ma philosophie: the sequel (blog 6)

I'm going to try to take some of Tim's advice and not over think this.  

The writing center is a place for writers of all degree at any point in the writing process.  They come because they want to become better writers, they are struggling with a specific piece, or they are advised to come.  The center's overall purpose is to help people become better writers - get better with the writing process.  And process is how we try to address problems.  That said, when a writer comes in with a particular problem with a particular piece, we don't gloss over that and just preach in glittering generalities about The Process.  We start where the writer's at, and aim to help him walk out of the center feeling confident about what he's working on and will work on in the future.

I feel pretty solid about that.  *victory arms*

I'm still hanging on to my mix of romanticism and collaboration - a lot of knowledge is already in the writer.  At this point, we've been in school for at least 13 years, and I know that plenty has been taken in through all that.  Not to mention all that plain old life teaches about how to think things through and then communicate them.  But I'm also becoming increasingly aware of how helpful, and dare I say needed, collaboration is.  

So coaches and writers work as a team.  The coach lets the writer think/write/talk through as much as she is willing to.  This means that the coach has to be very attentive to the situation.  The coach will probe and ask questions when he thinks the writer has more to add but hasn't quite articulated.  

The coach should also be more than willing to give his input.  They will ideally be comfortable enough to collaborate - this means neither coach nor writer is superior.  

Above all, the coach must be flexible!  He should be familiar with exercises for an array of issues likely to come up in a session.  And he should be able to adjust if said exercise doesn't work out like it "should."  And if he just doesn't no what to do, there's certainly no shame in collaborating with someone else.  

Political realities.... Hm.  Ideally the administration as well as faculty would support the writing center - its presence and its mission.  But the reality?  I guess we can't make anyone like us (but we sure hope our efforts will have that effect!), and I still only think it's right to never outright disagree with a teacher.  Sure, they give some awful assignments, but out in "the real world," bosses are going to do the same thing.  So as a Writing Center focused on developing writers better equipped for writing anything, we help the writer make the best of the situation, sending her back to the teacher if necessary/possible.  

To possibly help curb some of these issues, we would let teachers know we are absolutely more than willing to collaborate about assignments.  Or at least give them some pointers.  Also we would let them know that we can be more helpful to their students if we get feedback from teachers about what kinds of things they're looking for in an assignment.  We welcome open communication, but don't demand it.  And at the end of the day, we help writers as best we can without stepping on teachers' toes.  

Okay.. not so wordy this time!  Maybe...