MWCA Response :)

Hello dear OUWC bloggers,

As Jenna so lovely stated in the last post, a few of us had the privilege to attend the Michigan Writing Center Association Conference at Grand Valley State University on Saturday October 12th. It was a really cool experience to see so many writing center consultants, directors, and enthusiasts in the same place. I went to several presentations throughout the day and of those my two favorite were "The Ownership of Narrative: Working with Refugees in the Writing Center" and "Collaborating Across Colleges and Programs."

I found the first presentation fascinating because I had never encountered working directly with a refugee in the writing center. I have worked with many immigrants, study abroad students, and veterans that have a global experience, but never refugees. The presenters emphasized the importance of sensitivity and indirect tutoring when working with this population of students. First, it is relevant to be compassionate towards the student because the experiences they have encountered may be horrific, to say the least. Next, indirect tutoring helps the student come to terms with what they are comfortable writing about and how they are comfortable relating their points. The presenters addressed how some of these refugee students come from countries that have very different values and it can be jarring for the refugee students to have a voice, an opinion, and feel safe with their relating their thoughts about a subject; they may have experienced oppression of freedom of speech or no freedom of speech in the previous country they lived in.

The second presentation I attended, with four of my fellow writing center consultants, was "Collaborating Across Colleges and Programs." This presentation discussed placing specialized consultants in different departments throughout the school and campuses. One writing center consultant worked in the Psychology and Biology departments. This consultant had a desk in both departments where she worked specifically with students from that discipline on their writing for classes within that department. A second consultant was placed in the Nursing Department. This student had her desk alongside hospital beds and other nursing equipment. The third consultant was responsible for the online writing consulting. The way that this university (Eastern Michigan University) ran their online writing center consulting was through an e-mail base; the student e-mailed their writing concerns in an e-mail and then the consultant replied within a day to the various students who had written with concerns. According to the presenter, this flexibility was beneficial for the student - they could turn their questions / writing in at any hour of the day - and the consultant - they could reply within a day at any hour of the day and work from any location.

This post is getting a bit long, but I'll add just one more quick ending note. In addition to listening to presenters, I also had the joy of giving a presentation myself. It was wonderful to be able share our research (the research Brendan and I did over the summer) with a broader audience outside of our OUWC community. Unfortunately, my presentation was cut a little short because the presenter before me ran over time, but overall I thoroughly enjoyed being able to present.