Blogs, Training Resources, and Conferences
PeerCentered is a space for peer writing tutors/consultants or anyone interested in writing centers to blog with their colleagues from around the world. Bloggers here will share their ideas, experiences, or insight. Read through the postings, and then contribute one of your own (just write Clint Gardner to join).
The official site for the conference--an excellent opportunity to present ideas on your own work and to hear from others about theirs. The site has a space to share ideas with others.
A resource from the University of Richmond that contains video training clips and questions to consider while watching the videos.
An excellent collection of videos from the folks up north about working with writers (the series is called "The Breakroom").
Publications
An online journal based at the University of Texas at Austin’s Undergraduate Writing Center, Praxis is edited by writing consultants and aimed at an audience of consultants/peer tutors and writing center directors. We feature articles written by tutors and directors concerning issues such as training, consulting strategies, and professional development.
The Writing Lab Newsletter is a forum for exchanging ideas and information about writing centers in high schools, colleges, and universities. Articles focus on challenges in tutoring theory and methodology, handling ESL issues, directing a writing center, training tutors, adding computers, designing and expanding centers, and using tutorial theory and pedagogy. In addition to articles, issues contain conference announcements, book reviews, professional news, and a column by and for tutors. The newsletter is published monthly from September to June.
The Writing Center Journal's primary purpose is to publish original research of interest to writing center professionals and to those forging connections between writing centers and the wider arenas of rhetoric and composition studies. As a forum for peer-reviewed scholarship, WCJ publishes theoretical and empirical research on a range of practices, pedagogies, and administration associated with writing center work. WCJ aims to reflect the diversity of writing center contexts through its content and, in so doing, encourages submissions focused not only on writing centers in colleges and universities but also high schools, middle schools, and other environments. In addition, WCJ welcomes book reviews, announcements of interest, and letters responding to WCJ articles. WCJ is also on Facebook.
Our Associations
The East Central Writing Centers Association (ECWCA), an affiliate of the International Writing Centers Association, is the oldest Writing Center organization in the world. There are over 475 writing centers represented within our region; we serve writing centers in high schools, community colleges, four-year colleges and universities, and specialized centers throughout Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia, as well as other regions nearby. Members of ECWCA include tutors, directors, and faculty interested in writing center work. We are a scholarly and professional organization, as well as a network and resource for people involved in writing center work.
Founded in 2005, the Ohio Writing Center Consortium (OWCC) provides an opportunity for Ohio's writing center directors and tutors to meet and discuss topics of common interest. While the OWCC maintains an informal organizational structure, our goal is to provide members with professional support; the opportunity to share resources and information; and the opportunity to share and develop best practices to enhance the work of our centers and their value to member institutions, students, and the University System of Ohio. Meetings are held at different writing centers each February and October.