Which Shoes Should You Choose? A Meditation on Indecisiveness in Writing


Graduate Students, Higher Education, Peer Tutoring, Tutorial Talk and Methods, Undergraduate Students

By Zach Marshall It has recently come to my attention that I don’t know what to do when I work with writers who experience a certain kind of writing anxiety.  As a writing tutor, part of my job is to provide motivational scaffolding to the writers I work with—encouraging them when they make progress, recognizing […]

April 4, 2016

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

Using Peer Writing Groups For the Senior Thesis and Beyond


Collaborative Learning, Peer Tutoring, Student Voices, Uncategorized, Undergraduate Students, Writing Fellows

By Rebecca Steffy – This year, I have the privilege of coordinating the UW-Madison Writing Center’s Senior Thesis Writing Groups, small peer-led writing groups that meet weekly or bi-weekly throughout the daunting semester- or year-long process of writing a senior thesis. I help spread the word that senior thesis writing groups are forming at the […]

March 8, 2016

Peer Tutoring and the Serious Work of Undergraduate Scholarship


Events, Higher Education, Peer Tutoring, Student Voices, Uncategorized, Undergraduate Students, Writing Center Research, Writing Centers, Writing Fellows

By Rachel Herzl-Betz Rachel Herzl-Betz is an Assistant Director of the Writing Fellows Program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she has been a tutor and administrator since 2012. She is also a PhD candidate in Literary Studies, with a focus on Victorian Literature and Disability Studies.  I’ve always been a fan of academic conferences. At their best, […]

November 30, 2015

Writing Center Workshops: Test-Drive an Academic Writing Genre Today!


Classes, Graduate Students, Undergraduate Students, Writing Across the Curriculum, Writing Center Workshops

By Zach Marshall Zach Marshall is the 2015-16 TA Assistant Director of the Writing Center at UW-Madison, where he has been a tutor since fall 2012. He is also a PhD candidate in English literary studies writing a dissertation on American literature, slavery, and media culture. Here at the UW-Madison Writing Center, we offer a […]

September 28, 2015

Showcasing Undergraduate Research


Big 10 Writing Centers, Collaborative Learning, Peer Tutoring, Student Voices, Tutorial Talk and Methods, Uncategorized, Undergraduate Students, Writing Across the Curriculum, Writing Center Research, Writing Center Theory, Writing Center Tutors, Writing Fellows

By Emily Hall At a large university we are regularly exposed to the original and sometimes groundbreaking research that takes place across campus. Mostly, this research comes from the work of professors and graduate students, many of whom have grants, research funds, and laboratories to support their endeavors. Less frequently do we have the opportunity to […]

April 20, 2015

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

The Importance of Being Interested


Collaborative Learning, Graduate Students, Outreach, Peer Tutoring, Student Voices, Tutorial Talk and Methods, Uncategorized, Undergraduate Students, Writing Across the Curriculum, Writing Center Theory, Writing Center Tutors, Writing Centers

By Michelle Niemann Michelle Niemann is the assistant director of the writing center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison for 2013-2014. Her first tutoring experience was in the writing center at Indiana University-Purdue University, Fort Wayne, in 2003 and 2004. She recently defended her dissertation and will receive her PhD in English literature from UW-Madison in […]

December 9, 2013