Medieval Monks Wrote in Their Books and So Can You


Tutorial Talk and Methods, Uncategorized, Writing Center Theory, Writing Center Workshops

By Leah Pope Parker—We learn to write by imitating, by reading, and by thinking about the construction of texts we aim to emulate. It is commonly understood among teachers of writing that learning to write—at a more sophisticated level, in a different style, in a new genre—requires writers to read models for the kind of writing that they want to produce. This is why we […]

November 12, 2018

Writing with Evidence in the Age of Alternative Facts


Collaborative Learning, Uncategorized, Writing Across the Curriculum, Writing Center Workshops, Writing Centers

By Leah Pope Parker—Conversations about evidence in writing center pedagogy traditionally focus on the genre of the research paper, where evidence includes the ideas, data, and quotations located through research that must be incorporated effectively into the prose of the paper. However, if we think about evidence more broadly within writing center teaching, as any aspect of writing that claims the authority of truth or expertise […]

September 11, 2017

The Impact of Writing Center Outreach: Empirical and Anecdotal Evidence


Classes, Collaborative Learning, Outreach, Satellite Locations, The Online Writing Center, Writing Across the Curriculum, Writing Center Workshops

By Leah Pope—Every semester, the Outreach team of the UW-Madison Writing Center devotes dozens of hours to visiting classrooms, workshops, resource fairs, and student organizations to deliver brief introductions to the Writing Center’s services and teach or co-teach workshops on various genres and aspects of writing. As the TA Coordinator of Outreach this year, I have the unique pleasure of a bird’s-eye-view of Outreach teaching […]

November 7, 2016

How We [Actually] Write: Neurodiversity, Writing Process, and Writing Instruction


Disability and Writing Centers, Graduate Students, Tutorial Talk and Methods, Writing Center Tutors

By Leah Pope Leah Pope has been a Writing Center tutor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison since fall of 2014. She is also a PhD candidate in English literary studies, writing a dissertation that explores representations of disability and bodily difference in Anglo-Saxon England. Alexandra Gillespie opens her essay in How We Write: Thirteen Ways […]

January 25, 2016