Education Commons^™

This document provides provides the quantitative data from a study of writing center tutor expertise conducted by Lucy Malenke, Laura (Schubert) Miller, and Jared Featherstone in the James Madison University Writing Center. Thi study sought to answer the question: Do clients who work with tutors trained in the genre of literature reviews improve their drafts more or revise their drafts differently than clients who work with generalist tutors? All 15 participants in the study attended a writing center consultation with their literature review drafts; eight worked with genre-trained tutors, and seven worked with generalist tutors. Their pre- and post-session literature …

This supplementary packet was provided during my presentation "Befriending the Border Patrol: Sharing Writing Center Expertise with University Faculty" at the 2017 International Writing Centers Association Conference. It includes materials that emerged from my faculty development efforts on behalf of the James Madison University Writing Center: a handout for professors on orchestrating peer reviews, sample peer review worksheets, and a set of knowledge, skills, and attitudes for writing in the Health Studies major at James Madison University.

As writing center consultants and administrators, we witness the some of the ways that instructors can bewilder, frustrate, and even fail their students. We are often called upon to translate confusing assignments, decode cryptic comments, and explain writing conventions that otherwise would have remained tacit. These experiences may incline us to perceive some faculty members as “gatekeepers” who guard the borders of their disciplines, denying entry to students who are unable to intuit genre characteristics or produce error-free writing. This metaphor casts writing center consultants as guides (or smugglers) who help clients cross academic and disciplinary borders, and it casts …