Monday, May 12, 2008
Creating a Writing Community
In "Writing Centers: A Long View," by Judith Summerfield, the concluding statements really caught my attention. When Summerfield mentions the need for collaborative work, without computers or cubicles, I thought back to Peter Carino's words about a writing "family." There are few places around a college campus with "homey" areas built in, with one exception: Residence Halls. I believe this is an untapped resource for writing programs. As a former Resident Assistant, I know I was always starved for programming ideas... especially ones that would fulfill my "educational" quota. Bringing tutors to the halls, even on a less-than-regular basis would be a great opportunity to introduce students to the writing labs/clinics and also to correct misconceptions. It might be inconvenient for tutors, but I think conducting programs that lent themselves more to the clinic model would be invaluable, and it would set up more opportunities to engage in one-on-one mentoring of the students.
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2 comments:
This is a great idea! I think this is a great untapped resource that could be utilized more! At Illinois State, we actually did some tutoring in the dorms (or whatever we call them now...."residence hall" was popular when I lived in them) and it was pretty successful. I really think that you have hit on a potential gold mine!
There are some writing centers that work quite a bit with residence halls. You know, it could make for an interesting research project to look into this more and compose a proposal articulating how BSU's Writing Center could work more with the resident halls.
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