WcORD: The WLN Writing Center Online Resource Database

discussion of how to assess tutors' abilities when making hiring decisions

a discussion of the role and function of computers in tutoring sessions see also: http://lyris.ttu.edu/read/messages?id=1043203

best practices when writing centers offer peer-review workshops

best practices when writing centers offer peer-review workshops

a discussion and list of resources related to types of writers/writing (students focused on the end product vs. students who focus on what they want to say)

handing a situation where tutors aren't getting along

a discussion of dips in spring writing center attendance

a discussion of how we distinguish between teaching and tutoring (and whether we should); see also: http://lyris.ttu.edu/read/messages?id=559076 for continuation of discussion

a discussion of limiting number of sessions per day

a discussion of how to handle tutors with a gossip problem

a discussion of how to best assist a NNES graduate student who comes to the center asking for help with assessing and commenting on student papers

discussion of how a tutor should address plagiarism when a writer incorporates a reviewer's wording without attribution

a discussion of the roles of graduate vs. undergraduate tutors

discussion of swearing policies; also includes policies on pay rates for tutors (from 2008)

a discussion of how to best approach training veteran tutors when one is a new director (changing policies, new training, etc.)

"More and more ESL students are seeking writing help at U.S. college and university writing centers. This trend emphasizes the complementary role of the writing center and ESL writing instruction in improving ESL writing skills. Writing center and ESL writing pedagogy share the process and collaborative approaches, which emphasize the writing process using revision and reader feedback. Often difficult to implement in a classroom setting, these approaches can be used successfully with ESL students in the writing center. However, many writing center instructors, unfamiliar with the needs of ESL students, are often ill-equipped to work successfully with this special population. This has caused writing center faculties to turn to the ESL profession for help in establishing suitable strategies. The growing need for ESL expertise in the writing center has created a variety of capacities to which ESL instructors can contribute."

From abstract: "This dissertation theorizes the writing center as bridge-as an institutional resource that supports second language graduate writers as they journey from outside the academy to the inside-including its strengths and limitations, both locally (for these writers at this writing center) and for the field more broadly. I offer the metaphor of the writing center as bridge, both as an alternate writing center identity and therefore as an alternate approach to tutoring, and as an approach that privileges the multiple subject positions that students hold as they use the writing center.  [...] Based on the literature, the experiences of these participants, and my own experiences as a tutor-turned-coordinator, I ultimately argue that nondirective tutoring is rooted in practice with native-English-speaking undergraduates and that this practice so dominates many writing centers' identities that it has left little room for other subject positions, including those of second language graduate writers."