From Other to Community [microform] : Making the Writing Center an All-University Facility / Bob Whipple

Writing centers and their faculty are often considered to be "Others" because they have both power and no power--they have the ability to make a difference in students' writing abilities, but they are often excluded because they are seen as a "fixit," a clinic, a lab, an ancillary. Writing center faculty need to take more power so that they can exercise more power, and, in so doing, give more power to the university writing community. Writing centers must educate the university in writing center theory, function, and aims--in the purpose of writing in a university--so that the center can be a place where the whole university can come together. Specific academic departments could set up workshops in teaching writing with the assistance of writing program and writing center staff. From there, writing programs can move to the grand step--encouraging and assisting in the planning and proposals for writing centers in different departments or areas. Obstacles include the resistance of other faculty members and the paradox of preparing students more definitively in the conventions of their own discourse (thus creating difference by attempting community). Writers in the disciplines will not always have to go to the English department's writing center for help if writing forces exist in their own programs. Writing centers will have plenty to do in sharing their abilities with the rest of the university so that all can benefit from that sharing. (RS)