Another good round of posts and responses--thanks everyone! I especially appreciate your frankness about the lack of appeal of the Fei study, which for future classes I'll switch out for one that's less quantitative. 

Let's go for 100% class participation, at least for the posts, by Tuesday's class next time.  Also, can Bri, Sallie, Kathleen, and Mark, instead of responding to the questions below on writing center research, post their case studies or resource reports?  The assignment (also on ICON and in your email) is also posted below.  You can respond to the case study/resource reports and/or views on writing center research.

Please read Chapter 8 in the Bedford Guide on Writing Center Research and respond to the following questions.  You can skip the part about conferences if you've been to one.  (Remember that this is a book for undergrad tutors as well as grad tutors.)

How important do you think it is for writing center staff to pursue writing center research? Why?


Given the right circumstances, which topics, issues, or questions would you like to research?  How would you go about it?




SHORT Case Study Report and Discussion:
After midterm when you are getting to know your students and their writing and becoming more familiar with issues in tutoring writing, we will schedule informal, written (on the blog) case study reports in which you present:

a) a pedagogical issue you may be encountering through your work with a WC student: e.g. a learning disability; reading or writing in a discipline unfamiliar to your student and/or you; difficulties with reading comprehension, with interpreting assignments, a teacher's written comments, or with conventions of U.S. classrooms; culture shock, contrastive/intercultural rhetoric, or over-reliance on translating from a first language.

b) the student's educational and social background, writing history, and motivation for enrolling in the Writing Center. Use a pseudonym for the student.

c) the student's strengths and weaknesses in writing, with examples of each; the student’s specific strengths and weaknesses as a student in general. Look back at your session reports.

d) your strategies for working with this student to address the particular problems in a). Then elicit feedback from the class by asking a question to get comments and suggestions about your strategies for working with them.
For your case study, you can choose a student whom you are either puzzled or confident about working with, or one with whom you've come to work with in unique or creative ways. Ask the student’s permission before you develop your presentation.
Choosing a student who may be a challenge to work with often leads to greater class participation in the discussion and more helpful suggestions for you. Please e-mail Carol to discuss your choice of student and issue.  Each case study report should be about 3-4 paragraphs posted to the blog.
Alternative to the Case Study: A Resource Report and Discussion: If, because of your students' absences or other reasons, you feel you haven't gotten to know one student well enough to do a case study, you can do a resource report instead.  Choose an article from a recent issue of Writing Center Journal (WCJ) or Praxis, summarize it, analyze and/or critique it, and explain how it sheds light on some aspect of our WC work. Pose a discussion question or two on the blog about how tutors might apply the ideas you’ve presented from the resource. If you would rather report on another resource, electronic or print, that you think would be useful to tutors and/or students, please OK it with Carol first.  Resource reports are also no more than 3-4 paragraphs long. Please don’t confuse Writing Center Journal with the more informal Writing Lab Newsletter (now called WLN: A Journal of Writing Center Scholarship), which everyone will read and report on in Week 9. When you are preparing your Case Study/Resource Report, you are excused from that week’s blog posts. 



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