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The Writing Center Journal

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Full-Text Articles in Language and Literacy Education

Neurodivergent Peer Tutoring And Anti-Ableism: Two High Schoolers’ Lived Experiences While Working In A Neurodiversity-Based Writing Center, Daniel S. Harrison Jul 2026

Neurodivergent Peer Tutoring And Anti-Ableism: Two High Schoolers’ Lived Experiences While Working In A Neurodiversity-Based Writing Center, Daniel S. Harrison

The Writing Center Journal

Neurodivergence is naturally present in the writing center and most often recognized by labels like ADHD, autism, OCD, dyslexia, and so on. However, neurodivergent voices in writing center scholarship have been few and far between in postsecondary institutions (Babcock, 2017; Batt, 2018; Kleinfeld, 2023), and in the secondary writing center even less so. Therefore, the purpose of this multiple case study was to explore the personal, relational, and formative aspects of the lived experiences of two neurodivergent students through a critical disability theory lens as they provided writing consultations to their neurodivergent peers in a Mid-Atlantic, independent special education school. …


The Self-Identified Strategies Of Asynchronous Writing Tutors, Eric C. Camarillo Jul 2026

The Self-Identified Strategies Of Asynchronous Writing Tutors, Eric C. Camarillo

The Writing Center Journal

This study explores the self-identified strategies of asynchronous writing tutors, focusing on how they provide feedback in an online environment. The research addresses the underexplored area of asynchronous writing tutoring, which is often marginalized due to its perceived lack of interpersonal interaction. Through semi-structured interviews and screen recordings of seven writing tutors from three different institutions, the study identifies key strategies employed by tutors. These strategies include managing workloads, relying on intuition, building rapport with students, and seeking support from other tutors. The findings highlight the complexity and labor-intensive nature of asynchronous tutoring, emphasizing the need for thoughtful evaluation and …


Editors' Note, Sherry Wynn Perdue, Isaac K. Wang, Georganne Nordstrom Jul 2026

Editors' Note, Sherry Wynn Perdue, Isaac K. Wang, Georganne Nordstrom

The Writing Center Journal

Editors' note for Writing Center Journal 44.1 (2026).


Front Matter Jul 2026

Front Matter

The Writing Center Journal

Front matter for The Writing Center Journal 44:1 (2026).


“Like Learning To Play Chess”: Relationality And The Development Of Interpersonal Communication Skills In Writing Center Consultants, Kara Poe Alexander Jul 2026

“Like Learning To Play Chess”: Relationality And The Development Of Interpersonal Communication Skills In Writing Center Consultants, Kara Poe Alexander

The Writing Center Journal

This study explores how writing center consultants develop interpersonal communication (IPC) skills through relational interactions during peer tutoring sessions. Grounded in the theoretical framework of relationality, which views learning as emerging through relationships, I analyze interviews with undergraduate and graduate consultants at a private R1 university. The findings demonstrate that one-on- one conferences foster a broad spectrum of IPC skills, including adaptability, listening, intercultural communication, asking questions, building rapport, giving constructive criticism, setting boundaries, empathizing, and patience. The development of these knowledge and skills is cultivated through collaborative, meaning-making interactions with writers. As such, writing centers emerge as dynamic, relationship-driven …


Back Matter Jul 2026

Back Matter

The Writing Center Journal

Back Matter for Writing Center Journal 44.1.(2026)


Convenience And Communication: Students’ Experiences In Synchronous Online, In-Person, And Asynchronous Consultations, Carolyn Wisniewski Jul 2026

Convenience And Communication: Students’ Experiences In Synchronous Online, In-Person, And Asynchronous Consultations, Carolyn Wisniewski

The Writing Center Journal

Writing center tutorial modalities have proliferated in recent years, yet research has not kept pace. Students’ experiences in online writing tutorials remain understudied (Denton, 2017; Hewett & DePew, 2015). Better understanding students’ experiences across session modalities is critical to achieving an inclusive and accessible writing center (Martinez & Olsen, 2015). This study used a mixed-methods, comparative design to determine how students selected, experienced, and perceived the accessibility of synchronous online, in-person, and asynchronous modalities. Qualitative and quantitative analysis of 138 surveys and 22 interviews indicated students perceived each modality to provide effective writing support. They report selecting tutorial modality based …


Centering Ai Literacy: Exploring Brazilian International Students’ Perceptions Of Chatgpt And Peer Tutoring, Leigh Ann Dunning, Raissa Borges De Oliveira Leal Dec 2025

Centering Ai Literacy: Exploring Brazilian International Students’ Perceptions Of Chatgpt And Peer Tutoring, Leigh Ann Dunning, Raissa Borges De Oliveira Leal

The Writing Center Journal

For English as an Additional Language (EAL) students, generative AI (GenAI) offers meaningful support for writing in English, while also introducing a new set of challenges. Supporting EAL students in developing AI literacy is crucial to their growth as confident, adaptable writers, and writing center tutors are uniquely positioned to facilitate this development. This case study explores the experiences of undergraduate Brazilian international students at a small liberal arts college who received writing feedback from both peer writing center tutors and ChatGPT. Findings indicate that students valued the human connection, contextual understanding, and rhetorical support offered by peer tutors, while …


Front Matter Dec 2025

Front Matter

The Writing Center Journal

Front matter for The Writing Center Journal 43:3 (2025).


The Myth Of Revising By Ear: Does It Help Multilingual Writers?, Soo Hyon Kim Dec 2025

The Myth Of Revising By Ear: Does It Help Multilingual Writers?, Soo Hyon Kim

The Writing Center Journal

This study examines what multilingual writers notice while they read their writing aloud, and whether reading aloud helps improve the accuracy of their writing during revision. It also investigates whether multilingual writers’ second language (L2) proficiency influences the extent to which reading aloud impacts revision. To address these questions, a counterbalanced, mixed design study was carried out with two experimental conditions: revising while reading aloud and revising while reading silently. Multilingual writers of higher and lower English proficiency at a large research university participated in a two-day sequence of composition and revision, two times, over the course of two weeks. …


Attending To Present Others: A Framework For Supporting Multilingual Graduate Writers, María P. Carvajal Regidor, Allison Kranek Dec 2025

Attending To Present Others: A Framework For Supporting Multilingual Graduate Writers, María P. Carvajal Regidor, Allison Kranek

The Writing Center Journal

Extending prior work on present others, individuals who are not physically present in writing center sessions—such as advisors, colleagues, and peers—but who directly or indirectly impact what happens during consultations (Kranek & Carvajal Regidor, 2021), we argue that attending to present others is one way to more holistically support multilingual graduate writers. Based on data from session recordings, we contend that present others can be used as a framework to train consultants to better address the specific needs of this student population by acknowledging their socialization processes, feedback networks, language needs, and emotions. Then, we share two approaches to consultant …


Native-Speakerism And Multilingual Student Anxiety In One-To-One Mentoring, Grace Lee-Amuzie Dec 2025

Native-Speakerism And Multilingual Student Anxiety In One-To-One Mentoring, Grace Lee-Amuzie

The Writing Center Journal

While one-to- one writing tutoring is often viewed as a supportive space for student writers, it can also reproduce racialized linguistic hierarchies that exacerbate anxiety for multilingual students. This article examines second language (L2) anxiety as a structurally induced emotional response to native-speakerism— the ideology that privileges white, Anglophone, native English speakers as the standard for language competence. Drawing from L2 anxiety research in applied linguistics and writing center studies, the article explores how native-speakerism influences multilingual students’ self-perception, interaction, and performance in L2 during one-to- one tutoring. It discusses the sources and dimensions of L2 anxiety across all four …


Engaging Transnational Writing Assets In The Writing Center: New Pedagogical Directions For Supporting International Multilingual Students, Olalekan T. Adepoju Dec 2025

Engaging Transnational Writing Assets In The Writing Center: New Pedagogical Directions For Supporting International Multilingual Students, Olalekan T. Adepoju

The Writing Center Journal

This article argues for a shift in writing center pedagogy toward prioritizing transnational writing assets as the basis of our work with international multilingual writers specifically and every writer we encounter generally. While writing center scholarship has paid attention to the influences of language, cultural and rhetorical differences among native and non-native English speakers/ tutors in the writing center, much of this discussion has taken the “comparative” route rather than a “trans-d” (transnational) route with potentials to transform our engagements with scholars, students, and writers from other parts of the world. This IRB-approved research reveals that international multilingual writers possess …


Back Matter Dec 2025

Back Matter

The Writing Center Journal

Back Matter for Writing Center Journal 43.3.(2025)


Reimagining Wpa And Writing Center Administration Centering Minority Writers, Saurabh Anand Dec 2025

Reimagining Wpa And Writing Center Administration Centering Minority Writers, Saurabh Anand

The Writing Center Journal

This piece explores the discussions surrounding multilingualism, internationalization, and queerness within writing center studies (WCS). As a branch of writing program administration (WPA), this piece situates above-disciplinary conversations in relation to second language studies (SLS) and broader language and literacy education scholarship to identify areas where disciplinary collaboration and attention are still needed, particularly around questions of professional development, administrative strategies, and pedagogies supporting multilingual writers in writing center spaces. This piece begins by reviewing the major trends, contributions, and key terms in existing literature centering on multilingual writers and SLS to identify ways and areas of collaboration and disciplinary …


On The Intersectionality Of Second Language Writing Research And Writing Center Practice: Facing Today’S Diverse Linguistic Landscape, Ghada Gherwash, Hadi Banat Dec 2025

On The Intersectionality Of Second Language Writing Research And Writing Center Practice: Facing Today’S Diverse Linguistic Landscape, Ghada Gherwash, Hadi Banat

The Writing Center Journal

Guest editors' introduction for The Writing Center Journal 43:3 (2025).


“Dear Colleague”: Upholding Multilingual Voices And Pedagogies In Writing Centers Against Flattening Forces, Melanie Mcnulty, Amina Selimaj Dec 2025

“Dear Colleague”: Upholding Multilingual Voices And Pedagogies In Writing Centers Against Flattening Forces, Melanie Mcnulty, Amina Selimaj

The Writing Center Journal

Drawing on the dual perspectives of a writing center administrator and a tutor, this paper explores how political symbolism—such as the Department of Education’s 2025 “Dear Colleague” letter—technological homogenization, and institutional consolidation are contributing to a resurgence of standard language ideology and attempting to erode linguistic diversity. We argue that writing center administrators and tutors must confront their own biases, reflect on their positionality, and adopt pedagogies that prioritize inclusion and agency over assimilation; and must refuse these pressures that seek to judge diversity as deficit and flatten difference into sameness.


From “Contact Zone” To “Collaborative Zone”: Multilingual Writers’ Tensions And Opportunities In The Writing Center, Qianqian Zhang-Wu, Isabelle M. Lundin, Neal Lerner Dec 2025

From “Contact Zone” To “Collaborative Zone”: Multilingual Writers’ Tensions And Opportunities In The Writing Center, Qianqian Zhang-Wu, Isabelle M. Lundin, Neal Lerner

The Writing Center Journal

Writing center scholars have adopted Pratt’s (1991) “contact zone” metaphor to describe the diversity of consultants and students in writing centers, but this literature has largely overlooked the perspectives of multilingual students. Through surveys, interviews, and session data, we found that while multilingual students described rich linguistic identities, they also experienced tension and instability as language users. Students often framed their considerable language assets as deficiencies in academic writing contexts. They faced additional tension between instructor expectations and their own understanding of assignment goals. Students frequently sought native-like language competency from consultants and expected them to serve as informants about …


“It Would Literally Take The World To End For Us To Do This”: Writing Center Consultants’ Affective Responses To Consulting Modalities, Anita Long, Destiny R. Brugman Oct 2025

“It Would Literally Take The World To End For Us To Do This”: Writing Center Consultants’ Affective Responses To Consulting Modalities, Anita Long, Destiny R. Brugman

The Writing Center Journal

This article discusses findings from semi-structured interviews with writing consultants about their affective experiences working across three different consulting modalities: in person, asynchronous, and synchronous. This study offers affect as a lens for understanding consultants’ responses to and strategies for consulting in multiple modalities and argues that by attending to affect, emotion, and disposition in consulting we can better support our consultants when they’re consulting in different modalities.


“I (Still) Need Help On Many Things”: A Writing Center Replication Study Of First-Generation College Students’ Writing Challenges And Cultural Capital, Red Douglas, Ashley Cerku, Isabelle Lundin, Mary Gallagher, Xavier Iriarte, Sophia E. Williams, Kaylie Williams Oct 2025

“I (Still) Need Help On Many Things”: A Writing Center Replication Study Of First-Generation College Students’ Writing Challenges And Cultural Capital, Red Douglas, Ashley Cerku, Isabelle Lundin, Mary Gallagher, Xavier Iriarte, Sophia E. Williams, Kaylie Williams

The Writing Center Journal

Research has increasingly addressed first-generation (FG) students both in and outside the center (Baelemian & Feng, 2013; Bond, 2019; Denny et al., 2018; Ward et al., 2012), but there remains a need to address this unique student population from the perspective of critical theory. In a replication study of Bond’s 2019 “‘I Need Help on Many Things, Please’: A Case Study Analysis of First-Generation College Students’ Use of the Writing Center,” we examined the needs and perceptions of self-reported FG students in a writing center at a large, regional, public R2 university in the Midwest. We gathered preexisting digital data …


“I Just Need Another Set Of Eyes”: Understanding Students’ Idea Of The Writing Center, Isabelle M. Lundin, Neal Lerner Oct 2025

“I Just Need Another Set Of Eyes”: Understanding Students’ Idea Of The Writing Center, Isabelle M. Lundin, Neal Lerner

The Writing Center Journal

In this article, we describe writing center clients’ “idea” of the writing center based on interviews with 26 writing center users and qualitative coding of interview transcripts. Participants’ constructs of the writing center provide a lens to better understand how they perceive writing as an activity, the “writing culture” of the institution, the role of the writing center in their writing processes, and, ultimately, if they see writing centers in the way we would expect them to. The tensions we derived from our data are (1) between who and what tutors are and offer: discipline-specific expertise (including the disciplines of …


Exploring The Efficacy Of A Source-Based Writing Tutoring Intervention For Multilingual Students In The Writing Center, Dana Lynn Driscoll, Osman Ozdemir Oct 2025

Exploring The Efficacy Of A Source-Based Writing Tutoring Intervention For Multilingual Students In The Writing Center, Dana Lynn Driscoll, Osman Ozdemir

The Writing Center Journal

Source-based writing skills, which include evaluating, synthesizing, and citing sources, are skills that students are expected to acquire as part of college-level writing. Unfortunately, many multilingual writers (MLWs), especially those in advanced degree programs, lack programmatic support and instruction. Thus, writing centers represent a critical site to offer MLWs tutorial-based support. Our study examined whether or not writing centers can help MLWs develop—and transfer—source-based writing skills in a sequence of three tutorials. We recruited five advanced student MLW participants from different cultural backgrounds who were uncomfortable with source use. Through pre-and postwriting samples, interviews, writing process recording videos, and a …


Front Matter, Georganne Nordstrom, Isaac K. Wang, Sherry Wynn Perdue Oct 2025

Front Matter, Georganne Nordstrom, Isaac K. Wang, Sherry Wynn Perdue

The Writing Center Journal

Front matter and introduction for Writing Center Journal 43.2.


The Rhetorical Function Of Writing Center Employee Handbooks, Talisha Haltiwanger Morrison Oct 2025

The Rhetorical Function Of Writing Center Employee Handbooks, Talisha Haltiwanger Morrison

The Writing Center Journal

In his award-winning book, Around the Texts of Writing Centers, R. Mark Hall (2017) asserts the importance of everyday writing center texts, claiming that these documents “both enact and forward writing center scholarship” (p. 3). It is Hall’s position that such “everyday” documents are essential to understanding the work of writing centers, but that their very ubiquity leads writing center scholars and administrators to ignore them or take their functions for granted. In this study, I take up Hall’s call for more scholarly attention to everyday writing center texts through a thematic rhetorical analysis of nine writing center employee …


Back Matter, Georganne Nordstrom, Isaac K. Wang, Sherry Wynn Perdue Oct 2025

Back Matter, Georganne Nordstrom, Isaac K. Wang, Sherry Wynn Perdue

The Writing Center Journal

Back matter for Writing Center Journal 43.2.


Back Matter, Harry Denny May 2025

Back Matter, Harry Denny

The Writing Center Journal

Back Matter for Writing Center Journal 43.1.


Front Matter, Harry Denny Apr 2025

Front Matter, Harry Denny

The Writing Center Journal

Front matter and editors' introduction to The Writing Center Journal 43:1 (2025).


Writing Confidence: Tutoring, Identity, And Race—A Mixed-Methods Approach, Daniel Messier, Hadi Riad Banat Apr 2025

Writing Confidence: Tutoring, Identity, And Race—A Mixed-Methods Approach, Daniel Messier, Hadi Riad Banat

The Writing Center Journal

This mixed-methods study sought to better understand how confidence in writing and race interact as factors within writing centers. Students utilizing our writing center were asked to provide data about racial identity and writing confidence both when registering with the writing center and when completing postsession surveys. From this data, we interviewed a racially representative pool of respondents to better understand their definitions of confidence and the identity factors that have shaped their confidence in writing. Our survey data showed that students’ confidence increased significantly as a result of a writing center session, replicating previous writing center research. Furthermore, we …


English Writing Centers In China: Opportunities, Challenges, And Paths Forward, Bradley Hughes, Jingtian Zhang Apr 2025

English Writing Centers In China: Opportunities, Challenges, And Paths Forward, Bradley Hughes, Jingtian Zhang

The Writing Center Journal

English writing centers at Chinese universities present a fascinating paradox. On one hand, the number of universities with writing centers and the professional interest in writing centers in China have grown steadily over the past two decades. But on the other, the number of centers is still modest and only a few centers have had a significant influence on the culture of writing on their campuses, which is surprising given the vast number of universities in China and the documented need for strengthening and expanding writing instruction in English. This international research study explores the current state of English writing …


We Should Promote Genai Writing Tools For Linguistic Equity, Nathan Lindberg Apr 2025

We Should Promote Genai Writing Tools For Linguistic Equity, Nathan Lindberg

The Writing Center Journal

In this essay, I suggest that we should embrace generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) writing tools, particularly chatbots (e.g., ChatGPT, Copilot, Claude), because they can enable linguistic equity by leveling the academic playing field for English as an additional language students. As writing experts, we can find ways to use this technology to enhance learning, and, since we know both student and faculty positions, we can help develop policies so such tools can be used effectively and ethically. Alternatively, we can ignore them and risk becoming irrelevant.