Year: 2002
Type: book-review
Abstract: The editors of this long-awaited volume have aimed "to open, to formalize, and to further" the writing center research dialogue in order "to encourage and guide other researchers," as well as to present the "new knowledge that has resulted from the studies it reports" (back cover).They have succeeded.This collection does not present a tidy or unified snapshot of the current research scene, nor does it offer a neatly organized agenda for future work.And this is appropriate.Rather, its chapters illustrate the very wide range of purposes, topics, theories, and methods that writing center research engages, and it is exactly this presentation that accurately represents both the diversity and the integration of theory, practice, and research that characterize most writing center research practices.Alice Gillam1 s Introduction situates writing center research within the larger research scene, particularly that of composition studies.Identifying two strands of inquiry (empirical and conceptual), she sets the stage for chapters that discuss what research means, what counts as research and why, and how it is and might be conducted.She notes researchers' moves toward "interested" observation, toward critique as well as justification, toward increased concern for the ethics and the political and material consequences of their work, and toward methodological pluralism and self-reflection.In Chapter One, Gillam elaborates this introduction as she analyzes several early essays that call for, survey, and critique writing center research.Here, too, she points to the ways openness, tolerance, and shared critical reflection can move our research beyond the earlier defensive studies chiefly designed to explain, justify, or exalt writing centers.Some of the chapters that follow focus on a range of specific questions and projects (assessment, literacy, technology, administration, institutional discourse, tutoring, list-
Source: The Writing center journal
Author: Carol Peterson Haviland
Institution: California State University, San Bernardino
Language: English
Subfield: Linguistics and Language
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W4289784398