Writing Centers: Perception V.S. Reality

Written by Zackary Boos

 

I began my journey in the world of writing centers early last year in January of 2019. Not as a tutor, but as a student learning to become one. I came in with many of the typical wrong ideas, expecting to showoff skills in correcting grammar. Over the course of that chilly spring semester, I learned the reality of today’s writing centers, and today I’ve nearly completed my first year of working at St. Cloud State University’s Write Place. Increasingly, writing centers are becoming more of an integral feature to American colleges and universities. Through many different structural and ideological changes, writing centers have become perceived as remedial learning facilities for students, for lacking in skill, and even as a copy-editing service. Read on to learn truth of today’s writing centers.

Fix-it Shops

Colleges and universities first began employing writing centers on campuses as an opportunity for underperforming students to catch up. Tutors drilled clients on spelling, punctuation, grammar and style. This is why the image of “fix-it shops” comes to the minds of so many. At this point in time, pedagogy in composition studies focused on production- making the best possible finished product. Today, we know that this school of thought skips important steps which has brought about the shift toward process. Writers need to develop skills in the writing process (prewriting, drafting, revising, and editing) in order to successfully produce well written material. For this reason, writing centers favor a student-led style that guides the student recursively from prewiring to the finished product.

Only for Low-Skill Writers

Even the best writers acknowledge their need for others to review their writing. Authors of novels send their work to editors to receive constructive criticism before publication, eager for feedback on revising before publication. Of course, these authors go through a similar process first, sending their book to trusted colleagues, family, and friends. No matter how skilled you are as a writer, you can always improve your writing though feedback. This is a major attraction for well-developed writers. Writing centers can offer these people opinions on stylistic choices such as length of paragraphs or voice and tone.

Copy Editors

If you expect to walk in to your school’s writing center with a rough draft ridden with typos and usage errors expecting to have it handed back to you the next day free of mistakes and complete with an MLA style works cited page, you may find yourself disappointed. Writing center tutors do not edit for students; that would undermine the goals of teaching composition and not be much different from plagiarism. Sure, they will happily help with identifying and explaining specific grammatical and usage errors, but this is done with the participation of the student to assist in their development.

Yes, I did not know what to expect on my first day of tutor-school, but by my first day on the job, I was equipped with the skills and knowledge to help members of my community improve their skills to find greater success in writing. It is important to rid yourself of faulty preconceived notions to accept a new, and better way of accomplishing difficult, long-term tasks. Writing is a difficult skill to develop, but your campus’ writing center can help.