Our Writing Center’s Founder: Professor Joyce Steward


Collaborative Learning, From the Director, Higher Education, Outreach, UW-Madison History, UW-Madison Writing Center Alumni Voices, Writing Across the Curriculum, Writing Center History, Writing Center Workshops, Writing Centers

By Brad Hughes, Director, The Writing Center, Director, Writing Across the Curriculum, UW-Madison. In this blog post, I would like to honor the legendary founder of the Writing Center (originally called the Writing Laboratory) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and one of the most influential pioneers in the modern writing center profession—Professor Joyce Stribling Steward. […]

September 10, 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

Why Do You Ask? Questioning the Question in the Writing Center


Peer Tutoring, Student Voices, Tutorial Talk and Methods, UW-Madison Writing Center Alumni Voices, Writing Center Theory, Writing Center Tutors, Writing Centers, Writing Fellows

By Matthew Capdevielle, Director of the Writing Center, University of Notre Dame “So, what are you working on today?”“When is your paper due?”“Are you concerned about anything in particular in this draft?” In the writing center that I direct at the University of Notre Dame, we spend a good deal of time asking questions.  We […]

March 26, 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
February 20, 2012

Practicing — and Reading — Revision in Tutor Education Courses


Classes, UW-Madison Writing Center Alumni Voices, Writing Center Tutors, Writing Centers, Writing Fellows

This semester, I’ve been thinking a lot about revision. Well, okay, I always think a lot about revision; it’s essential to my writing center work, my classroom teaching, and my own writing (I am the queen of Shitty First Drafts, as described in the second chapter of Anne Lamott’s Bird by Bird). But lately I’ve […]

October 31, 2011

Join Us “On the Isthmus” at the 2011 MWCA Biennial Conference!


Events, Midwest Writing Centers Association, UW-Madison Writing Center Alumni Voices, Writing Across the Curriculum, Writing Center Tutors, Writing Centers

By Rebecca Lorimer and Elisabeth Miller. The 2011 Midwest Writing Centers Association Biennial Conference will take place here at the University of Wisconsin-Madison October 20th-22nd. This year’s theme, “On the Isthmus,” gestures quite literally to the conference’s location, but also to the quality that makes this conference unique: just as writing centers bridge disciplines, locations, […]

October 17, 2011

From Visitors to Exiles to Tutors: The Changing Face of the Writing Center


Multilingual Writers, UW-Madison Writing Center Alumni Voices, Writing Center Tutors, Writing Centers

By Paula Gillespie. South Florida is full of surprises. A troop of macaws, probably freed from a zoo or pet store during a hurricane, descends into the trees down the street and spends the morning there, squabbling about which one gets to sit where. Burmese pythons, once pets that are now too large to keep […]

September 21, 2011