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This page serves as a database for OWC-related scholarship. You can filter results by using the tags below or the search bar to the right.

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Embracing Interdependence in Online Writing Center Work (2021)

We see interdependence as directly related to collaboration and community, which we feel are core writing center values and central to our work as writing center administrators. We plan to share our specific contexts and identify the various layers of interdependence that we recognize in our work. This isn’t to say there may not be others–in fact, there may be more within your own context and more nuanced ways of thinking about these individual layers. But we hope that by sharing the layers of interdependence we’ve identified and giving some clear examples of how these layers play out in our day-to-day writing center work, we can help you also think about those layers in your own work.

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Experimenting with Peer Mentoring: Models for Professional Development Among Staff and Administrators (2021)

In this panel, members of the OWCA’s Mentorship and Scholarship committee discuss their experiences planning, supervising, and participating in a variety of peer mentor groups. Michelle Cohen speaks to the benefits and challenges of establishing “mentorship groups” to replace weekly staff meetings within a large university writing center. Emily Gresbrink shares pointers gleaned while assisting in the implementation of a mentoring program which worked to bridge industry experience from technical and professional advisory board members with graduate students and undergraduate students. Paula Rawlins offers insights from her experience working to foster a greater sense of community among her undergraduate and graduate writing partners. Finally, Beth Nastachowski, shares information about the the OWCA’s recently revised mentoring program, which adopts the practice of peer mentorship and embraces the spirit of interdependence and collaboration by implementing peer mentor groups. Nastachowski invites questions and suggestions for how the program can best serve OWCA’s members.

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Leading Towards Interconnectedness (2021)

Co-curricular support services and those who lead them have traditionally operated at the periphery of higher education institutions, structured as separate from the education mainstream (i.e., academic departments), and siloed from one another, with their critical contributions to the institution often going unnoticed. During this panel presentation, a panel of experts from 4 different universities, with Marshall and Carlock acting as moderators, will explore how recently, in reaction to the pandemic, work at the periphery has been drawn more center stage and what this might mean for those leaders at the periphery.

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Expanding Disability Access: Developing Your Multimodal Toolkit for Writing Center Sessions (2021)

What if all writing center tutors had access to a guide that included a range of strategies for working with a variety of students? How would this guide enable access for disabled students? This workshop attempts to answer these questions through reflection and critical analysis, which will culminate in attendees developing concrete strategies for working with diverse writers.

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Interdependent Interventions: Exploring Co-Creative Practices for Online Writing Centers (2021)

During this roundtable discussion, administrators and consultants from the University of Georgia (UGA) Writing Center will share their experiences using co-creative practices in online interactions with student writers and with graduate student writers especially. Our conversation will center on the way the in/dependent dichotomy is troubled not only by our students’ clearly-expressed agency in seeking support and building the scaffolding they need to achieve their writing goals, but also by our consultants’ engagement practices across a range of online interactions.

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Consulting on Multimodal Texts (2021)

From research posters to PowerPoint presentations, students are constantly composing texts that communicate ideas through multiple modes of communication. This workshop will introduce the concept of multimodality and consider the ways in which tutors can effectively provide feedback on multimodal projects.

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Rethinking Dependency: Promoting Motivation, Rapport, and Solidarity in Online Consultations during Times of Crisis (2021)

Writing centers have been recognized as sites for dependency-related behaviors where some writers seek support beyond the perceived scope of the consultants’ responsibilities. Studies of dependency and writing centers have suggested that there is a fine line between fostering motivation and encouraging dependent or attachment behaviors from writers.

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