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Western Washington Writing Center Observation Paper

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Western Washington has a diverse and well trained group of writing centers. I was fortunate enough to be able to visit Central Washington University, Highline Community College, Shoreline Community College, Tacoma Community College and University of Washington Bothell . The goal was to find out what the writing centers are using for training, and how the centers operated. The four centers I visited, and the one center I interviewed, were extremely welcoming and have a diverse variety of extensive training programs. Observations of these writing centers enlightened me with an overwhelming amount of information. What stood out was: that even with the unique styles of programs and trainings, several core factors were consistent with all the centers. To further my research I read three tutoring books, The Bedford Guise for Writing Tutors by Leigh Ryan and Lisa Zimmerelli, The Master Tutor by Ross B. MacDonald and The Harcourt Brace Guide to Peer Tutoring by Toni-Lee Capossela. Researching and observing for twelve weeks lead me to a series of ideas for Centralia College Writing Center. …show more content…

Hiring at all the writing centers I observed was conditional on commitment to initial mandatory training. Agreeing to mandatory training shows the drive of the new hire to be invested in the commitment to the Writing center. One my favorite interview techniques as to have the applicant consult on a small paper. The goal of the consultation session was not to be perfect, but to observe if the applicant was invested in helping people. Being polite, friendly, interactive and eager to help were the skill sets under observation. The majority of the centers looked for a minimum one year commitment (it is important to state that this is the goal, but all applicants can resign at any time, with compliance of Washington State Law). Training is time consuming and expensive, so it is not cost effective to hire someone for one

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