Reinventing the Wheel

Hawthorne makes a great case for assessments that goes beyond the Writing Center's need to meet demands of administration: "Without records that allow us to review the data and analyses that led to changes, we are bound to keep reinventing the wheel" (244). In an environment of constant turnover--at least in terms of tutors--it would seem to be useful to have documentation to refer to be able to understand how things came to be the way they are and why the Writing Center does things the way it does. If a new great idea turns out to be an old failed idea, for example, the records might shed light on why the idea's implementation failed, which could prevent wasting resources on it or help implement it successfully the second time around. Hawthorne says these records could also be used toward publication goals, and I think they would be useful for training purposes and general information purposes; i.e. they could be used to develop a local Writing Center history for tutors and new administration personnel.