These articles were interesting in different ways. I enjoyed Isaacs and Knight’s Bird Eye View piece because of how it illustrated the layout of writing centers; I also enjoyed Royster and Kirsch’s first few chapters which started contextualizing how feminist theory and rhetorical practices work together.
For me, I was drawn a bit more to the writing center piece, just because for the past six years I have always been in a writing center of some sort. over the past six years, I’ve worked in three different writing centers, and it was interesting to see the similar and different qualities of these centers illustrated in this article. Just looking at the writing center locations,
I also find it interesting how many independent-from-each-other writing centers there can be! At my husband’s master’s institution, there was a writing center for all students to use (branch of student support); a writing center for athletes (where he worked); and then there were two other centers. One center was housed in the business department; and the other center was housed in the graphic design/communication department. I wonder if these centers work together at all or if they are completely independent? I can definitely see one perspective of wanting to tailor centers to a department’s needs, but I also wonder if it would be possible to combine all (or most) of these? I just wonder if it would be possible to do this and then combine the resources. You could still have emphasis areas or “subject mentors” and I wonder if that would be better? I haven’t been in the OSU main writing center recently, but I think the leadership has done a great job at offering a variety of services for different populations/departments (such as the Graduate Research Writing Lab). I don’t know if OSU has main other writing centers — I don’t know if LASSO has one or if the business department has their own; I know about the athletic writing center just because I work there, but I was curious what are others’ thoughts about having multiple independent-from-each-other writing centers on campus? Is this beneficial? Does it take resources away? I’m not sure.
I found myself really gravitating to Isaacs & Knight’s trends that they pointed to. Even though this article is about four years old, I kept reading and attributing these trends to different centers I’ve worked in. For example, writing centers have had their budgets slashed but there isn’t really a threat to closing writing centers. While it is really disheartening to have read (and seen this), I am glad writing centers are powering through, but I wish this labor was valued in the sense of compensation. I have been pondering how others outside our field value writing and “good writing,” but they don’t value compensating it because they believe everyone should just be able to do it. But, we don’t have that strange view for other disciplines. Maybe we do; I am not sure. What did hurt to read was the idea of “helpmates”. I literally cringed and my heart hurt. The authors mentioned that few writing centers are actually progressing the field; rather they see themselves only as helpmates. I think leadership at OSU has been outstanding at inviting tutors into the discipline, and then positioning them to be able to do inquiry groups and research so they can push the WC field further. When I thought about how OSU does a great job at empowering tutors to become researchers; I felt this connected to Jones Royster and Kirsch’s ideas about femrhet practices. Listening, empowering, and leading to research. I feel that OSU’s leadership was very intentional about pushing the writing center forward and basing the practices in feminist practices, and from the writing centers I have worked in, it seems to be a very effective practice with a welcoming environment.
Katie Rieger, Portfolio 