Keywords: Conferencing

Between Talk and Teaching: Reconsidering the Writing Conference by Laurel Johnson Black

"Talking in the Middle: Why Writers Need Writing Tutors" by Muriel Harris

Teaching One-to-One: The Writing Conference by Muriel Harris

Intersections: Theory-Practice in the Writing Center edited by Joan Mullin and Ray Wallace

"The Idea of a Writing Center" by Stephen North

Black, Laurel Johnson. Between Talk and Teaching: Reconsidering the Writing Conference. Logan, Utah: Utah State UP, 1998.

Laurel Johnson Black uses critical discourse analysis to address issues and problems that teachers and students experience during conferences. While she also draws on others' research, a main focus is on her own research of 14 transcripts of colleagues' taped conferences with their students. An overall purpose of this book is to urge instructors to critically look at conferencing: "Most of what we have learned or 'know' about conferencing has gone unquestioned, unexamined, for it is presented as such a simple part of teaching practice that the least able of us should be able to do well. In order to accept that commonly held belief, we must deny our own experiences or fit them, willy-nilly, into the paradigms we've been given. If we do so, however, we will never learn" (8).

Chapter one of Black's book examines the conflicting paradigms from which we draw "our visions of conferencing" (6). While conferences have managed to change over time, keeping pace with pedagogical trends, Black believes that cognitive theories of writing are often given more weight in conferences, when social constructionist theories might better help teachers to more critically examine their practices as well as use "conversation" over "teacher talk" in conferences.

In Chapter Two, Black points out that frustration and difficulties in conferences are often a result of the difference in power between teacher and student. She says that, knowingly or unknowingly, teachers illustrate their power in many ways in conferences. They often reinterpret and rephrase their students' words, they use discourse markers such as "and" as a way of holding the floor, and their use of "you know" forces a student "into at least appearing to assent to shared assumptions" (42). Black examined many conferences in which students played a passive role, probably because they were nervous about disagreeing with their teachers. Black believes that if the asymmetry of conferences is going to shift, then the asymmetry of the classroom must also shift. She proposes that teachers teach students how to examine such things as course syllabi, hers included, to see "what definitions of learning, teaching, and social relations are assumed by various professors" (56). Students asked to examine and question social relations might be better able to hold their ground during conferences.

Black also discusses issues of gender and cross-cultural conferencing in chapters three and four. Black noted that female students were more likely to enter "conferences with interaction strategies that allow them to leave those conferences with revising ideas and language that will help them succeed in their composition classes" (78). Ironically, they gain these ideas because they demonstrate characteristics of traditional social structure; they use a more uncertain tone and ask more questions, while male students appear more confident and ask fewer questions. Regarding cross-cultural conferences, Black wonders, "What kind of damage do I do when I enter into a conference with a student and know nothing of her culture, her beliefs, don't attempt to understand the nuances of her language but impose mine instead?" (105). Black suggests that instead of simply pointing out to students that they are not meeting "standard" English guidelines, teachers might instead begin by asking why the student chose a particular approach. "Then we begin a dialogue on culture that can potentially create the conditions necessary for students to empower themselves, to make choices with knowledge and awareness, to effect some change" (117).

In her final chapters, Black suggests that teachers should not ignore the affective dimension of conferences. In her research, she noticed that when students attempted to bring up problems about school in general or self-confidence problems, teachers would attempt to quickly brush over the issue and continue on with their own agenda. Unfortunately, the focus (probably partly to meet university or curriculum expectations) is not on how students feel about writing, but how well they know the conventions. In her own study asking students what they wanted out of conferences, students responded that they wanted to talk about feelings of uncertainty and anxiety, and perhaps wanted some assurance and guidance in their writing. Black recommends that students be given time and space during conferences to tell their stories, that any agenda that is set be flexible, and that talk in conferences be more like conversation where student and teacher share information and ideas.

Harris, Muriel. "Talking in the Middle: Why Writers Need Writing Tutors." College English 57 (Jan. 1995): 27-42.

The substance of Harris's article reflects what many writing center tutors feel their roles as tutors should consist of. Harris writes, "Tutorial instruction is very different from classroom learning because it introduces into the educational setting a middle person, the tutor, who inhabits a world somewhere between student and teacher. Because the tutor sits below the teacher on the academic ladder, the tutor can work effectively with students in ways that teachers can not." Rather than having to focus on assessment, tutors can instead help students "surmount the hurdles others have set up for them."

Harris discusses four particular roles that tutors often fill. First, tutors encourage student independence through collaborative talk. Engaging in collaborative talk is easier in writing center settings because students do not feel as pressured with tutors to perform well or appear knowledgeable when they are actually confused. Second, tutors assist with the acquisition of strategic knowledge. In other words, tutors can help students apply somewhat abstract knowledge about writing to actual writing. During tutorials, students can learn how writers behave and how writers perform certain tasks. Third, tutors assist with affective concerns. They listen to students who need to vent frustrations, gain confidence in themselves, and discuss academic concerns. Finally, tutors help to interpret the meaning of academic language. Tutors can help students to understand what a teacher expects, or can help the student learn the academic language needed to ask the right kinds of questions. Harris ends by saying that "as we turn our attention to the work of the tutor, we become increasingly aware that writing instruction without a writing center is only a partial program, lacking essential activities students need in order to grow and mature as writers."

Harris, Muriel. Teaching One-to-One: The Writing Conference. Urbana, IL: NCTE, 1986.

This book, geared toward both teachers and tutors, provides a rationale for one-to-one conferencing, a discussion regarding the goals of a conference, a look at activities that go on during a conference, and some suggestions and strategies for one-to-one teaching.

In her first chapter, "A Rationale for One-to-One Teaching," Harris says that those teachers who view writing as a process of discovery are able to offer helpful advice and techniques to students during conferences. For instance, in conferences, teachers are better able to demonstrate rather than merely talk about the writing process. Abstract discussions about such things as organization, for instance, are often pointless, but "going through the process of organizing with the teacher at hand is far more beneficial to the writer and more easily understood than reading or hearing generalities about organization" (9). Also, Harris says that conference talk allows teachers to stimulate independent learning in students, promote writer interaction with readers, individualize learning, and teach specific strategies. Some benefits of this are that students are provided with better, more helpful, and immediate feedback and are provided a model with which to analyze their own papers.

Harris's second chapter, "Shapes and Purposes of the Conference," lists the various roles of a teacher during a conference: coach, commentator, counselor, diagnostician, and listener. For conferences to be successful Harris says that teachers and/or tutors need to see and interact with the whole writer. This often means taking time to find out about a student's previous writing experiences and learning preferences. Teachers also need to listen carefully to what a writer is actually saying, not what they expect or want the writer to say, so that they can help determine a writer's weak points, areas of confusion, and strengths. Also, as a coach and commentator, it's important to engage the writer and create opportunities for the writer to be an active learner and participant.

Next, in chapter three, Harris discusses "Conference Activities," which include listening, questioning, observing, and showing. Regarding questioning, Harris recommends open questions that draw writers toward higher-order concerns and suggests staying away from rhetorical, closed, and leading questions, which can make students feel as though they are being tested rather than asked to participate in a conversation. And regarding showing, Harris says that instead of just talking about ideas, it is easier and clearer to demonstrate and have students participate. Modelers, or demonstrators, to be successful, should explain what they are demonstrating, call attention to important parts of the demonstration, ask students to summarize the demonstration after it is completed, and ask the student to practice the demonstration.

In her fourth chapter, "Diagnosis for Teaching One-to-One," Harris says that, when making diagnoses about student writers, teachers should take several things into consideration, including the teacher, the student, and the written product. First of all, teachers should honestly consider what they notice and value about writing and ask themselves how those criteria shape their evaluations of student writing. Teachers should also consider whether they are imposing their own teaching and composing styles and preferences onto students. Secondly, when considering the student, teachers should keep in mind differences in personality types and cognitive styles, writing apprehension, and cultural differences. Finally, when making diagnoses of written products, teachers should also consider such things as second language interference and learning disabilities.

The final chapter is titled "Strategies for Teaching One-to-One," in which Harris provides several practical strategies appropriate for the conference setting. She provides strategies for such things as developing ideas, using specific details, revising, and working on grammatical correctness.

Mullin, Joan and Ray Wallace. Eds. Intersections: Theory-Practice in the Writing Center. Urbana, IL: NCTE, 1994.

This collection is among the first to deal with writing center theory. While the articles included in the collection focus on a variety of themes, such as whole language theory, social constructionism, learning disabilities, and contrastive rhetoric, they all have something in common. As one of the editors, Joan Mullin, writes, "Although authors speak from different perspectives, each writer examines how various forces in collaborative relationships determine texts: they all focus on the collaborative moment during a tutorial" (vii). The objective of this collection is to make knowledge about writing center theory and practice "available to a broader audience," as well as to provide a resource with which writing tutors and teachers can reassess, examine, and rework ideas that "through use, may have become so embedded as to be transparent" (vii).

The collection begins with an article by Eric Hobson called "Writing Center Practice Often Counters Its Theory. So What?" Here, Hobson provides a history of writing center practice and theory, beginning with a time when that theory and practice reflected the philosophy of current traditional rhetoric and its focus on error correction. Later, in the 1970s and 1980s, the process movement in writing instruction "forced the writing center community into a new phase of theoretical justification." Hobson believes that writing centers, believing that their respectability depends on practice following theory, have always scrambled to find the relevant theories behind their practice: collaborative learning theories, liberatory pedagogy, theories of individualized instruction. However, as Hobson notes, "in the midst of rapid change, the writing center community didn't have time to examine how, or whether, their instructional practices are compatible with the new theories to which writing centers claimed allegiance." While Hobson certainly doesn't advocate abandoning theoretical inquiry, he does suggest that we begin to consider as valid the knowledge writing center practitioners gain in their specific, contextual situations.

Several articles which follow, by Sallyanne Fitzgerald, Christina Murphy, Katharine and John Adams, and Alice Gillam, explore the complexities of writing center practice and such theories as whole language theory, social constructionism, and collaborative learning theory. Other articles focus on meeting the needs of a variety of students. For instance, Julie Neff writes "Learning Disabilities and the Writing Center," where she suggests that tutors need to collaborate differently with students who have learning disabilities. Tutors may find that directed conversation, leading questions, and explicit explanations are appropriate when working with learning disabled students. In addition, Muriel Harris presents a discussion about working with students from different cultures.

North, Stephen. "The Idea of a Writing Center." St. Martin's Sourcebook for Writing Tutors. Christina Murphy and Steven Sherwood, eds. New York: St. Martin's P, 1995. 22-36.

In this article, North discusses his experiences and frustrations as a writing center director. He requests that colleagues in the English department and at the university understand the role of writing centers so that they do not unknowingly misuse them or give students the wrong impression about what writing centers are for. He specifically asks that instructors not view the writing center as a "fix-it" shop, as a place to send students who have "special problems," and as a place to go when students are failing their writing class. He describes the writing center instead as a place where tutors focus on the writer and the activity of writing, not just that writer's text. Furthermore, the writing center should remain a place where students choose to go, rather than a place they are required to go.

He ends the article by suggesting that those who work in writing centers should carefully describe the kind of talk and collaboration that does take place in writing center tutorials. He promotes research that would help answer these questions: What characterizes writing center collaborative talk? What effects does that talk have? How can it be enhanced? Although he realizes that many writing center directors are not given the resources or time to conduct such research, he believes it is important.