Writing Center Research

We've spent the week reading about and talking about researching in Writing Centers. Funny how this never occurred to me, that people were theorizing about researching WCs too! Why not? They are as rich a place for research as any, and from what we've read, much can be learned by researching WCs. And not just about WCs. While we can research our and others' Writing Centers and find out how well they are working, I think we can also discover many other things as well. Writing Centers are places where the writing process is working out loud, where tutor and student talk through what is going on on the page. So this could be an excellent place to learn more about writing processes. It's also a very social space, and much can be learned about epistemological theories and writing as a communicative practice rather than a solo endeavor. While we didn't really read about using the writing center for research other than for writing center purposes, this was something that came to me as I was reading.

Considering the readings more directly, I thought about (of course) my own little WC and what kinds of research I'd like to conduct. The article by Olsen and Moyer, "Student Centered Research Assessment in the Writing Center," particularly caught my attention for two reasons: one, I have my English 200 students do field research and this would be a great project for them and two, because many of the problems the students found in their research resonated with me. For example, we don't have a mission statement that I'm aware of. Also, I know that we are not well-advertised and need to work on our "presence" more: most people don't even know where the writing center is, even though it's not hard to find. And, of course, what we say we do and what we actually do may not be the same; I'd have to actually do some research to find out. However, like the WC in this research, I know that my little WC does much good and is appreciated by those who do use it. So while it isn't all negative, some assessment of my WC would be a very good idea.

One of my concerns about researching writing centers, though, is that I am not a tenured professor. I don't think I have the freedom (yet) to spend my time researching writing centers when I know that this work isn't considered as scholarly as other research I am interested in. Even researching in composition and rhetoric is marginally acceptable at best; I hate to spend my time on something few will consider scholarly. At the same time, while I am writing this it really irks me that what I know to be valuable and scholarly is overlooked by the academy. Is it our job (I'm not sure who "we" are here...) to do this work to show its scholarly nature? Do we fight for this work to be considered scholarly by doing it and showing its value both to writing centers and to academia at large? I don't know the answer, but I do know that writing centers hold the potential for understanding and discovery.