Presents a correlation study of student satisfaction with Writing Center services based on the number of visits students made to the Center during two different semesters. Tells a story of how the writing center staff learned to stop fearing numbers and love the interpretation of them. Finds no statistically significant correlation between number…

Suggests that writing centers should conduct more sophisticated evaluations, and should turn to educational program evaluation and select general types of evaluations most appropriate for writing centers. Presents an evaluation which exemplifies and clarifies what is called for in the first half of the article. (SC)

Presents a statement of "professional concerns," to echo Jeanne Simpson's exploration of beginning a writing center. Presents the story of the author's first year as one way of reading the factors that both constrain and enable educators to reach levels of professional status that ensure security and stability, both for educators personally and…

Suggests that all stakeholders should share a focus on "innovations," referring here simultaneously to technologies and their social, cultural, political, and historical contexts. Introduces a new perspective through which writing center professionals can approach collaborative relationships with other stakeholders in the move towards…

Addresses two kinds of writers: (1) writers who seem to want approval more than feedback; and (2) writers who refuse to do all but the bare minimum. Presents several strategies to address these writers and notes that these strategies can help educators critically examine their beliefs about what a Writing Center should accomplish. (SC)

Discusses concerns surrounding the future of writing centers. Claims that although most institutions have writing centers, they are generally underfunded, the staff is comprised of underpaid student workers, and the centers are not institutionally viable. (NH)

Considers the nature of today's changing society in order to determine how writing centers can continue to be viable parts of academia. Discusses issues such as helping students integrate technology into their writing processes, and present and future demographic changes. (NH)

Claims writing centers of the future will be more reliant on technology, need more second-language acquisition specialists, expand beyond the physical boundaries of a single center, and assume a more prominent role in research. (NH)

Argues that the challenge for writing centers to continue to be viable lies not so much in responding to changing educational demands as to continuing to meet the ongoing demand for competent writing in the academy. (NH)

Draws on experience at Worcester Polytechnic Institute to argue that recent trends in writing center theory and practice see literacy as a multimodal activity in which oral, written, and visual communication intertwine and interact. (NH)

Discusses opportunities available to writing centers involving four potentials for institutional refiguration: (1) institutional space; (2) knowledge production and intellectual property; (3) research paradigms and rewards; (4) and budget allocations. (NH)

Presents an annotated bibliography tracing 20 years of "Writing Center Journal" scholarship covering a variety of issues which include teacher training, critical thinking, writing apprehension, peer tutoring, Internet sources and individual instruction. Contains annotations of all the articles and reviews published in this journal's first 20…

Describes how one writing center with many English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) students has integrated the "cultural informant" role of tutors with their role of teaching self-editing strategies. Reviews the process of introducing ESL students to use of a learner's dictionary, minimal marking, and error logs. Offers examples of using these…

Offers an analysis of the ways in which the structure and practice of writing centers may be uncomfortable, difficult, even anathema to many boys and young men. Describes ways the author's writing center at a boys' school has changed some of its practices in an attempt to address this issue. (SR)

Argues that the writing center is an ideal place to teach and practice a critical and self-reflective form of acculturation, encouraging underprepared students (especially those marginalized by race, class, and ethnicity) to adopt critical consciousness. Discusses acculturation verses the goals of critical consciousness, the traditional writing…