Abstract
Writing centers are pedagogical spaces where student discourse varies. Utilizing case studies from two different writing centers, this chapter examines how writing-center identities align with student and tutor practices during writing-center sessions. Specifically, the work captures and analyzes verbal interactions and spatial conditions that reflect different levels of authoritative discourse for participants. The chapter also raises implications for future research involving student discourse in writing centers.
TopBackground
Literacy work, including the activity found in writing centers, cannot be separated from social context. In the 1980s, social constructivist theorists began to explore the connection between language practices and the social contexts in which they occur (Heath, 1983; Scribner and Cole, 1981). Such ties were taken up and complemented by work of The New Literacy Studies that similarly couched literacy practices in their social and cultural contexts (Barton & Hamilton, 1998; Brandt & Clinton, 2002; Gee, 1990, 1992, 2015; Street, 1984, 1993, 2003). When considering the goings-on within writing centers, these movements offer theoretical purchase, for writing centers, in this light, exist within a complex set of ideological frames. For instance, writing centers cannot escape academic disciplines, particularly the relatively new field of rhetoric and composition (Prior, 1998). Nor can centers evade institutional or organizational cultures connected to various levels of academic and financial power (university, college, department, etc.) (Carino, 1995). In this same vein, centers themselves shape their own discursive identities, and considerable academic ink has been spilled over what a writing center is, what it ought to be, and what it should do (Bawarshi & Pelkowski, 1999; Corbett, 2013; Ede, 1996; García, 2017; Grimm, 1996; Mitoumba-Tindy, 2017; North, 1984, 1994; Purdue & Driscoll, 2017).
Key Terms in this Chapter
Collaboration: One measure of interactive balance in writing center sessions. Collaboration refers to an equitable level of participation from student writers and tutors/consultants.
Interaction: A frequent site of inquiry in Critical Discourse Analysis. Because social interactions reflect larger societal structures, CDA is attuned to how interactions signify varying levels of power.
Critical discourse analysis: A theory and method of understanding interactive practices. Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) posits that discourse is a social practice bound by social context.
New Literacy Studies: An interdisciplinary body of work that positions literacy as a sociocultural, historical practice rather than as a cognitive skill.
Writing Center: An academic, pedagogical, and discursive space where students go to receive additional feedback on written work and to get help with writing assignments.
Social Constructivism: A body of work that emphasizes the collaborative and social nature of knowledge production.
Material Discourse: Physical, material practices that reflect varying levels of power during social interactions.