View Session 2
1:45 - 3:00 pm

View Session 3
3:15 - 4:30 pm

SESSION TWO

1:45-3:00 PM

"Myths and Reality of Control in the Writing Center"

Brenda Cummings, Tutor, Worcester State College Worcester, MA
Jennifer Robbins, Tutor
Hayley Stefan, Tutor

This presentation will be a real life look into the struggles, difficulties, and disbeliefs surrounding control in the writing center. The myths behind control haunt many tutors throughout their daily tutoring sessions. Professors and students both hold various misconceptions about how much control the writing center possess. Three college tutors examined these myths and realities from three different perspectives, professor, students, and tutor, at Worcester State College.

Our Models, Ourselves: The Uses and Limitations of Student-Written Texts in the Writing Center

Tara K. Parmiter, Panel Chair, Consultant, New York University Writing Center, New York University, NY, NY
William M. Morgan, Director of Writing Center
Amy Becker, Consultant

Abstract TBD

"Rebooting Writing Center Collaborations: An Alternative Model"

Mandy Suhr-Sytsma, Graduate Writing Associate, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT
Kevin Sullivan, Assistant Director of First Year Programs
David Ouimette, Executive Program Director of First Year Students, Center for Undergraduate Education

UCONN's Writing Center (WC) and Uconn's First Year Experience (FYE) program have collaborated to create writing assignments that introduce FYE students to the WC. Our roundtable will present and then open for discussion a series of questions that stem from our experiences in the first year of the program: How can we reboot collaborations between WCs and other institutions? What about Student Life? Will volunteer instructors assign writing? Can WCs maintain control when instructors require visits? Why FYE and not first year composition required visits? How do students and WC associates succeed in required appointments?

Whose Class Is This, Anyway? What Happens When Tutors Play Teacher

Collie Fulford, Assistant Director, Keene College Writing Center, Keene State College Keene, NH
Alex Candee, Peer Tutor
Jahleh Ghanbari, Peer Tutor
Andrew Magida, Peer Tutor
Haley Stevens, Peer Tutor
Phyllis Benay, Director

Strong working relationships with faculty have recently resulted in peer tutors being thrust into exciting yet uncomfortable positions that blur authoritative differences between tutors and faculty. Those new experiences provoke us to question traditional notions of peer tutors' roles in the teaching of writing. During this roundtable discussion, we explore questions of tutor and faculty authority that arise when alternative writing center practices disrupt the boundaries between us.

Twelve Years of a Writing Fellows Program: What works, What Doesn't, What is in the Future?

Dr. Deborah Burns, Associate Professor of English/Director Writing Center, Merrimack College North Andover, MA
Kathryn Nielsen-Dube, Assistant Director of the Writing Center/ESL Specialist
Dean Michael J. Rossi, Professor of English, Dean of Liberal Arts

This panel will give a short discussion of the history of the Writing Fellows Program at Merrimack College highlighting some of the features of the program. The major focus of the presentation will be on the current challenges the Program faces due to the increased demand for its services across the disciplines in a time of budget cuts. Discussion and audience participation will be an integral part of the session.

"In Search of Signs of Life:
The Erasure of Lived Space and Time"

Christopher DiBiase, Tutor/Ph.D. candidate, University of Massachusetts Amherst Northampton, MA

This presentation will explore the various ways that the lived histories of writing centers are "erased" due to their local material conditions and what the implications of such erasures might be. Discussion will focus on how writing centers might resist such erasures and/or make productive use of them. Digital spaces will be considered as an alternative site for history-building. Participants will be encouraged to share their experiences through reflective writing and group discussion.

CTRL-ALT-DEL, But Will It Reboot?:
Technological and Theoretical Tensions of Rebooting The Writing Center

Anna Rita Napoleone, Assistant Director, University of Massachusetts Amherst, MA
Amanda Baldi, Tutor
RJ Boutelle, Tutor

Using the format of CTRL-ALT-DEL, this presentation will focus on the University of Massachusetts Writing Center's transition to an online reservation system and how it has brought about discussions on what a Research One university writing center should be and do. The attempt to reboot our writing center via the technological change has raised theoretical concerns and tensions amongst administers, tutors and students. We seek to share our experiences and facilitate discussions with other writing center faculty and tutors about technological and theoretical tensions and transitions in writing centers.

Tutoring Analyses: Case Studies

Patricia Stephens, Director, Long Island University Brooklyn, NY
Michelle Solomon, Graduate Teaching Assistant
Plus.... other Graduate Students to be named

Reflection is one of the most difficult tasks one can undertake as a tutor. Nevertheless, in the form of recording a session, then transcribing and analyzing the session, tutors are able to scrutinize and evaluate their own practices in the hopes of improving their tutoring techniques. In this panel presentation, we will share our own growth as tutors with other directors and tutors who might consider a similar strategy for improving their tutoring strategies.

Restarting the Science Writing Mission: New Approaches to Specialist versus Generalist Tutoring, Confidence Building, and Advertising

Kimberly Parent, Assistant Coordinator for the Speaking, Arguing and Writing (SAW), Mount Holyoke College South Hadley, MA

By sharing the results of our writing center's recent initiatives with the departments of chemistry and biology, the interactive panel presentation will explore the challenges and opportunities writing centers face when seeking to provide writing resources to students in the sciences.

Restarting with Games

Jennifer Mitchell, Director, SUNY Potsdam College Potsdam, NY
Dustin Johnsen, Assistant Director
Janea Brachfeld, Senior Tutor
Samantha Solomon, Senior Tutor

At NEWCA 2007, Potsdam tutors presented games we use with tutees during orientations to our writing center. In that context, improvisational games give new tutees a taste of the improvisational and collaborative nature of the tutoring experience. This year, we propose to discuss and demonstrate the value of word games in two different contexts: workshops for ESL tutees and tutor training sessions. Specific games to be discussed include Taboo, Catchphrase, and Scrabble.

Multimedia Training Tools

Jennifer Mitchell, Director Jessica Freeman, Senior Tutor, SUNY Potsdam College Potsdam, NY

This session will present her experience creating two multimedia tools for our writing center: a video for recruiting new tutors and web-based PowerPoint tutorials. Both tools use computer-based media to communicate knowledge that is central to our writing center.

View Session 2
1:45 - 3:00 pm

View Session 3
3:15 - 4:30 pm