Just to get started, I’m going to toss out the following prospectus. Bradley, please let me know if I need some other format or more information. The bottom line is that I see a valuable connection between writing center pedagogy and WAC programs. I had to write this at work without the benefit of having my sources at hand, so I have not quoted any experts. But, as you can see from the bibliography, there are lots of theories on the subject. I will appreciate any ideas on direction or scope for my project.
Thanks!
(Incidentally, as I write this, the sky is rumbling with at least one Blue Angel practicing for the coming show).
Nan
Prospectus
Title: The Partnership of Writing Center Pedagogy and Writing Across the Curriculum Programs
The discussion of writing center pedagogy has been around for many years, with much of the resulting scholarship peaking during the 1980s and early 1990s. Similarly, writing-across-the-curriculum scholarship has been prevalent since the 1960s. Less, however, has been written specifically about the benefits of combining writing centers with writing across the curriculum. My interest lies in how university writing centers—and perhaps the Western Writing Center—can play an integral role in the success of a WAC program, including Western’s WID requirements.
As a novice tutor with little experience with university politics or writing center theory, I hope to bring a fresh (although perhaps idealistic) perspective to writing center pedagogy. A writing center’s “classroomless” atmosphere promotes a unique relationship with faculty, students, and administration, making it a neutral, safe harbor for writing on all levels and in all curricula and a natural environment to support writing across the curriculum. In the purest sense, a writing center should be a crossroads of exchange for knowledge, writing skills and styles, and various discipline pedagogies in order to enhance all curricula and to benefit a university’s personnel and academic goals.
In Strengthening Programs for Writing Across the Discipline, the author says that “top down decrees” to establish WAC programs are often resented by those called on to carry them out; however, the opposite is often true if WAC programs are created at the grassroots level and eventually supported by upper faculty and administration. In that vein, the writing center could serve as a impartial liaison among curricula, personnel, and students in the development of a WAC program.
Not every expert agrees, however, on the strategic role of writing centers or on the value of WAC programs, let alone the practicality of combing their pedagogies. Therefore, I am interested in exploring various perspectives surrounding the issue through my own experiences as a tutor and by the scholarship of experts who have juxtaposed writing center pedagogy with WAC programs and conclude that writing centers and WAC programs can form a beneficial partnership.
Bibliography:
Burnett, Robert W. and Blumner, Jacob S. Writing Centers and Writing Across the Curriculum Programs. Westport, CN: Greenwood Press. 1999.
Elbow, Peter. Writing Without Teachers. New York: Oxford Press. 1973.
Gillespie, Paula; Gillam, Alice; Brown, Lady Falls; & Stay, Byron. Writing Center Research: Extending the Conversation. Mahway, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. 2002.
Holdstein, Deborah H. “Writing Across the Curriculum and the Paradoxes of Institutional Initiatives.” Pedagogy 1.1 (Winter 2001)
Kreth, Melinda L. “Comments on and Addenda to Holdstein’s WAC Paradoxes.” Pedagogy: Critical Approaches to Teaching Literature, Language, Composition, and Culture 1.2 (Spring 2001): 287-295. MLA International Bibliography.
Martin, Eric. V. “WAC Paradoxes Revisited: A Program Director’s Response.” Pedagogy: Critical Approaches to Teaching Literature, Language, Composition, and Culture 1.2 (Spring 2001): 275-286. MLA International Bibliography.
McLeod, Susan H. (ed). Strengthening Programs for Writing Across the Curriculum. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Inc. 1988.
________ & Soven, Margot (eds). Writing Across the Curriculum: A Guide to Developing Programs. Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications. 1992.
Mick, Connie Snyder. “Little Teachers, Big Students: Graduate Students as Tutors and the
Future of Writing Center Theory.” The Writing Center Journal. Fall/Winter 1999. 33-50.
Myers-Breslin, Linda (ed.). Administrataive Problem-Solving for Writing Programs and Writing
Centers. Urbana, IL: National Coucil of Teachers of English. 1999.
Sheridan, Jean (ed.). Writing-Across-the-Curriculum and the Academic Library. Westport, CN: Greenwood Press. 1995.
Spiegel, Dixie Lee. Classroom Discussion. New York: Scholastic, Inc. 2005.