Many writing centers have established complex web sites with elaborate “pages” requiring the support of special computer systems and technically skilled staff. Creation of such online labs may appear too costly and involved for smaller writing centers on tight budgets, an apprehension not fully justified.
In this essay, I present an email “tutorial”between myself and a graduate student enrolled in our master’s program in Technical Communication and Information Design (TCID).
First Paragraph Those who have worked in writing centers for many years may remember when their centers received a handful of Apple IIes or IBM PCs with a pair of…
Theresa, a high school sophomore, sits at one of the dozen or so computers in the common computer lab of her school. There is a sporadic clicking of keys as the three other students in the room, none of whom Theresa knows, work at computers.
Several years ago, The Writing Lab Newsletter carried a number of articles on OWLing, or on-line writing labs. The articles explored some of the ethical, rhetorical, and practical questions raised by the practice of writing responses to student drafts (Coogan, Crump, Jordan-Henley and Maid, Spooner).
When the first version of the National Writing Centers Association page (http://departments.colgate.edu/diw/NWCA.html) appeared in January 1996, it included about five or six links to other writing center websites.
First Paragraph The three of us have been involved in secondary school writing centers for longer than we like to admit. Although our ages, backgrounds, and schools differ, we agree…
In academic circles, one might assume that any entity that fosters the very critical thinking, challenge, and collaboration that constitute the foundation of higher learning would command due respect and appreciation. However, as we all know, such is not always true in the case of writing centers.
A search with the Alta Vista online database for the keywords WAC and curriculum reveals that many writing centers and writing programs now use the World Wide Web to communicate with faculty involved in Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC) programs. Larry Beason of Eastern Washington State University also provides a web page with a long list of links to other universities’ WAC web pages
It’s no secret that the study, implementation, and use of networked computers in writing instruction requires critical reflection. (Many writers, such as Cynthia Selfe, 1992, Christina Haas, 1996, and Ann Hill Duin and Craig Hansen, 1996 have made that claim.) We’re still learning, though, how to reflect critically— how to examine the interactions of technology and humans in the writing process.