The Online Writing Center
Is There a Person in This Text? Synchronous Online Writing Instruction and Personhood as a Collaborative Gesture
The physical embodiment treatment . . .
When writers come through the doors of the Main Writing Center (WC) at UW-Madison, it’s worth considering how we instructors can process many bits of information about them. Before we meet, we’ve typically reviewed instructor records to prepare us for the session in the here and now. When we [...]
The Wisconsin Idea and the Writing Center
The University of Wisconsin-Madison has a long and distinguished history of public service. The guiding philosophy of this commitment to public service, called the “Wisconsin Idea,” is often described as “the boundaries of the university are the boundaries of the state.” Since I have a scholarly interest in the Wisconsin Idea, I’ve been thinking about [...]
Accessible Writing Centers
One of the things we at the UW Madison Writing Center constantly strive for is to be welcoming and accessible to everyone. Our primary service is to University of Wisconsin-Madison students, but we also try to reach out beyond the campus through the Community Writing Assistance Program, our Writing Center Colloquia, and our online presence. [...]
Tools of the Trade
As a dissertator and the Coordinator of the Online Writing Center, when I’m not untangling late 16th-century poetry, updating the Writing Center’s website, or making sure our synchronous and asynchronous instruction runs smoothly I like to poke around the web to try and figure out how to make the many hours I spend in front [...]
Welcome to a New Writing Center Year!
From all of us in the UW-Madison Writing Center programs, welcome to a new academic year! We’re off and running on an exciting new year.
The UW-Madison Writing Center Turns 40
Last October the Writing Center held an open house to celebrate the Center’s 40th birthday. Well over 100 students and colleagues came from across campus to—
chat with our staff
peruse posters about our programs
sample our podcasts and our online consultations and videos of in-person consultations
nibble on birthday cake from Lane’s Bakery
and hear short [...]
Online Writing Instruction: Different Media, Different Expectations — Still Good Teaching, Learning, and Writing
When we begin instructor training we start with stating that online writing instruction differs from f2f, and its the Coordinators task to lead discussions regarding why good teaching, good learning, and good writing can emerge from networked spaces (Harrington, Rickly, & Day, 2000). Online writing instruction is also a topic that I’ve seen on the wcenter list-serv as writing center directors/coordinators explore the possibility of starting OWCs on their campuses, so I hope to explain in the extremely limited scope of this post a few of these differences and address concerns about the effectiveness of OWI.
