By Bradley Hughes—always think that strong writing centers have core principles and commitments and passions at (and in) their hearts. Our Writing Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, for example, is all about a few core ideas, values, and commitments—we’re about supporting high-level writing across all academic disciplines, writing which is absolutely central to learning and to research across the university and in the professional and civic and non-profit worlds our graduates will enter (I always say that research universities really do run on writing); we’re about supporting ALL student-writers, from undergraduates through advanced doctoral students, from every discipline, from all kinds of backgrounds […]

By Maggie Bertucci Hamper Are you one of the many students who lives kinda far (or really, really far) from campus? Are you a primary caretaker? Do you work full-time? Go to school part-time? Perhaps you have a physical disability that makes coming to campus–or talking and reading with a Writing Center tutor–really tough, even […]

By David Stock – If you’re an avid reader of Another Word, you may recall a blog post by Brad Hughes—the Director of the Writing Center and the Director of Writing Across the Curriculum at the University of Wisconsin-Madison— honoring Professor Joyce Steward, founding director of the UW-Madison Writing Center in 1969 (then called the […]

By Leigh Elion – This blog post was supposed to be published on December 11, 2017. Having just received my PhD from UW-Madison and moved on to my first full-time academic appointment, I’d planned to use this space to reflect on all of the Writing Center teaching I’d done at UW, remember the hundreds of […]

By Rick Ness I’ll start this essay with some “fun” facts: Charles Darwin was an ordinary student whose father told him he wouldn’t amount to anything; John Stuart Mill was thought by his father to be of mediocre intelligence; Tolstoy was considered very dull, William James unexceptional. Michael Jordan was cut from his high school […]

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 […]

By Ishita Aghi and Erika Gallagher – At UW-Madison, the Undergraduate Writing Fellows program is composed of 50 students who assist other undergraduates with academic writing in courses across the College of Letters & Science. Fellows are undergraduate tutors from a variety of disciplines who possess a passion for helping others. They undergo extensive training […]

By Christa Tiernan and Kelly Wenig –   The recent upsurge in international student enrollment in American public research universities has prompted us to think about the adaptability of writing centers during periods of changing university demographics. How do writing centers respond to enrollment trends? Let there be no mistake: the demographics of American public […]

By Michael LeMahieu – In the summer of 2011, I found myself in an unexpected position. I had just accepted an offer from the college dean to serve as Director of the Pearce Center for Professional Communication. This, some of my most trusted colleagues told me, was a mistake. Professional communication wasn’t my field. I […]