The Writing Lab Newsletter (as of Sept., 2015 WLN will be WLN: A Journal of Writing Center Scholarship) inaugurates its “Reflections” section that invites you to respond to an older article published in WLN.
First, a general introduction to Reflections, and then an invitation to respond to Jeff Brooks’ “Minimalist Tutoring”:
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General introduction to Reflections:
As part of our 40th anniversary celebration of Writing Lab Newsletter (soon to become WLN: A Journal of Writing Center Scholarship), we invite your participation in reflecting on some of the articles that have appeared over all those years. How has some particular article influenced writing center scholarship and work? How have you used that article in tutor training? Why or how? How do tutors respond to it? How has an article influenced your work (e.g., for organizing or constructing the work of your writing center? why and how?) What comments would you have to offer the author? How have the goals and pedagogy of tutoring changed since this article appeared? We offer these to you as possible thought-starters when a particular article is announced for you to reflect, comment, or respond to as each article is selected. And we invite you to recommend articles for these Reflections. To browse or search among the past volumes of WLN to find an article you want to suggest for this section, go to the open archives on our website <writinglabnewsletter.org>. Send suggestions for future articles to Muriel Harris ([email protected]).
We recommend that your reflections be limited to 100-200 words and encourage responses from directors who have known a particular article and used or modified it, as well as from consultants who are first visiting the article or have re-shaped their tutoring after reading and discussing it. Send your reflections on a particular article that has been selected to the submissions section on the WLN website (www.writinglabnewsletter.org). We will notify you in advance as to whether your response will be published.
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Reflecting on Jeff Brooks’ “Minimalist Tutoring”
The Writing Lab Newsletter (soon to become WLN: A Journal of Writing Center Scholarship) initiates this “Reflections” section with the most often-quoted article in WLN’s history, Jeff Brooks, “Minimalist Tutoring: Making the Student Do All the Work,” first printed in 1991. Given that it was published 23 years ago, how has writing center theory and pedagogy changed? Have changes resulted in new thinking or modification of the concept of minimalist tutoring, changes such as the internationalization of writing centers across the globe, the technological development that brings tutors and writers together electronically, the further development of composition practice and theory, the changes in FYC, the increase in students whose first language is not English, the students with disabilities who come to the writing center, etc. How do you make use of the Brooks’ article or modify it when you ask tutors to read it? Given Brooks’ emphasis on the physical presence of tutor and writer and the fact that so much tutoring occurs online, via chat, video, Skype, e-mail, etc., why has Brooks’ approach remained, to a certain extent, a best practice for many of us? Or is minimalist tutoring really still relevant? Why? What’s your personal response to Brooks’ approach? If such an approach should be updated, how? Why? Have you noticed a shift in the way students respond to minimalist tutoring over the years? We offer these questions as thought-starters to help you reflect on what your response might be.
You can download the issue with Brooks’ article on the WLN website: <http://www.writinglabnewsletter.org/archives/v15/15-6.pdf>. Or find Vol. 15.6 in your writing center’s collection of issues. Please limit your responses to perhaps 100-200 words or less, and submit your comments through the WLN website “Submissions” section.
Deadline for submission: December 12, 2014. We will notify you in advance as to whether your reflection will be published.
