitative analysis of writing center mission statements, echoes of Stephen North are found, along with an adherence to genre theory. But what are we communicating about ourselves in these mission statements? What needs to stay the same, and what can be changed?
Room: 4046
Title: Expanding Tutor Training: ELL Tutoring as Translingual Practice
Presenter: Brooke Covington; James Madison University
Summary: With the boom in international student enrollment, writing centers must better prepare fledgling tutors to meet the distinct needs of English Language Learners. This presentation introduces translingual negotiation strategies of intercultural communication—theories that will help tutors navigate the often uneasy waters of working with ELL students.
Title: My Journal Insights as an Afghan Multilingual Tutor: Addressing Cultural and Language Differences
Presenter: Mir Abdullah Miri; Indiana University of Pennsylvania
Summary: Multilingual tutors work in many writing centers, and of course have their own stories to share. The presenter provides a reflection of his journal, written based on his voluntary tutoring experience at the IUP Writing Center. He highlights the language and cultural differences he has observed during his tutoring experience.
Room: 4047
Title: Global Connections: The Relationship between Writing Center Receptionists and International Students
Presenters: Kayla Baptiste, Iliana Burgos, Kaitlyn Huber, and Samuel Cason; University of Delaware
Summary: This panel will detail some the issues that arise when receptionists interact with the clients, specifically international students. We will be looking at how receptionists can accommodate cultural differences so that every client feels welcomed at the writing center.
Room: 4049
Title: Who Shares Our Space? How Student Attitudes About Writing Influence Who Comes to our Writing Centers
Presenters: Leslie Allison and Lori Salem; Temple University
Summary: This presentation considers data from a large survey on student attitudes about writing and discusses how anxiety levels about writing ability influence who ultimately decides to seek out peer tutoring support. The presentation focuses on the implications such results might have for writing centers.
4:10 - 4:45 p.m James Madison University Writing Center Tour (SSC 1st floor)