This week, I had several appointments that were very informative and shed some light on something pretty important: perception. I think that, a majority of the time, people think that the Writing Center is nothing more than a place to come when you need grammatical edits. To that end, a lot of the clients that I had this week wanted me to edit their papers, read through them on my own, and make changes while they sat on their phones. I don’t think it was intentional for them to think to be uninvolved in the process, I think that it has to do more with the perception of the Writing Center as a passive place. Since we, as consultants, have studied extensively the ideas of collaborative learning environments amongst other things, we understand the value of mutually looking at a piece of writing and finding ways to work together to improve it and ourselves in the process. I think that one goal for the future of the Writing Center should be to alter this particular perception: this isn’t an editing hub, or a place to come to sit on your phone while someone else reviews your work. This is collaborative! That should be something we advertise more and talk about more.
Cheers!