Presentation/Proposal Title
“’Don’t You Know it’s Time for Me to Fly:’ Articulating Writing Center’s Scope of Work”
Type of Presentation/Proposal
Workshop
Start Date
5-4-2019 11:00 AM
End Date
5-4-2019 12:00 PM
Keywords
mission, work, community, campus
Description
In Peripheral Visions of the Writing Center, Grutsch McKinney (2013) argues that writing centers are constantly evolving communities of practice. As such, we are often too busy to notice the various tasks which encompass much of the work we do, work far beyond simply providing individual tutoring sessions, APA documentation tips, and writing center orientation sessions. This extended workload, often unrecognized, can lead to feelings of burnout for tutors and their administrators. As REO Speedwagon would say, “I’ve been around for you / been up and down for you / but I just can’t get any relief.”
Perhaps one of the solutions to this issue is to begin to have conversations about the larger scope of work within the writing center. This raises the question: what are the ways we can begin to articulate this work—to ourselves and to others?
This workshop will share a history of the evolving work of our writing center at Saginaw Valley State University on our campus and inside our larger community, and discuss a model we have used to categorize and represent that work. The workshop will conclude with the opportunity for other writing centers to begin to articulate the ways their writing centers serve their respective institutions and brainstorm ways for these centers to make this work more visible.
“’Don’t You Know it’s Time for Me to Fly:’ Articulating Writing Center’s Scope of Work”
Auditorium
In Peripheral Visions of the Writing Center, Grutsch McKinney (2013) argues that writing centers are constantly evolving communities of practice. As such, we are often too busy to notice the various tasks which encompass much of the work we do, work far beyond simply providing individual tutoring sessions, APA documentation tips, and writing center orientation sessions. This extended workload, often unrecognized, can lead to feelings of burnout for tutors and their administrators. As REO Speedwagon would say, “I’ve been around for you / been up and down for you / but I just can’t get any relief.”
Perhaps one of the solutions to this issue is to begin to have conversations about the larger scope of work within the writing center. This raises the question: what are the ways we can begin to articulate this work—to ourselves and to others?
This workshop will share a history of the evolving work of our writing center at Saginaw Valley State University on our campus and inside our larger community, and discuss a model we have used to categorize and represent that work. The workshop will conclude with the opportunity for other writing centers to begin to articulate the ways their writing centers serve their respective institutions and brainstorm ways for these centers to make this work more visible.
