M/W 4:00-5:15; McComas 228

FALL 2015 COURSE SCHEDULE

EN 4243/6243: WRITING CENTER TUTORING

Contact: Dr. Stacy Kastner (smk318@mstate.edu)

Week 1

8/17
8/19

TOPIC
Course Introduction
Introduction to Writing Centers as
an Idea/Concept/Theory and
Workplace
*NOTE: WE WILL MEET IN THE
WRITING CENTER

Reading Due

1. North, The Idea of a Writing

Center
2. Elizabeth Boquet and Neal Lerner,
Reconsiderations: After The Idea
of a Writing Center'

Writing and Assignments Due

Quick Write 1 Due

Quick Write 1 Option A: Dig into a little imitation/emulation muscle stretching by retyping sentences from Norths piece that
you feel are essential to the idea of a writing center. Do the same thing for Boquet and Lerners piece. Using a free Word
Cloud application of your choice (and Google can help you make that decision), create three word clouds based on your
copying: (1) Norths Idea, (2) Boquet and Lerners Discussion, and (3) Both Together. Then, write a paragraph reflecting on
(a) insight youve gleaned looking at the word clouds created from your selections from the text/s about what a writing center
is, and (b) your thoughts on whether or not there is a/there are difference/s between the writing center as an idea and the
writing center as a place. Next, go a step further, and write another paragraph reflecting on what the main narrative (maybe
the unified narrative, maybe the different narratives) that emerged from your text selection say/s about you. For example, the
Word Cloud will generate a text image based on analyzing words you paste into its textbox. Words that are large, are words
that were most often repeated. The Word Cloud generator will break down the text you gave ityour selection of the texts
we read for class separately and togetherinto keywords. Based on those keywords, what have you discovered about what
you value? About who you are as someone who has ideas about a writing center?
Quick Write 1 Option B: Perhaps youre a hands on learner or a crafter. Retype sentences from North and Boquets pieces.
Play with options like color, boldface, italics, font size, emphasizing your idea of a writing center based on the scholarly
discussion read for our class meeting. Perhaps you will work to use digital tools of your own choosing to craft a text
imageperhaps youll print and then rearrange your product, forming some kind of collagethe options are endless.
Experiment. Be creative. Process the readings in a way that makes sense and is aesthetically pleasing to you as an
analyzer/critic. Then, write a paragraph reflecting on (a) insight youve gleaned looking at what you created from your
selections from, manipulations of, and rearrangements of the text/s about what a writing center is, and (b) your thoughts on
whether or not there is a/there are difference/s between the writing center as an idea and the writing center as a place. Next,

go a step further, and write another paragraph reflecting on what the main narrative (maybe the unified narrative, maybe the
different narratives) that emerged from your text selection, manipulation, and rearrangement say/s about you. Looking at
what youve created, what have you discovered about what you value? About who you are as someone who has ideas about a
writing center?

Week 2

Week 3

8/20

*Note: Be sure to attend the online tutoring professional development meeting in Lee on Friday from 3-5.

8/24

Tutor Bootcamp

Mini Reports: Katelyn and

Lauralee (chapter 2); Emma and
Kirsten (chapter 3); Michaela
and Jessica (chapter 4)
The Bedford Guide for Writing Tutors
8/26
Tutor Bootcamp
Mini Reports: Ciera and Tori
(chapter 5); Daysha and Belle
(chapter 6); Leslie and
Elisabeth (chapter 7); Sarah and
Annie (chapter 8)
Mini Reports Description: Working with your collaborator, plan to give a 15-20 minute overview of the chapter you were
assigned from The Bedford Guide for Writing Tutors in class. You should prepare a handout that includes: (1) A summary of
the chapter, (2) A bulleted list of the most important information (summarized, paraphrased, or quotedusing APA); (3) A
bulleted list of useful information (including definitions, tips, suggestions, tricks, resources); (4) An APA Reference Page
citation for the chapter you were assigned; and (5) Using the activities in the book or creating your own, prepare to have your
classmates spend 5-minutes working through an activity that will help to get them prepared to tutor (based on your chapter).
8/31
Tutor Bootcamp
1. Shawna Shapiros Working with
Multilingual (ESL) Students: A
Tutor Training Workshop
2. Matsuda and Cox, Reading an
ESL Writers Text
3. Staben and Dempsey Nodhaus,
Looking at the Whole Text

Week 4

Week 5

9/2

Tutor Bootcamp

OGFWT: Chapters 1 and 2

9/7

NO CLASS, LABOR DAY

9/9

Tutoring Practices

1. OGFWT: Chapter 3
2. OGFWT: pp 449-463

9/14

Writing Processes

1. Emig: Writing as a Mode of

Learning
2. Murray: Teach Writing as a
Process not Product

Quick Write 2 Due

Quick Write 2: This will be a three-part quick write assignment with the goals of (1) getting you better acquainted with
yourself as a writer, (2) getting you thinking and writing about one of the foundational theories of Composition and Rhetoric,
and (3) getting you familiar with gathering data and multimodal methods for recording and for re-presenting research. First,
plan a time to work on some writing that you need to do. Perhaps you are beginning a project, perhaps you have something in
process, perhaps you are preparing something for publication/assessment. Draft out some informal research questions or a
question (this should be inquiry-based and reflectivearound 150 words where you are thinking through things that youd
like to learn about your writing process). Then, you will observe yourself as a writer. How, you ask? You may approach this
in several different ways (and I highly recommend that you combine several approaches). For example, ask a partner or
roommate to photograph you at work in 2 minute increments; use video or screen capture software on your computer to
document your morphing page; use a video camera or camera to document your process; archive various artifacts and drafts;
keep a time log and document everything that you do. Upon completing your observation, (1) type up a 2-3 page
reflection on writing, your personal writing processes, and how what youve learned can impact your consultation
practices, (2) create a visual representation of your writing process, and (3) a six word story version.
9/16
Authoring Practices
OGFWT: Chapter 4
Week 6

9/21

Tutor and Writer Identities

9/23

Tutor and Writing Identities

OGFWT: Chapter 5
1. Newkirk, Writing as SelfPresentation

Experienced Tutor Observation

Due (face-to-face)
Quick Write 3 Due

2. Ivanic: The Sense of Self and the

Role of the Reading in the
Discoursal Construction of Writer
Identity

Week 7

Quick Write 3: This is an open quick write assignment, meaning Id like you to simply write about the readings that were
assigned for class on your own terms. Your reflection should be about one page (single spaced).
9/28
Introduction to WC Research
OGFWT: Chapter 8
9/30

Week 8

10/5
10/7

Introduction to Empirical WC
Research
NO CLASS, FALL BREAK
IWCA CONFERENCE, ONLINE
CLASS

OGFWT: Chapter 11

1. (Skim) IWCA Conference Program

2. Follow IWCA Twitter Feed

Experienced Tutor Observation

Due (online)

Have MSU IRB Training

Completed

Quick Write 4 Due (by 10/11)

Quick Write 4: Go to the course blog. Locate the Discussion page. Locate the post titled Quick Write 4. Reply to this post
with a written reflection where you: (1) Identify 4 different conference sessions you would have been interested in attending
if you were at the conferenceexplain why you would have been interested in attending; (2) Write a 200-word reflective
paragraph based on your scanning the conference Twitter feed (the conference back-feed).
Week 9

10/12

Overview of the Research

Conversation in WC Work

10/14

Mini Reports, Research Teams

1. Gillam, The Call to Research:

Early Representations of Writing
Center Research
2. Learner: Insider as Outsider:
Participant Observation as Writing
Center Research
Justice Randolph, A Guide to Writing the
Dissertation Literature Review

Peer-Tutor Observation Due

Project Proposal Due

Week
10

10/19
10/21

Week
11

Week
12

OGFWT: Chapter 9
Self-Selected

Mini Reports Due

Mini Report Assignments: For this week, you will work in teams of two, selecting a chapter from Writing in the Disciplines:
Advice and Models (there are two copies in our Writing Center). Each group should plan a 10-minute report with a handout.
10/26 WAC
OGFWT: Chapter 6
10/18

WAC

11/2

WAC

11/4
Week
13

Introduction to Theory-Based WC
Research
WC Research Readings

11/9
11/11

1. Ray Wallace, The Writing

Centers Role in the Writing Across
the Curriculum Program: Theory
and Practice
2. Mark L. Waldo, The Last Best
Place for Writing Across the
Curriculum: The Writing Center
Self-Selected

Mini Reports Due

Mini Reports: For this week, you will select a discipline outside of your field, identify its flagship journal, select 2
articles, read them, and then report to the class on the writing characteristics/conventions/style of this field. Prepare a
10-minute mini-presentation for the class, helping us to all grow as WAC tutors from the knowledge you are sharing.
Along with this presentation, you should prepare a 1-page handout outlining the characteristics/conventions/style of
writing in this field using a literature review matrix technique as well as examples from the articles you reviewed and
analyzed.
Online Tutoring
OGFWT: Chapter 7
Pre-Literature Review Writing
Packet Due
Writing Centers and New Media
OGFWT: pp 365-381
WC Special Topics: Writing Centers
and Space

1. Jackie Grutsch McKinney,

Writing Centers as Cozy Homes

2. Michael Pemberton, The Prison,

the Madhouse, the Hospital:
Redefining Metaphors for the
Writing Center
Week
14

Week
15

Week
16

11/16

WC Special Topics: Queering the

Writing Center

1. Rihn and Sloan: Rainbows in the

Past Were Gay
2. OGFWT: pp 343-355

11/18

WC Special Topics: PostColonialism and the Writing Center

1. Bawarshi, Postcolonialism and the

Idea of a Writing Center
2. OGFWT: pp 498-507

11/23

Online Class

11/25

NO CLASS, THANKSGIVING
BREAK
WC History

11/30

12/2
Final
Exam

TBD

History of MSUs WC: A

Roundtable Discussion

Communicate with project groups. If

working independently, use class time to
work on your project update post.

Introduction, Literature Review,

Methods Section of Final Paper
Due
Post project
plans/timeline/tasks with
assignments for research
reports to the course blog page.

Elizabeth H. Boquet, Our Little Secret:

A History of Writing Centers, Pre- to PostOpen Admissions
Self-Observations Due
Written, Oral, Visual Research
Report Due