Post #1: 2 Questions (Ian Shank)

1. From the syllabus:
Just how narrative can the final project/paper be? I see that a "personal or hybrid personal-academic essay" is permissible, but that this piece should also be suitable to "present at a writing center conference." Is it expected, for example, that this paper engage with some kind of ongoing discourse within the field?

2. From the Bedford Guide:
The guide mentions that writing center work varies widely depending on local culture, student needs, and organizational philosophy, among other factors. What distinguishes the Iowa Writing Center from other peer institutions? What particular challenges/factors (if any) are particularly important to keep in mind in our work here?

Comments

  1. Carol SeverinoJanuary 23, 2019 at 10:39 AM

    We'll read an example for class that an NF tutor did and published in Writing on the Edge. The writer engaged in a token way with the controversy in the field about academic vs. creative writing. Also, the final paper that Lulu Dewey did last semester is a good model. She didn't engage so much with a controversy in Composition or Rhetoric as much as she did Eula Biss's stereotyped portrayals of her Rhetoric students in her book vs. writing center tutors' case study portrayals after they've worked one on one with Rhetoric students for weeks and have gotten to know them.

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  2. Carol SeverinoJanuary 23, 2019 at 10:48 AM

    One thing that distinguishes us is that we're one of the oldest if not THE oldest writing centers in the country--e.g. started by Carrie Stanley in 1934 in her classroom. Another thing that distinguishes us is our Enrollment program (once or twice a week with the same tutor all semester). Other universities have writing centers with enrollment programs but they are usually just for basic writers or pre-composition/rhetoric students or first-years. Our enrollment hours are for anyone and are very popular among grad students, especially second language writers. Yet another feature that distinguishes us is that Iowa and the Chicago burbs don't have large populations of bilingual students who grew up and were educated here in the US (e.g., Latinos who are children or grandchildren of immigrants), so our second/multilingual writer population at least in the Writing Center is mostly international students. This demographic situation should change more as Iowa and the Chicago burbs become more diverse.

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