Tutors, Theory, and Multiliteracy Teaching
With writing centers moving towards mulitliteracy & mulitmodel theories of practice, tutors are as important as teachers are for teaching students multiple forms of writing. In “Writing in Context: Redefining the Writing Center as the Multidisciplinary Hub for Writing in the New Millennium,” Paulette Golden insists “the writing center should be the place that teaches students how to navigate the constraints of different writing contexts” (3). Undoubtedly, tutors are more inherently involved with students’ writing on a one-to-one and daily basis then teachers and more often can personalize their teaching methods to each student. The writing center would not be a place of teaching and learning without its tutors. Thus, the importance and need for the inclusion of the four articles below is to not only reinforce writing center theory alongside composition theory but to extend the conversation further by addressing direct patterns, issues, and methods tutors need to be cognizant of when teaching multiliteracies. Each article addresses different theories and reasons for tutors teaching multiliteracies, multidiscourses, and multimedia: Johnson, Garza, and Ballmer focuses on a new forum for collaboration; Wilson examines the importance of moving beyond the teaching of Standard Englishes; McKinney argues for the training of tutors for the digital rhetorics; and Golden who examine the rhetorical context for working with tutors and digital media.
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"Theory to Practice: Building the 21st Century Writing Center Community" by Frances Johnson, Susan Garza, and Noelle Ballmer. Journal of College Reading and Learning 39.2, 2009.
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"Stocking the Bodega: Towards A New Writing Center Paradigm" by Nancy Wilson. Praxis: A Writing Center Journal 10.1, 2012.
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"New Media Matters: Tutoring in the Late Age of Print" by Jackie Grutsch McKinney. The Writing Center Journal 29.2, 2009.
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