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Around the Texts of Writing Center Work: An Inquiry-Based Approach to Tutor Education
Around the Texts of Writing Center Work reveals the conceptual frameworks found in and created by ordinary writing center documents. The values and beliefs underlying course syllabi, policy statements, website copy and comments, assessment plans, promotional flyers, and annual reports critically inform writing center practices, including the vital undertaking of tutor education.
In each chapter, author R. Mark Hall focuses on a particular document. He examines its origins, its use by writing center instructors and tutors, and its engagement with enduring disciplinary challenges in the field of composition, such as tutoring and program assessment. He then analyzes each document in the contexts of the conceptual framework at the heart of its creation and everyday activity theory, communities of practice, discourse analysis, reflective practice, and inquiry-based learning.
Around the Texts of Writing Center Work approaches the analysis of writing center documents with an inquiry stance—a call for curiosity and skepticism toward existing and proposed conceptual frameworks—in the hope that the theoretically conscious evaluation and revision of commonplace documents will lead to greater efficacy and more abundant research by writing center administrators and students.
In each chapter, author R. Mark Hall focuses on a particular document. He examines its origins, its use by writing center instructors and tutors, and its engagement with enduring disciplinary challenges in the field of composition, such as tutoring and program assessment. He then analyzes each document in the contexts of the conceptual framework at the heart of its creation and everyday activity theory, communities of practice, discourse analysis, reflective practice, and inquiry-based learning.
Around the Texts of Writing Center Work approaches the analysis of writing center documents with an inquiry stance—a call for curiosity and skepticism toward existing and proposed conceptual frameworks—in the hope that the theoretically conscious evaluation and revision of commonplace documents will lead to greater efficacy and more abundant research by writing center administrators and students.
- GenresRead For School
269 pages, Kindle Edition
Published May 1, 2017
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13 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
July 18, 2019
Hall draws upon his work as director of several college writing centers to argue that texts and artifacts commonly found and used in writing centers can reveal much about the philosophical underpinnings of the work that goes on there but can also be used as inquiry springboards to more closely align practice with theory and serve as opportunities for reflection. These texts and artifacts include lists of valued practices (similar to mission statements), transcripts of tutoring sessions, session notes, and in-house blogs. The utility of each of these is dependent on the contours of individual writing centers, which Hall acknowledges, but the point remains that these items can be valuable sources for inquiry. The chapter on developing individual or collaborative inquiry projects is, by nature, more speculative and is probably best suited for tutoring configurations where tutors are enrolled in a for-credit class focused on tutor education.
June 6, 2019
Conducting research for CWI Writing Center. Fantastic book with new things to consider.
May 16, 2021
Fabulous book! The chapter on observations inspired us to update our own approach. While we certainly have a the community of observation that Hall reccomends, our old form didn't allow us to track our priorities and progress. We're loving our Hall-modified form and are excited to watch the incoming data.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews