Issue 4: Wild Card Trainings

July 2025

Editors' Introduction 

The Writing Center's Analogy Contest 

Bonnie Devet, Mary Carr, Morgan Kelly, and Bianca Cedillo Perez, College of Charleston

A prime job of directors is to help consultants understand the nature of the work carried out in centers.  A historical figure provides a way to encourage consultants to grasp what their assistance to clients entails. Winston Churchill (1897/2000), in his “The Scaffolding of Rhetoric,” stresses that a vivid, valid method to understand one’s world is through crafting an analogy: “Analogies can translate an established truth into simple language” and “can aspire to reveal the unknown.” Thus, an apt analogy brings together what seems to be different or even unknown in order to reveal a new truth. This lesson asks consultants to explore their work by constructing analogies, by comparing their perceptions to those expressed by other consultants, and by determining how accurately or inaccurately their analogy describes the center. By encouraging the process of crafting analogies and by reflecting on those analogies, the lesson reveals that consultants can learn from each other about what their jobs encompass.

The Humanistic and Social Advantages of Tutor Feedback vs. AI Feedback 

Elizabeth Gagne, East Carolina University

The focus of this training activity is to showcase how AI can aid tutoring appointments and students' writing but cannot replace the humanistic, cognitive, and social perspectives that are present in writing center consultations. This activity helps to facilitate the examination of the types of feedback given, and specifically whether and how well AI feedback vs. consultant feedback addresses higher-order concerns. As we know, AI has the capability to help students in their drafting and revising process, but it doesn’t cater to the students' needs without being specifically prompted. How does the student know what their needs are if they don't have targeted feedback? This activity highlights the need for a collaborative and humanistic approach to giving and /receiving feedback. To utilize this lesson, directors will need to provide a common assignment seen in their university writing center (UWC) to the consultants and ensure for the consultants to have access to a GenAI tool of their choice.

Reading Beyond the Surface: Training Writing Tutors to Cultivate Rhetorical Source Use

Carolyne M. King and Megan Boeshart Burelle, Old Dominion University

This training series is designed to help writing tutors deepen their understanding of reading as a rhetorical skill, and to expand their recognition of reading and source use connections. It engages tutors in interactive activities, guided practice, and reflective discussions to develop tutors’ understanding of reading, genre, and source use, and to increase their comfort with working across disciplines and with advanced writers (e.g., writers in upper division courses and graduate writers). 

Writing Stellar Tutor Notes:

Documenting Writing Center Sessions for Purpose, Process, and Professionalism

Michelle A. Marvin, University of Notre Dame

This interactive workshop helps writing center tutors develop strategies for composing tutor notes (i.e., conference summaries, session reports, etc.) that reflect their authentic voice and the professionalism of the center, while keeping the focus on the tutee’s work. The training emphasizes documenting sessions in a reporter style without relying on AI for composition. During the workshop, tutors collaboratively analyze sample tutor notes and work through revision activities to practice writing clear, informative, audience-focused reports. The workshop offers practical strategies alongside reflection and prepares tutors to apply their new understanding in their next appointments. By the end of the workshop, tutors have a stronger grasp of an analytical structure and professional tone that characterizes “stellar” tutor notes: notes that effectively convey both what took place in the session and the values of the writing center. 

The Science of Learning in a Multidisciplinary Writing Center  

CharLee Toth and Michael Ennis, Regis University

This training plan focuses on equipping peer writing tutors with strategies grounded in cognitive psychology: in other words, the science of learning. Drawing from readings including Make It Stick (Brown et al., 2014) and Range (Epstein, 2019) the plan first encourages writing tutors to explore concepts such as retrieval practice, interleaving, and metacognition that improve memory and retention, and consider how to apply these concepts to writing center sessions. Second, the plan focuses on the specific concept of "kind" and "wicked" learning environments to prompt tutors to adapt their feedback techniques to these environments.

Participants engage with worksheets that link theoretical findings to writing center practices, helping them identify strategies to support students adapting to the demands of college-level writing. Materials include readings, two worksheets to guidd activities for applying science of learning concepts to tutoring sessions, and tutor reflections. The training aims to enhance writing tutors' ability to provide actionable feedback, foster student independence, and collaborate across disciplines. Feedback from participants indicates that tutors value the emphasis on thinking about their own learning processes and strategies to improve student learning processes, reporting improved confidence and effectiveness in their tutoring approaches.

Center Moves, no. 4, 2025.