Winner of the 1999 Outstanding Scholarship Award, National Writing Center Association
As computers have brought important developments to composition studies, writing centers have found themselves creating and improvising applications for their own work and often for the writing programs and institutions in which they live. Online tutorials, websites with an array of downloadable resources for students, scheduling and email possibilities—all of these are becoming common-place among writing centers across the country. However, in spite of impressive work by individual centers, exchange on these topics between and among writing centers has been sporadic. As more writing centers approach getting "wired" and others continue to upgrade, the need for communication and collaboration becomes ever more obvious, and so does the need to understand the theoretical implications of choices made.
Wiring the Writing Center is one of the first few books to address the theory and application of electronics in the writing center. Many of these contributors explore particular features of their own "wired" centers, discussing theoretical foundations, pragmatic choices, and practical strengths. Others review a range of centers for the approaches they represent. A strong annotated bibliography of signal work in the area is also included.
A must-read for writing center directors and their staffs, whether approaching the decision to wire their own center for the first time or to upgrade it.