Type of Presentation/Proposal

Workshop

Start Date

5-4-2019 8:30 AM

End Date

5-4-2019 9:30 AM

Keywords

Social media, local contexts, qualitative research, program assessment, non-tutoring labor

Description

New adventures mean new possibilities and challenges. Adopting social media for one's writing center is no exception. The level of writing center activity on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram has soared within the past 10 years. Despite writing scholars calling for more replicable, agreeable, and data-supported “RAD” research (Babcock and Thonus; Driscoll and Wynn Purdue; Gillespie et al.), the conversation surrounding this topic remains anecdotal and without regard for individual writing centers’ local contexts and needs.

With this gap in mind, the speaker highlights major findings from her year-long qualitative interview project consisting of 30 high school and college writing centers within and outside the United States. Analysis reveals that writing centers can—at least with a reflective and purposeful eye toward their own audience, mission statements, and the concept of the writing center—offer another medium that fosters a culture of writing for stakeholders on and off a center’s campus.

Conference attendees will hear about the study in a 15-minute presentation to learn: (1) Who performs social media labor, (2) How a center’s story informs a content creator’s posting process, and (3) How the study’s participants use social media to do “writing center work.” The rest of the time, attendees will engage in a hands-on activity and group discussion designed to apply the study’s findings to their own local contexts. In addition to sharing stories about their own forays into social media, attendees will challenge themselves by confronting notions of what writing center labor can be beyond the one-on-one tutoring model.

Share

COinS
 
Apr 5th, 8:30 AM Apr 5th, 9:30 AM

Expanding the Hat Rack: Investigating the Roles of Writing Center Social Media Content Creators

M2225

New adventures mean new possibilities and challenges. Adopting social media for one's writing center is no exception. The level of writing center activity on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram has soared within the past 10 years. Despite writing scholars calling for more replicable, agreeable, and data-supported “RAD” research (Babcock and Thonus; Driscoll and Wynn Purdue; Gillespie et al.), the conversation surrounding this topic remains anecdotal and without regard for individual writing centers’ local contexts and needs.

With this gap in mind, the speaker highlights major findings from her year-long qualitative interview project consisting of 30 high school and college writing centers within and outside the United States. Analysis reveals that writing centers can—at least with a reflective and purposeful eye toward their own audience, mission statements, and the concept of the writing center—offer another medium that fosters a culture of writing for stakeholders on and off a center’s campus.

Conference attendees will hear about the study in a 15-minute presentation to learn: (1) Who performs social media labor, (2) How a center’s story informs a content creator’s posting process, and (3) How the study’s participants use social media to do “writing center work.” The rest of the time, attendees will engage in a hands-on activity and group discussion designed to apply the study’s findings to their own local contexts. In addition to sharing stories about their own forays into social media, attendees will challenge themselves by confronting notions of what writing center labor can be beyond the one-on-one tutoring model.