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2010 Call for Proposals

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NEWCA: Images

Boston University, Boston, MA

Saturday, April 10, 8:30 am to 5:00 pm and Sunday, April 11, 8:30 am to 11:00 am

Proposals due by December 31, 2009

image by www.wordle.net

Keynote Speaker: Kathleen Shine Cain, Ph.D.

Professor of Writing, Department of Communication Arts and Sciences, Merrimack College

Director, Merrimack College Writing Center

Co-recipient (with Dr. Michael Rossi) of the Ron Maxwell Award for distinguished leadership at the National Conference on Peer Tutoring in Writing, 2005

Lunch Speaker: Anne West, Ph.D.

Senior Lecturer in the Division of Graduate Studies, Rhode Island School of Design (RISD)

Faculty Mentor/Graduate Liaison, RISD Writing Center

Instructor, The Summer Program in English Language Studies, RISD

Conference Theme: NEWCA: Images

As the saying goes, “Image is everything.” For our 2010 NEWCA conference, we are calling for proposals that explore the concepts of images and writing centers. The theme of this year’s conference gives us the opportunity to consider theories and practices of visual representations in relation to our writing center work.

The rhetoric of the visual world provides us with intriguing metaphors, lenses and frameworks to explore writing center lore and research. We encourage investigation of how writing centers’ images are created: what practices need to be enlarged or cropped; what stories are told and left untold; and what needs to be re-imaged, re-imagined and re-focused.

We invite proposals for workshops, roundtable discussions and panel presentations that investigate questions such as:

• What are the visual representations of writing centers? How are these representations created? Who is responsible for creating and maintaining these visual representations?
• Where and how are views of the writing center projected to others? What are the goals and purposes of our projections?
• How are the images of the writing center client, tutor, and administrator changing?
• Who frames, or makes the borders for, our writing centers?  How are those frames and borders constructed?
• How is the changing image of the nation helping us to re-imagine ourselves? What images of diversity are present in our writing centers?
• Do, and should, our writing centers serve as reflections or refracted images of our institutions?
• How is technology helping us change our image of ourselves and our students?
• How do we advertise and market our image to others? How are websites, blogs, Facebook, podcasts, and Twitter helping us change the image of writing centers?
• Is there a writing center brand? What images are associated with this brand? How was the brand developed? How will the brand change in the future?
• How are writing center images affected by doing even more with less? How do we grow and manage ourselves if we have fewer means? How do we enlarge our images with fewer physical means but more technological options?
• What new perspectives are emerging in writing center practice and theory? What new lenses are available or needed for our work? Where is there a need for greater clarity?
• In what ways are design and arrangement important to creating our writing center space? What designs and arrangements in our centers are intentional? What designs and arrangements in centers are accidental?
• In what ways is a writing center a collage?  In what ways is it a cohesive, unified graphic?  What are the implications of either of these?
• Is the writing center or writing center scholarship a static image, or a moving picture?  What are the benefits and constraints of these two conceptions?  How do they apply to real-world scholarship or practice?
• How do we assist students writing about images? How do we help students incorporate visuals into their texts?
• How do we enable students to read visual texts including art, graphic novels, advertisements, and websites?  How do we teach students to analyze visual rhetoric?

As in recent years, we would like to continue to reach out to community college and high school writing centers in order to include more voices and perspectives in our ongoing discussion. We also highly encourage tutors and first-time presenters to send in proposals.  We welcome presentations of original scholarship and research in formats that foster active dialogue with conference participants.

Historically, successful presentations are dynamic exchanges between audience members comprised of peer tutors, graduate students and other writing center professionals and faculty. And, as a result of feedback from recent conferences, we continue to encourage proposals for the facilitation of roundtable discussions. Your proposed workshop, roundtable or panel should actively involve the audience.

Proposal Guidelines

Please prepare a 250- to 500-word proposal and a 75-word abstract for a 20-minute individual presentation or a 75-minute interactive workshop, roundtable, or panel.

Please include the following information in your proposal:

• Proposer’s name, position (i.e., tutor, director, etc), institution, institutional or home address, telephone number, and email address
• Presenters’ names with title and contact information, as above
• Title of presentation, a one-page description of presentation, and a 75-word abstract for inclusion in the conference program
• Type of session (i.e., panel presentation, roundtable discussion, workshop presentation)
• Specific audiovisual and technical requests (NOTE: Presenters should plan to bring their own laptop computers and adapters)

Proposals will be evaluated on the basis of relevance to the conference theme and application to a broad audience of writing center tutors and administrators.  Submissions will also be reviewed on the basis of originality (novel perspectives, approaches, and methods), interactivity (audience participation vs. oral delivery of an essay), and clarity.

Proposal Submission

Submit your proposal by December 31, 2009, electronically to the chair of the NEWCA Proposal Reading Committee, Pat Morelli, at pmorelli@hartford.edu. You may submit your proposal as an MS Word attachment or in the body of your email. For more information about submitting proposals, please contact Pat Morelli via the above email address.

Sharing our Histories at NEWCA 2010

We will also provide resources for people interested in archiving writing center materials at their home institutions or with a centralized archive such as the Writing Center Archive at the University of Louisville or the National Archive for Composition and Rhetoric at the University of Rhode Island

NEWACC Workshop: WAC Images, WAC Identities

On Sunday, from 8:30-11:30, the Northeast Writing Across the Curriculum Consortium will hold a workshop entitled, “WAC Images, WAC Identities.”  During this workshop, participants will have the opportunity to take part in a series of roundtables related to the workshop theme.  If you would like to lead a roundtable, contact the NEWACC chair, Michelle Cox, at michelle.cox@bridgew.ed.  Participation in the workshop is free to those registered for the conference and a $30 charge for those only attending the workshop.

For More Information

For other questions related to the conference, email the NEWCA chair, Kathryn Nielsen-Dube, at Kathryn.Nielsen@merrimack.edu or call her at 978.837.3551

For more information about the conference, registration, or scholarship opportunities, visit the NEWCA website at http://www.newca-conference.com.

For more information about the NEWCA organization, events and online discussions, visit our blog at

http://newca.wordpress.com

We hope to see you at NEWCA 2010!

As the new school year begins, many Writing Centers ponder: what is the most effective way to encourage students to attend? Another question many administrators struggle with is which student population to target and how to approach these students in the most efficient way.

These questions are not easy to answer, and result in different issues for each school. Traditionally, Fall advertising focuses on first year students who are new to the college setting. Many Writing Centers team up with the first year experience programs to reach out to this new group and to demonstrate the services offered. These promotions may include class visits and tours of the Writing Center as well as handing out fliers at school events.

Many schools continue to use the true and tried method of posting posters and fliers around the campus. But is this method too familiar to students? A closer look at campus boards shows that seemingly every department has some information posted on every available scrap of wall. The overcrowding of the bulletin spaces causes many messages to go unnoticed.

It seems that many upper level students may not receive the necessary information about the Writing Center services, especially the transfer population who might not have to take the first year experience orientations. These students, who might need Writing Center help, may not even know that where the Center is, or what it does. How can these students be reached? Some Writing Centers continue to partner with the faculty who often welcome writing demos for their students. Other Centers advertise their services on web pages or in their school’s newspaper. But there are a variety of ways to reach out to the students who might be new or nervous about attending Writing Center sessions.

Since technology has been more and more prevalent on college campuses, can Writing Centers tap into that resource and utilize it to both showcase services and reassure students?

Share your thoughts with us!

Mark your calendars: October 20th is the National Day of Writing. In order to celebrate, the IWCA and NCTE have come together to promote and feature writing from all regions of the United States. All Writing Centers are invited to set up a local gallery (to set up your gallery, please follow: http://www.ncte.org/dayonwriting/gallery) where solicited writing can be featured.

The National Day of Writing can be celebrated in a variety of ways, and we would like to encourage you to be as creative and open with the even as you would like. After all, each community, writing center, school, or home is unique, and thus the celebrations should express the individual nature of each setting.

We will be delighted to hear about your plans for the celebration!

Happy writing!

In chairing the SIG “So You’re Thinking about Grad School” I met with traditional and non-traditional undergraduate students from Mount Holyoke College, Fairfield University, University of Maine, Orono, and the University of Massachusetts, Amherst to discuss topics and issues central to pursuing graduate work.  Participants, all tutors in the writing center community, shared their interest(s) in a wide range of programs and research areas including library science, broadcast writing, film studies, law, romance languages, technical and professional writing, journalism, publishing and editing, and creative writing.  We explored pragmatic concerns such as financing graduate school, time management and organizational strategies during the application process, writing a personal statement, how to secure influential recommendation letters, and many wanted to know just how tough IS the GRE, GMAT, and LSAT, or, perhaps more importantly, do schools still privilege these scores?  How to compare programs and institutions, how to evaluate cutting-edge specializations and online learning environments, locations, and regions….so many choices! Talking to faculty and students at your current and future institutions and seeking input from professionals in your desired field is certainly a good place to begin. Ultimately, the students have taken an important step toward finding the right graduate program for them by networking at NEWCA.
– Kathryn Nielsen-Dube

The Tutoring Strategies SIG was attended by tutors from Mt. Holyoke, SUNY-Duchess Community College, and University of Maine-Orono. We started by brainstorming questions for one another about strategies we use in a variety of tutoring situations and settings. Our topics of choice included: greeting students, working with reticent/uncooperative students, approaching grammar issues with English language learners, reading aloud, and offering commentary on student writing. We shared best practices, and discussed the dilemmas and ethical challenges that arise in our writing centers.The Tutoring Strategies SIG was attended by tutors from Mt. Holyoke, SUNY-Duchess Community College, and University of Maine-Orono. We started by brainstorming questions for one another about strategies we use in a variety of tutoring situations and settings. Our topics of choice included: greeting students, working with reticent/uncooperative students, approaching grammar issues with English language learners, reading aloud, and offering commentary on student writing. We shared best practices, and discussed the dilemmas and ethical challenges that arise in our writing centers.
- Stephanie Carter, Tutoring Strategies SIG Chair.

My technology SIG ended up being pretty illuminating. I was lucky enough
to get such luminaries as Harvey Kail, Jennifer Jefferson, Tom Denton,
Nick Carbone, and some Uconn undergrads at the technology roundtables I
hosted. One of the main conversations we landed on was whether and how
WC’s work with students who show up with new media projects or websites
that they want to work on. Not that we answered those question in our
short time together, but we left with some new perspectives. One of the
undergrads in the second session mentioned that he’ll work with students
on coding (html and otherwise) from time to time in the Writing Center.
As a final note, there was some agreement that a SIG entirely devoted to
scheduling tools (WCOnline, TutorTrac) would be welcome in Boston.
- Christopher Leary, Technology SIG Chair

If you attended a SIG meeting, please share your thoughts with us!

Download the conference flyer for complete information.

Download the printable registration form.

NEWCA @ 25: Revisit, Reflect, Renew

NEWCA comes back to its roots, returning to the institution where it all began, the University of Hartford.   Come help us celebrate this milestone as we examine the past and look to the future of writing centers.

University of Hartford, West Hartford, CT
Saturday, April 4, 8:30 am to 5:00 pm and
Sunday, April 5, 8:30 am to 11:00 am

Proposals due by December 31, 2008

Click here for the full CFP (PDF)

]]> http://newca.wordpress.com/2008/10/20/newca-2009-call-for-proposals/feed/ 4 Kevin Lamkins http://newca.wordpress.com/2008/10/12/featured-site-peer-writing-tutor-alumni-research-project/ http://newca.wordpress.com/2008/10/12/featured-site-peer-writing-tutor-alumni-research-project/#comments Mon, 13 Oct 2008 01:45:15 +0000 Collie Fulford http://newca.wordpress.com/?p=46 ]]>  

“What do peer tutors take with them after graduation?”

http://www.marquette.edu/writingcenter/PeerTutorAlumniPage.htm