States that after a qualitative survey of participating instructors suggested the success of an in-class tutoring program at the open-admissions Kingsborough Community College, a quantitative survey compared the writing performance of students served by the program and those who were not. Indicates the program's success--more of those tutored…

Continues an ongoing discussion about networked computer technologies and writing center practice. Examines the underlying theories of technology shaping attitudes and actions toward technology. Offers lab administrators a framework for thinking about accounts of technology use they hear; whether they wish to add computer networked technologies to…

Addresses the definition prevalent in writing center scholarship that divides centers into rigid ideological categories with specific, often metaphorical names and distinct activities, theoretical foundations, and sense of place within academic institutions. Argues that situating writing centers within these separable categories brings the danger…

Finds that creating a goals and objectives statement not only works to legitimize curricular positioning of the writing center in the academy but also addresses important political, theoretical, and rhetorical questions pertaining to the top priority--helping students become better writers. Shares experiences as writing center administrator at the…

Positions writing centers in the painful paradoxes of literacy work and strips away the belief in innocence to make scholar-teachers more aware of the ways that literacy practices reproduce the social order and regulate access and subjectivity. Uses two stories about writing center students to illustrate the ways writing centers are inadvertently…

Indicates a desire and need to construct an elaborately detailed and historiographically sophisticated model that would effectively account for the complexity of writing center development and history. Critically examines two models currently in use, the "evolutionary" model and the "dialectic" model. Offers a cultural model of writing center…

Talks about the benefits of failure, both to the individual teacher and to the writing center as an institution. Examines the phenomenon of the hard-to-help student and how it leads scholar-teachers to reexamine their approaches and pedagogies. (TB)

Suggests that one place a writing center should be is online, as a virtual space of unlimited size in the form of a "writing cooperative," a term the article defines and discusses. (TB)

Critiques Terrance Riley's "The Uncompromising Future of Writing Centers" and Stephen M. North's "Revisiting 'The Idea of a Writing Center'"--two articles that upset assumptions about writing centers. Suggests that while the vision of these writers may strike some as harsh, readers should turn toward rather than away from the important questions…

Recounts a history of the National Writing Centers Association based on the author's personal recollection and minutes, back issues of "The Writing Center Journal" and "Writing Lab Newsletter," miscellaneous correspondence, and convention proceedings and programs. Explains why the organization exists and what road led the founders to it. (TB)

Examines two studies: one that shows that competent to highly competent writers find writing centers beneficial, and the other that shows that faculty continue to think of writing centers as suited to remedial students and surface level corrections. Attempts to glean from these studies important information that could act as a corrective to all…

Takes a "critical" look at the relationship between Writing across the Curriculum and the Writing Center at Dickinson College, which is typical of many institutions. Explains how Writing across the Curriculum principles have prompted the Writing Center to rethink its role and to examine its tutoring practices. (TB)

Examines instructional approaches to spelling presented in several college-level texts, showing their shortcomings. (FL)

Discusses why writing centers are concerned about plagiarism, how this concern has influenced writing center pedagogy, and whether this concern has been counterproductive to student learning. (RS)

Uses case studies of intensive writing courses in government, history, and computer science to explain the differences between the disciplinary contexts for writing, and to help tutors in their work with students from those disciplines. (RS)