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

Understanding Student Perceptions of the Writing Center–A Conversation Between a Student, a Writing Center Instructor, and a Director/Professor


Collaborative Learning, Outreach, Peer Tutoring, Student Voices, Undergraduate Students, UW-Madison Writing Center Alumni Voices, Writing Across the Curriculum, Writing Center Research, Writing Center Theory, Writing Centers

By Taryn Okuma, The Catholic University of America. Taryn Okuma is Director of the Writing Center and Clinical Assistant Professor of English at The Catholic University of America (CUA) in Washington, D.C. She received her Ph.D. in Literary Studies from UW-Madison in 2008. While at Madison, she served as the Co-Director of the English 100 […]

April 29, 2013

In Praise of Quiet


Big 10 Writing Centers, Collaborative Learning, Graduate Students, Higher Education, Student Voices, Tutorial Talk and Methods, UW-Madison Writing Center Alumni Voices, Writing Center Theory, Writing Center Tutors, Writing Centers

By Mitch Nakaue, The University of Iowa. As a deeply introverted person, I’ve always been interested in the power of writing center work to incite talk.  As a graduate student at UW–Madison, I learned to cultivate an expressive and even outgoing classroom teaching persona, but found myself much less drained by one-to-one discussions with students.  […]

April 8, 2013

Making Charoset: Teaching by Hand in the Shadow of MOOCs


Higher Education, Technology, Tutorial Talk and Methods, UW-Madison Writing Center Alumni Voices, Writing Center Theory, Writing Center Tutors, Writing Centers

By Eli Goldblatt, Temple University—My wife, Wendy Osterweil, is a printmaker, often screen printing on fabric in multiple layers and then quilting back into the shapes and colors.  She also teaches art education in a fine arts college, where she prepares young artists for a variety of urban and suburban K-12 classrooms.  In our many, many talks about teaching and the arts over the years, she links the art she most admires with the teaching she seeks to foster […]

April 1, 2013

Shame and the Writing Center


Higher Education, Tutorial Talk and Methods, Undergraduate Students, UW-Madison Writing Center Alumni Voices, Writing Across the Curriculum, Writing Center Tutors, Writing Centers

By Lauren Vedal. Lauren Vedal was a tutor at the UW-Madison Writing Center from 2004-2009. She is now the Writing Specialist in the Humanities at Bates College in Lewiston, Maine, where she provides one-on-one writing consultations for students and support for faculty who want to better incorporate writing instruction into their courses. Shame and Writing […]

March 18, 2013

(Under) Graduate: Reflections on the Joint Writing Center-Writing Fellow Staff Meeting


Collaborative Learning, Student Voices, Undergraduate Students, Writing Across the Curriculum, Writing Center Research, Writing Center Tutors, Writing Centers, Writing Fellows

By Jenna Mertz, Undergraduate Assistant Director of the Writing Fellows Program.  Jenna is a senior majoring in English, Spanish and Environmental Studies.  She has been a Writing Fellow for six semesters. Last Friday, undergraduate Writing Fellows and Writing Center instructors convened to mingle, share, and engage with each other at the annual joint staff meeting […]

March 13, 2013

Senior-Thesis Writing Groups: Putting Students in the Driver’s Seat


Big 10 Writing Centers, Collaborative Learning, Community Writing Assistance, Events, Higher Education, Peer Tutoring, Science Writing, Student Voices, Tutorial Talk and Methods, Undergraduate Students, Writing Across the Curriculum, Writing Center Workshops, Writing Centers, Writing Fellows

By Elisabeth Miller and Stephanie White On a Sunday morning in February, five students brave the icy winds howling off Lake Mendota, knock the snow and slush off their boots, and straggle into the student union toward a table near the windows looking over a snowy Memorial Union Terrace. That night, another five students wrap […]

March 4, 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

Collaboration Times Three


Collaborative Learning, Graduate Students, Science Writing, Tutorial Talk and Methods, Uncategorized, Writing Across the Curriculum, Writing Center Tutors, Writing Centers

Nancy Reddy is a PhD student in Composition and Rhetoric at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her research interests include composition pedagogy, literacy studies, and extracurricular writing groups. This is her first year with the UW-Madison Writing Center. In one of my first shifts as a new writing instructor tutor this past fall, I found myself […]

February 11, 2013