Reading club provides a space to discuss writing center scholarship. Based on the article or chapter chosen, participants will share experiences, ideas, strategies, and questions about online writing centers (OWCs).

Reading Club Series: Grammar and Linguistic Justice at the Online Writing Center

OWCA is pleased to offer this four-part reading series, facilitated by Faith Thompson of Salisbury University and Susanne Treiber of Madison Area Technical College, specifically for tutors in online writing center spaces. From the facilitators:

We would like to open a space within OWCA to discuss current trends in linguistic justice scholarship, which include tutor perspectives and ideologies as well as a focus on the issue of grammar. We want to give tutors the opportunity to reflect on their own experiences, language identities, and tutoring practices, while also learning from others who are exploring how to enact linguistic justice in their writing centers. We are particularly interested in discussing the “g” word – how to turn the theoretical concepts of linguistic justice into practical application at the grammatical, sentence level. Although we are not using articles exclusive to online tutoring, knowing that our audience works in online writing centers will allow us to discuss the role of technological innovation, such as how the rise of AI impacts our conversations on linguistic justice. This reading series will elevate tutor voices, particularly around how we assist linguistically diverse students.

Series Sessions:

You can select which session(s) to attend; you do not have to attend all sessions in order to participate. 

Session Three:  Reflections

• Date: Friday, October 9 at 1pm EST
• Reading: “How I Speak Doesn’t Really Matter; What I Speak About Does”: BIPOC Tutor Voices on Linguistic Justice in the Writing Center (Ray and Goldin, 2025)

Session Four: Call to Action

• Date: Friday, November 13 at 1pm EST
• Reading: “It’s not what you say; it’s how you say it”: Writing Center Tutors and Their Conceptualizations of Academic Writing in Tutoring Sessions (Thompson, 2026)

Guidelines for Participating

Reading Club is currently held in a Zoom Pro room. Participation is open to everyone, including not-yet OWCA members. To ensure a safe space for open communication and interaction, these sessions will not be recorded.

Register

You can register for a reading club through the scheduling system below (note: there may be multiple events listed). Follow these steps:

1. Select your time zone from the drop-down menu
2. Click the “Register” button next to the event you’d like to attend
3. Fill out the registration form and click “Complete Registration”
4. Save your confirmation email to have the Zoom information or cancel your registration later. You can also respond to this email to contact the event organizers.

A reminder email will also be sent the morning of the event.