Toys and Transformations in Online Tutoring


The Online Writing Center

By Mike A. Shapiro, @mikeshapiro. Mike is a graduate student at UW–Madison, where he is completing a Ph.D. on the modern novel and where he is a TA in the Writing Center. At last week’s Midwest Writing Centers Association conference, we asked the folks who attended our panel whether their centers were tutoring online. Many […]

October 28, 2013

Evolution of a Writing Center Tutor: Reflections and Lessons


Collaborative Learning, Events, Graduate Students, Multilingual Writers, Outreach, Satellite Locations, Student Voices, The Online Writing Center, Tutorial Talk and Methods, Writing Center Tutors, Writing Centers, Writing Fellows

By Anna T. Floch Anna Floch is a third year PhD student in Composition & Rhetoric and an instructor of intermediate composition here at UW- Madison. Her research interests include the intersection of identity and literacy, collaboration, and examining affect and emotion in the writing process. She started as a writing center instructor at UW […]

September 30, 2013

The Social Center: Why Writing Centers Need Twitter


The Online Writing Center

By Mike Shapiro, a graduate student and the online coordinator of the University of Wisconsin–Madison Writing Center. At its best, Twitter looks like the perfect tool for promoting any writing center’s goals: it privileges writing, supports lively conversations, and develops long-term relationships between writers and readers. Twitter can remind students, faculty, and administrators, every day, […]

May 6, 2013

The Power in Grammar


Collaborative Learning, Multilingual Writers, Peer Tutoring, The Online Writing Center, Tutorial Talk and Methods, Writing Center Tutors, Writing Centers

Leah Misemer is a PhD candidate in Literary Studies at University of Wisconsin-Madison writing her dissertation on how serial comics form communities of authors and readers.  She has worked at the Writing Center since Fall of 2011 and in email instruction for two semesters. Whenever a writing center instructor and a writer sit down for […]

February 18, 2013

Writing Centers Have Flex Appeal


Collaborative Learning, From the Director, Graduate Students, Higher Education, Outreach, Peer Tutoring, The Online Writing Center, Undergraduate Students, Writing Across the Curriculum, Writing Center Research, Writing Center Theory, Writing Centers, Writing Fellows

By Brad Hughes, Director of the Writing Center and Director of Writing Across the Curriculum at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. At many universities, writing centers have now earned significant respect for the work they do with student-writers.  Within that respect, though, almost never do I hear writing centers valued for what I like to call […]

January 21, 2013

This rant is asynchronous


The Online Writing Center

By Mike A. Shapiro This is Mike’s sixth year at the Writing Center. He is the 2012–13 TA coordinator of our Online Writing Center. Since 2010, he has worked as a tutor for the Pearson Tutor Services Online Writing Lab. Writing centers use the phrase asynchronous online writing instruction to describe this sequence: A student sends […]

October 22, 2012

Now is The Writing Center Website of Our Discontent, Made Glorious Summer by This Sum of Our Work


Awards and Honors, Big 10 Writing Centers, Classes, Collaborative Learning, Community Writing Assistance, Disability and Writing Centers, Events, From the Director, Graduate Students, Higher Education, International Writing Centers, The Online Writing Center, Uncategorized

By Christopher J. Syrnyk, Assistant Professor of Communication, and Faculty Liaison, Advance Credit Program for Communication Courses, Oregon Tech At Oregon Tech, where I became an Assistant Professor this fall in the Communication Department, I volunteered during a recent Communication department meeting to take on the role of the department’s Web Content Manager. Volunteering for […]

October 1, 2012

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

The Madison Area Writing Center Colloquium


Big 10 Writing Centers, Community Writing Assistance, Disability and Writing Centers, Events, From the Director, Graduate Students, International Writing Centers, IWCA, Madison Area Writing Center Colloquium, Midwest Writing Centers Association, Student Voices, The Online Writing Center, UW-Madison Writing Center Alumni Voices, Writing Across the Curriculum, Writing Center Research, Writing Center Workshops, Writing Centers, Writing Fellows

I’ve long argued that writing centers at research universities should prepare interested doctoral students to lead strong, innovative writing centers and WAC programs when they move into their faculty careers.  And that we should do this in systematic and sustained ways.  Being a dedicated, successful, experienced writing tutor is of course a necessary part of […]

February 20, 2012