Boquet site versus method

Boquet’s teasing apart the WC as site and method was helpful in illustrating the tension these differing perspectives create in constructing an identity for WCs. As a high school senior in Iowa, I remember visiting the U of I writing center that she writes about, as part of my tour of colleges. As a writer, I was excited to see a place for a community of writers to meet and discuss their work. Having a place – a physical space -- somehow seemed to legitimize what I did. It implied writing was important. It’s not that I didn’t get that impression from my instructors, but in a classroom I was working with many students who did not feel as I did about writing. It was a means to an end for them – like chemistry and algebra were for me. Having a space for writing was exciting to me, but to Michelle’s point about the mindset of college freshman, I never visited a WC as an undergrad. I was too intimidated by the idea of “real writers” being there and did not want to look like the writer geek in comp class.