Category: Writing Centers

a White woman with shoulder-length straight brown hair hides her face behind her hands

On Being Cringe: Hospitable Tutoring and Caring Too Much

Graduate Students, Student Voices, Tutorial Talk and Methods, Writing Center Theory, Writing Centers

By Izzy Alexander, University of Tennessee, Knoxville—At a weekly training meeting for new consultants in the Judith Anderson Herbert Writing Center, my tutor trainer—Greta, a first-year Ph.D. student who researches tutor self-efficacy—asked us to solve the million-dollar writing center question: How can we get students to buy in to tutoring? How can we make students feel comfortable in the writing center? Instantly, I thought about how embarrassing writing is. It’s horrible to bring in your half-baked ideas and run-on sentences and show it to someone you perceive to be good at writing (whatever that is) and ask them to help you.

June 9, 2026
Pink and white lotus flower floating on a body of water

Writing Centers as Spaces of Recovery

Disability and Writing Centers, Diversity and Inclusion, Graduate Students, Social Justice, Writing Centers

By Maggie Hart, University of Minnesota—For many writers, and tutors, the writing center is a place to slow down, to rest, and to recover. // I began to understand the importance of recovery differently after completing treatment for blood cancer. Just a few months before I began graduate school, I was in a hospital room receiving chemotherapy for acute myeloid leukemia. Then, I was sitting in seminars, reading complex theory, and trying to think clearly again. I quickly learned that recovery is not the clean narrative we often imagine when we talk about “beating” illness. For me, and for many other survivors, recovery is slow and uneven. Some days are clear, productive, and focused, and others feel foggy and fragile. Progress happens, but sporadically. The body and mind renegotiate their capacities constantly. […]

May 12, 2026

How to Discuss GenAI in Writing Consultations

AI Writing, Graduate Students, Tutor Publications, Tutorial Talk and Methods, Writing Center Research, Writing Center Tutors, Writing Centers

By Brady Hall and Emma Bapst, Miami University of Ohio—AI has become part of our writing center ecosystems. Whether we like it or not, students use it in their processes. Some professors require it in their courses; others ban it completely. This leaves students caught in the middle, trying to satisfy competing interests. As students perform to try to satisfy their instructors, they are learning a “hidden curriculum,” or knowledge that travels behind the network of traditional classroom education with regard to AI. These contexts permeate writing center experiences as well. With coexisting perspectives of AI refusal and acceptance, it can be difficult for writing center consultants to feel comfortable addressing AI use with students at all. 

April 14, 2026
Yellow dandelions growing between gray pavement stones.

Supporting Tutors and Writers Amid Heightened Risk: Navigating Writing Center Work in the U.S., 2026

AI Writing, Higher Education, Tutorial Talk and Methods, Undergraduate Students, Writing Center pedagogy, Writing Center Tutors, Writing Centers

By Anonymous—The field has long emphasized the collaborative ethos of writing center work (Harris, 1988; Lunsford, 1991). Within this framework, writing centers are often positioned as “safe” or “low-stakes” environments where writers can experiment, explore identities, and develop confidence in their voices (McNamee & Miley, 2017). But the ability of writing centers to function as “low-stakes” environments depends on the broader social conditions in which writers and tutors live. […]

March 24, 2026
Two paths diverging in a forest

Finding Universal Design for Learning in Your “Tough” Tutoring Session

Disability and Writing Centers, Diversity and Inclusion, Tutorial Talk and Methods, Writing Center pedagogy, Writing Center Theory, Writing Center Tutors, Writing Centers

By Anmol Sahni, Emory University—Last semester at the Emory writing center, I had one of those tutoring sessions that just felt… off. It began the usual way: greeting the writer, setting an agenda, and planning to read the draft together. These practices often work well—but that day, something wasn’t clicking. The student wasn’t disengaged, but I sensed a kind of resistance, or maybe fatigue, that the standard approach wasn’t addressing. […]

December 16, 2025
A blurry image of the word focus.

Writing Centers as Attention Technology

Disability and Writing Centers, Peer Tutoring, Tutorial Talk and Methods, Writing Center pedagogy, Writing Center Tutors, Writing Centers

By Tisha Turk, Grinnell College—In recent years, attention has come in for a lot of, well, attention. Scholars, journalists, and cultural critics have written about how corporations capture and monetize the finite resource of our attention and, sometimes, how we can regain control of it (Wu; Odell; Hari; Hayes). Those of us working in institutions of higher ed have probably observed the effects of attention capture not only on ourselves but on our students. My observations about attention are not […]

December 2, 2025
Street art of black and white children looking up with streams of colorful paint falling towards them.

Dear Future Writing Tutor

Diversity and Inclusion, Multilingual Writers, Peer Tutoring, Racial Justice, Social Justice, Tutor Publications, Writing Center Tutors, Writing Centers

By Anonymous—Do you remember when you were a kid and the idea of going to college sounded like the most sophisticated milestone you could think of? Starstruck by the idea of being rewarded for learning through open acknowledgement of your contribution to English– because you always loved reading and writing, language was a toy and a tool and a comfort– sounded more glamorous than a cover of Vogue. Do the memories taste bittersweet to you too? […]

July 8, 2025

ReConnecting the Centers

From the Director, Higher Education, Writing Center Staff, Writing Centers

By Khristeena Lute, SUNY Adirondack—Like many newly minted writing center directors, when I stepped into my first role of Director, I envisioned a hive of activity in this new-to-me center, with engaged conversations about tutoring, connecting with local campuses and their writing centers, and general collaboration all around. I made headway in other areas of my scholarship—literary criticism, creative nonfiction, and even a novel—but I still hadn’t quite found my writing center niche. // Instead, I faced one emergency after another after another (family tragedies, pandemic shifts, and the daily challenges that fill our email inboxes)—with each one leaving me feeling smaller and quieter. […]

June 10, 2025
This photo depicts the Horseshoe, a greenery space with lush grass and trees in the middle of UofSC’s campus. The photo shows students sitting together in groups. The Horseshoe is across the street from the Byrnes building where the UofSC writing center is housed.

Listening and Learning: The Exigence of Creating Community Through Feedback

Graduate Students, Higher Education, Student Voices, Tutor Training, Tutorial Talk and Methods, Writing Center Research, Writing Center Staff, Writing Center Tutors, Writing Centers

By Sam Hyatt and Meg Hultgren, University of South Carolina—As doctoral students serving as Assistant Directors (ADs) in the Writing Center (WC) at the University of South Carolina during uncertain academic times, we’ve had the unique opportunity to navigate leadership roles while still actively engaged in graduate study. Our tutoring staff is also distinctive—comprised entirely of English graduate students, primarily MAs and MFAs in their first year of school—which has shaped the collaborative and academic culture within our center. // Our overlapping roles as students, tutors, and leaders has been both challenging and rewarding, […]

May 13, 2025