Murphy, Christina, & Stay, Byron L., Eds.: The Writing Center Director's Resource Book.

Mohrbacher, Carol ; Kraglund-Gauthier, Wendy L.

Murphy, Christina, & Stay, Byron L., Eds. The Writing Center Director's Resource Book. Erlbaum: Mahwah, NJ, 2006. ISBN: 0-8058-5608-0 ($49.95, 472 pp.)

Two years ago, as a brand new writing center director, I began reading everything I could find on writing center theory, history and practice. The journals, Writing Lab Newsletter, Writing Center Journal, and a few anthologies like Writing Centers in Context: Twelve Case Studies and Administrative Problem-Solving for Writing Programs and Writing Centers helped satisfy the administrative part of my search. What I noticed is that few book-length works focused specifically on writing center administration. When I attended the 2006 4 C's in Chicago, I perused the newly released hardback edition of The Writing Center Director's Resource Book, edited by Christina Murphy and Byron L. Stay, at the publisher's fair. Because the book seemed relevant to the challenges I was facing, I immediately added it to my growing library. The book addressed some niggling administrative issues, so I was delighted to comply with Muriel Harris' request to review the book.

The book's two-part arrangement is logical and broad enough to fill some gaps other books have overlooked. It begins, as most academic works do, with historical and theoretical grounding and then moves on to more practical matters in the second section. The author-directors, represent writing centers open to all levels of students, as well as centers more narrowly focused on undergrads, grads, or developmental students. Because of these diverse contexts, the authors present a range of perspectives on administrative issues such as strategic planning, the director--assistant director relationship, and ethical responsibility.

Part I, "Writing Centers and Institutional Change," divided into four subsections, addresses historical issues like Neal Lerner's "Historical Representations of Writing Center Directors," as well as currently relevant issues like writing center location, the multi-campus writing center, and assessment. Part II, "Writing Centers and Praxis," addresses daily operational matters such as plagiarism, staffing with professional tutors, tutor training, and working with students with disabilities. Many of the Resource Book's essays are directly relevant to my own directorship in a writing center at a medium-size regional liberal arts college. Recently, demographic and political changes have forced me to look for resources addressing developmental tutoring and the politics of location. These topics are taken up by Dennis Paoli in "Tutoring in a Remedial/Developmental Learning Context" and by Joan Mullin, Peter Carino, Jane Nelson, and Kathy Evertz in "Administrative (Chaos) Theory: The Politics of Writing Center Location."

Paoli's essay restates familiar theoretical and ethical objections to remediation as he recounts tutors' challenges in helping developmental students pass a mandatory writing skills test. Although he offers few methodological suggestions, Paoli recounts the heartbreak felt by students as they see struggling writers fail, and wisely advises writing center directors to "help them [tutors] find value not in success but in the act of helping" (177). "Administrative (Chaos) Theory: The Politics of Writing Center Location" includes the narratives of three directors, each located in a different geographic and administrative location. Peter Carino's narrative perfectly frames my current situation as the director of an English department based writing center. Carino rightly suggests that the primary disadvantage is budget inconsistency, maintaining that "all writing centers, wherever they are located, must be resilient ... while never forgetting that little can be done without the proper support" (228).

Jane Nelson and Kathy Evertz describe a hybrid writing center with two directors and two locations--one in the English Department and one in the Center for Teaching Excellence, which was created to meet the demands of a general education program called University Studies. This university studies model is currently being examined at my own institution. The advantages as seen by the authors are steady funding for the university studies location and increased visibility across disciplines. Simultaneously, their original location appears to be losing its strong bond with the English department because of divided loyalties and reduced writing center dependence on the department. Joan Mullin's writing center does not depend on the English Department for space, staffing, or budget. She finds that she has more autonomy when it comes to hiring grad, undergrad, professional, and adjuncts than the English Department, which must hire by committee. Also because she is closer to the source of funding, her reporting lines are clear and her communication bold as she builds relationships with upper administration. The disadvantages, as she sees it, are a frequent change in administration and isolation from peers, and she advises, "[I]solation can, in times of great stress, despite partnerships, leave one standing without protection" (232).

Other pieces also prove relevant including "Examining Writing Center Director--Assistant Director Relationships" by Kevin Dvorak and Ben Rafoth and "Preserving the Rhetorical Nature of Tutoring When Going Online" by Lisa Eastmond Bell. Dvorak and Rafoth's essay addresses a problem I have wrestled with since the beginning of my directorship--what ethical guidelines to follow in supporting our graduate assistant director in her professional development, without taking advantage of our power differential. This article motivated me to draw up a clearer position description and to do so in collaboration with our assistant director. Lisa Eastmond Bell's essay narrates her experience in wrestling with tutoring in an online environment. Her experience in starting an online tutoring service mirrors my own. Like me, she decided to change tutoring platforms to a venue that allows synchronous dialogue. Nonetheless, shortcuts are often taken, as tutor input becomes more directive, and "tutors ... 'cut to the chase' leaving out discussion, which should be the heart and soul of the tutorial" (355). She acknowledges that although online tutoring is not an ideal approach to facilitating learning, it is here to stay and we must learn to work with it. She further urges experimentation with software and guidelines for rhetorical structure.

While The Writing Center Director's Resource Book is not comprehensive, it offers a diverse menu of administrative subjects from which to choose. Most essays are delightful narratives relating experience from which a new director can take his or her own lessons. My only criticism is the paucity of essays concerning multiculturalism. Although Margaret Weaver's essay, "A Call for Racial Diversity in the Writing Center" is both inspired and inspiring, I would have liked to have seen a few more essays of this sort, particularly a piece that focuses on recruiting a culturally diverse pool of tutors.

Reviewed by Carol Mohrbacher, St. Cloud State University, St. Cloud, MN

In 2002, I began as an instructor with the Writing Centre at Saint Francis Xavier University (StFX) in Antigonish, Nova Scotia, Canada. With an undergraduate degree in English and an Education degree and experience teaching adult learning and literacy, I admittedly did not know much about the theory and practice behind writing centre work. I did know I was excited to join a team of professionals who were eager to work for our newly-expanded centre. I also knew I wanted to learn more about the field of writing centre work to improve my own practice. In 2003, I began my Master of Adult Education degree and conducted a research project to study a select number of Canadian undergraduate writing centres and define success nationally and assess success locally. I dove into the literature, reading whatever I could find on writing centre theory, practice, and assessment. Although I have finished my thesis, I am not finished learning "all there is to know" about writing centres. When Muriel Harris asked me to review editors Christina Murphy and Byron L. Stay's The Writing Center Director's Resource Book, I jumped at the chance.

OVERVIEW OF THE TEXT

The 39 chapters are divided into two main parts: "Writing Centers and Institutional Change" and "Writing Centers and Praxis." Submissions come from directors of post-secondary and graduate writing centres on large and small campuses across the United States. The variety of these submissions underscores the situational differences of individual centres. However, as the authors describe their individual perspectives on writing centre theory and practice, their pragmatic approach works to provide important insight into the similar successes and challenges facing many writing centres. More than just another "how-to" guide to tutoring, this book blends an appropriate amount of theory and reflection with practical advice.

Part I contains 22 chapters and includes submissions which provide important historical context for current practice and approaches of writing centre management. Authors describe strategies for negotiating the demands of academic institutions and offer commentary and advice for directors as they work with campus stakeholders. Comprising 17 chapters, Part II deals with writing centre ethics, tutor training, and electronic instruction. The final four chapters are case studies which give detailed description to issues including negotiating space and place in the minds, buildings, and budgets of academia. Some authors have included appendices of helpful resources, including Pamela Childers, who provides six on the process of strategic planning. Rounding off the text are contributing authors' biographies and indices by author and by subject.

RELEVANCE TO MY OWN PRAXIS

I reviewed this text not from the perspective of a current writing centre director, but as a writing centre staff member who envisions a directorship in the future. After carefully reading each chapter, I now have a better sense of the issues facing directors as they work to keep their centres a priority item in the thoughts and actions of their stakeholders. For the present, my current role has been informed by the material presented, and I am confident I can improve my own practice as a writing centre instructor on a small campus of only 5200 students.

The chapters in this text serve to stimulate thinking about how Canadian writing centres are positioned, and in particular, how the StFX Writing Centre is situated on our campus. Carl Glover's chapter on "Kairos and the Writing Center" and Stephen Ferruci and Susan DeRosa's chapter on "Mapping Writing Center Ethos" are informative examples of how writing centres have evolved as places of learning and research. Part of this evolution includes the struggle to change the erroneous label of remedial centres--an issue discussed by Stephen Ferruci and Susan DeRosa. For me, this issue is of particular interest since I am responsible for facilitating our Academic Program of Excellence program, a mandatory non-credit course for students on academic probation. Ironically, many of my students who have academic difficulties do so not because they lack the academic ability, but because of personal issues. Also, many come to my class with ineffective or non-existent study skills because they did so well in high school. Ferruci and DeRosa reiterate how writing centres are seen as fix-it shops--places of remediation. This very characterization may be what prevents the "good student in high school" from seeking academic support before it is too late to apply learning techniques to crucial assignments. Paula Gillespie, Brad Hughes, Neal Lerner, and Anne Ellen Geller's chapter describing the Writing Center Summer Institute inspires thoughts about the possibility of a Canadian Institute, a potential undertaking of the newly formed Canadian Writing Centre Association (CWCA). At the very least, it provides rationale for funding a pan-Canadian contingent to cross the 49th parallel and join our American colleagues for opportunities to learn and reflect on all that it is to be working within and from a writing centre context.

Just as learning and writing evolve, so too do the activities and mandates of writing centres. Pamela Childers' and Kelly Lowe's chapters on strategic planning are important pieces to remind all stakeholders of the magnitude of maintaining current and future focus on our activities. Their contributions underscore the importance of planning forward-thinking activities, and not just at new program start-up. However, frustration can be found in the amount of time and energy spent talking and planning, rather than in actually following through on strategic plans. Valuable insight can be gained from staff members and from students who frequent our centres, but it is then up to directors to carve time in their busy schedules to work on the follow-through.

Likewise, Jeanne Simpson's chapter on "Managing Encounters with Central Administration" underscores the necessity of understanding the constraints placed on academic administrators as they try to allocate ever-shrinking budgets fairly. From her perspective as a current administrator with experience in writing centre directorship, Simpson provides practical advice and commentary on working with administrators to secure funding and academic stability, a task which "requires a realistic understanding of the values, functions, and responsibilities of administrators" (p. 200). The power of politics cannot be underestimated in writing centre negotiations of place and space.

Part II's series of chapters on tutoring contain information ranging from launching, funding, assessing, and certifying programs. These are important chapters to revisit as directors negotiate the evolution of their own centres. For example, authors Muriel Harris (chapter 28) and Carol Peterson Haviland and Marcy Trianosky (chapter 29) discuss the importance of training and evaluating from the respective perspectives of directors and tutors. Reading reflections from tutors serves to underscore the delicate balancing act directors perform to achieve a smoothly functioning program. Tutors desire critical feedback and want their directors to be empowering and supportive, not micro-managers. Because of the context within our own writing centre operates, I would have appreciated the inclusion of more information on directing writing centres staffed by professional instructors on continuing contracts. Although certainly not the norm, more writing centres, especially in Atlantic Canada, are employing people with multiple degrees, in particular, Bachelor of Education teaching degrees. Herein lays the potential of designing writing centre programming from a learning context rather than from an editing one. As discussed by Steven Strang (chapter 27), the dynamic of operations in these centres is different--turnover is minimal and directors have the added advantage (or detriment) of working with seasoned instructors who have a clear sense of the current and changing institutional culture.

Rapid technological advances are changing the way we view writing, discourse, and the very nature of learning itself. Unfortunately, it does not appear that many writing centres are changing sufficiently to meet the needs of their new student communities, due in no small part to the parameters set by the institutions themselves. Lisa Eastmond Bell's essay narrates her experience in wrestling with tutoring in an online environment. This chapter is particularly relevant as the number of distance and on-line courses available to Canadian students increases. Many writing centre personnel come to their management positions through academic channels rather than from business ones. Directors who are charged with the task of "managing" the finances and operations of their centres will find the information in this compilation particularly useful. As they learn to negotiate within an administrative context, the distinct managerial themes woven through the expected essays on writing centre history and identity provide important context and stimulate thought of ways to implement effective action plans. Rather than be ensconced in the director's office, this text should also be accessible to writing centre tutors to stimulate discussion and critical reflection on praxis.

Reviewed by Wendy L. Kraglund-Gauthier, Saint Francis Xavier University, Antigonish, Nova Scotia Canada