Unexpected Power Boost: Persona 5 & Writing Center Tutoring


Peer Tutoring, Technology, Tutor Publications, Tutorial Talk and Methods, Writing Center pedagogy

By Niccole Carner When I began working at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Writing Center this past fall (2017), I was in the midst of my first play-through of Persona 5, a Japanese role-playing game developed by Atlus Games for the PlayStation 4. My approach to the first weeks of teaching was subtly and inadvertently influenced […]

November 27, 2017

Writing Center Outreach and Leading from the Middle


Higher Education, Outreach, Technology, Writing Across the Curriculum, Writing Centers

By Angela J. Zito  Last week, the Professional and Organizational Development (POD) Network held its annual conference in Montreal, Quebec, where the keynote speaker Randy Bass called upon all of us in attendance (and the programs and institutions we represented) to help steer higher education in the direction of increasingly inclusive and integrated learning by […]

October 31, 2017

Crossing the Barrier: Advocating for Students, Educating Faculty


Outreach, Peer Tutoring, Student Voices, Technology, Undergraduate Students, Writing Center Tutors, Writing Centers

By Alexandra Asche – When I first started planning this post, I intended to write about the UMM Writing Center’s formal outreach to faculty. However, as I looked through the previous posts on this blog, I found that others have already written about how to plan this sort of outreach. I also noticed, though, that […]

March 14, 2016

Who Am I?


Technology, The Online Writing Center, Undergraduate Students

Jessie Gurd is the 2014–2015 TA Coordinator for the Online Writing Center and a PhD student in Literary Studies; she has been an instructor at the Writing Center since the Fall of 2012. Jessie studies early modern English drama with a focus on ecocriticism and spatial theory. You can find her on Twitter @jesstype. If the […]

October 20, 2014

Two Heads Are Better: An Experiment in Paired Skype Tutoring


Satellite Locations, Technology, The Online Writing Center, Tutorial Talk and Methods, Uncategorized, Writing Center Tutors

By Leah Misemer Leah Misemer is a PhD candidate in English Literature at the University of Wisconsin-Madison where she has been working as a Writing Center instructor for three years.  She served as the TA Coordinator of the Online Writing Center at UW-Madison for the 2013-14 school year. Usually, we think of a writing center […]

September 8, 2014

Sharing the Space: Collaborating in Sessions with Laptops


Collaborative Learning, Multilingual Writers, Peer Tutoring, Technology, Tutorial Talk and Methods, Writing Center Research, Writing Center Tutors

By Leah Misemer @lsmisemer Leah Misemer is a graduate student in English Literature at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the TA Coordinator of the Online Writing Center there.  While her dissertation is on serial commercial comics, she is also interested in media specificity and technology in writing centers.  This is her sixth semester working as […]

February 10, 2014

Making Charoset: Teaching by Hand in the Shadow of MOOCs


Higher Education, Technology, Tutorial Talk and Methods, UW-Madison Writing Center Alumni Voices, Writing Center Theory, Writing Center Tutors, Writing Centers

By Eli Goldblatt, Temple University—My wife, Wendy Osterweil, is a printmaker, often screen printing on fabric in multiple layers and then quilting back into the shapes and colors.  She also teaches art education in a fine arts college, where she prepares young artists for a variety of urban and suburban K-12 classrooms.  In our many, many talks about teaching and the arts over the years, she links the art she most admires with the teaching she seeks to foster […]

April 1, 2013

New(s) from the UW-Madison Writing Center!


Classes, Collaborative Learning, Events, From the Director, Graduate Students, Outreach, Peer Tutoring, Satellite Locations, Science Writing, Technology, The Online Writing Center, Writing Across the Curriculum, Writing Center Receptionists, Writing Center Tutors, Writing Center Workshops, Writing Centers, Writing Fellows

Welcome to a new academic year at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Writing Center! As our Writing Center re-opens on the first day of classes for the fall semester–on Tuesday, September 4–we’ll be eager to welcome undergraduate and graduate student-writers from across the University. And we’re delighted to have 26 talented new undergraduate writing fellows and […]

September 3, 2012

“Very Heaven”


Collaborative Learning, Higher Education, Peer Tutoring, Technology, Tutorial Talk and Methods, UW-Madison History, UW-Madison Writing Center Alumni Voices, Writing Center Theory, Writing Centers

By Dennis Paoli, Coordinator of the Reading/Writing Center and Co-coordinator of the Writing Across the Curriculum Program at Hunter College, City University of New York. He also writes plays and films and is Donor/Adviser of The Heidi Paoli Fund for cancer patients. He met Heidi in Madison. Hi. Dennis Paoli, University of Wisconsin Class of […]

April 9, 2012

Worldwide Writing Against Procrastination. How Writing Centers Connect to Make Our Work Visible, Support Writers and Have Fun


Collaborative Learning, Events, International Writing Centers, Peer Tutoring, Technology

It was in 2010 when a student in our writing center complained about her procrastination habits: “For me, you should open at night, because this is when I eventually get started and would need a writing center”. This student’s comment came up at our next team meeting, and suddenly an idea took shape: “A Long […]

March 19, 2012