Educational Materials

English 654 Writing Center Theory Final Paper

This is the final paper I wrote for my Writing Center Theory and Practice course, English 654. I worked collaboratively with another student to select three independent writing center websites each from a four-year university, a private college, and a two-year institution. This paper was finished in Fall 2010. In Spring 2011, we applied for and were accepted to present at the Midwest Writing Center Association's biennial conference in October 2011. However, when we re-examined the three independent writing center websites we had analyzed the previous fall, we discovered that the writing center in the two-year institution had been absorbed into a larger Academic Resource Center, a fate becoming more common for writing centers across the nation. During our conference presentation, we discussed how writing center websites fulfill writing center missions and the growing problems regarding funding and independence currently plaguing writing centers.

This is the conference paper written for the Midwest Writing Center Association's (MWCA) Biennial Fall Conference in October 2011. Building off our Writing Center Theory paper that was finished in Fall 2010, a fellow graduate student and I re-examined in Fall 2011 the three independent writing center websites we had previously analyzed and discovered that the writing center in the two-year institution had been absorbed into a larger Academic Resource Center, a fate becoming more common for writing centers across the nation. Keeping in mind the change in audience, during our conference presentation, we discussed how writing center websites fulfill writing center missions along with the growing problems regarding funding and independence currently plaguing writing centers.