Response+Paper+4.2..WC+Scholarship+Timeline

A Timeline of Major WC Scholarship:

1977-- 1st issue of WLN

1979 -- WC Association Begins

1980-- 1st issue of WCJ

1984-- North, "Idea of a Writing Center" Bruffee, "Peer Tutoring and the 'Conversation of Mankind'"

1986-- Smith, "Independence and Collaboration: Why We Should Decentralize Writing Centers"

1987-- Meyer and Smith, //The Practical Tutor// Trimbur, "Peer Tutoring: A Contridiction in Terms?" Kail and Trimbur, "The Politics of Peer Tutoring"

1988-- Wallace, "The Writing Center's Role in the Writing Across the Curriculum Program: Theory and Practice" Hubbuch, "A Tutor Needs to Know the Subject Matter..."

1989-- Ede, "Writing as Social Process: A Theoretical Foundation for Writing Centers?" Murphy, "Freud in the Writing Center: The Psychoanalytics of Tutoring Well" Newkirk, "The First Five Minutes: Setting the Agenda in a Writing Conference"

1991--Lunsford, "Collaboration, Control, and the Idea of a Writing Center" Brooks, "Minimalist Tutoring: Making the Student do all the Work" Gillam, "Writing Center Ecology: A Bakhtinian Perspective" Harris, "Solutions and Trade-offs in Writing Center Administration"

1992-- Harris, "Collaboration is not Collaboration is not Collaboration" DiPardo, "'Whispers of Coming and Going': Lessons from Fannie"

1993-- Waldo, "What Should the Relationship Between the Writing Center and the Writing Program Be?" Waldo, "The Last Best Place for Writing Across the Curriculum: The Writing Center" Kiedaisch and Dinitz, "Look Back and Say 'So What'": The Limitations of the Generalist Tutor" Powers, "Rethinking Writing Center Conferencing Strategies for the ESL Writer"

1994-- North, "Revisiting" Murphy, "The Writing Center and Social Constructionist Theory" Riley, "Unpromising Future of Writing Centers" Cooper, "Really Useful Knowledge" Neff, "Learning Disabilities and the Writing Center" Kilborn "Cultural Diversity in the Writing Center: Defining Ourselves and Our Challenges" Mullin and Wallace, //Intersections: Theory-Practice in the Writing Center//

1995-- Simpson, "Perceptions, Realities, and Possibilities: Central Administration and Writing Centers" Shamoon and Burns, "A Critique of Pure Tutoring" Walker, "Difficult Clients and Tutor Dependency" Pemberton, "Rethinking the WAC/Writing Center Connection" Harris, "Why Writers Need Writing Tutors"

1996-- Clark and Healy, "Are Writing Centers Ethical"

1997-- Barnett, "Redefining Our Existence: An Argument for Short- and Long-Term Goals and Objectives"

1999-- Bouquet, "Our Little Secret" Harris, "A Writing Center without a WAC Program: The De Facto WAC Center/Writing Center" Grimm, //Good Intentions// Vandenberg, "Lessons of Inscription: Tutor Training and the 'Professional Conversation'" Welch, "Playing with Reality: Writing Centers after the Mirror Stage"

2001-- Nelson and Everts, //The Politics of Writing Centers//

2002-- Bouquet, //Noise from the Writing Center// Gillespie, et al. //Writing Center Research: Extending the Conversation//

2003-- Pemberton, //The Center Will Hold//

2006-- Geller, et al, //The Everyday Writing Center// Murphy and Stay, //The Writing Center Directions Resource Book//

2007-- Condon, "Beyond the Known: Writing Centers and the Work of Anti-Racism" Mahala, "Writing Centers in the Managed University"

2010-- Denny, //Facing the Writing Center//

Description/Analysis of Timeline:

WC Scholarly community really comes of age around 1980, with the advent of a WC Association and the founding of journals (WLN and WCJ). In 1984, North’s “Idea of a Writing Center” and Bruffee’s “Peer Tutoring and the ‘Conversation of Mankind’” become foundational articles.

Mid 80s-early 90s: Focus here seems to be on practical concerns in the writing center and the prominent influence of social construction (including the encouragement of peer tutoring).

93/94 – Writing center scholars begin questioning what has come to be understood as WC orthodoxy. DiPardo questions the ‘strategies’ that we use to train tutors, such as no writing on the students’ paper, without necessarily understanding the why behind such practices or when traversing those practices might be the best approach. She also signals an increased interest in cross-cultural differences in the WC (seen also with Neff and Kilborn), whereas before the tutee always seemed to be an unrepresented (but assumed white, lower-middle class, traditional-aged) student. Cooper’s “Really Useful Knowledge” also broached the trend of Cultural Studies, that had occurred in Comp approx 88-94, broaching the Writing Center, and questions the writing center’s role in the institutional power structure. Further, 1994 signaled an increased interest in bringing theory from outside WC/Comp scholarship into the WC Conversation (Psychoanalytic, Marxism, Postmodern).

95-99: Continued questioning of the "basic" practices of writing centers, including debates about who should tutor, how tutors should be trained, whether there should be session report forms to faculty, the writing center's role in WAC programs, etc.

2000-2010: Writing center scholarship is reaching a new high point in terms of publishing with a serious increase in the number of WC books being published. At the same time, these works are pushing hard against the WC field, no longer allowing for a "situated"-ness to take hold, re-questioning some of the basic writing center assumptions, and, in particular, examining more closely the writing center's role in larger university power structures. As the University becomes more and more a "managed university," and as poststructuralist theory has simultaneously pushed us away from 60s idealism and increased our desire for it, we see WC scholars questioning less and less //what// we should be doing and instead focusing on the //why//. Who is the writing center? What is its role? What should we care about or prioritize? What are //our// ideals?