Center Moves Keyword Glossary

Writing center history - The training focuses on contextualizing the field by introducing or considering the assumptions, theories, practices held in the past or over time; a training in writing center history may also encompass a focus on the work of specific scholars and their contributions to the field. 

Writing center theory/philosophy - The training focuses on a particular theory/philosophy (or a set of theories) that explain certain actions, perspectives, or approaches used in tutoring sessions or writing center/learning spaces.

Writing center space - The training focuses on the physical or virtual space that writing tutoring or learning occurs, including rooms, buildings, email, web meeting platforms, websites, handouts, and videos.

Writing center location - The training focuses on the geographical or institutional location of the center, including state, territory, country, region, home college, and home department.

Writing center administration - The training focuses on people, knowledge, skills, tools, practices, and resources that guide tutors to move into or continue to develop them for administrative roles.

In-person tutoring - The training focuses on knowledge, skills, tools, practices, and resources that guide tutors to work with writers in shared physical space and time settings.

Synchronous online tutoring - The training focuses on knowledge, skills, tools, practices, and resources that guide tutors to work, typically through verbal feedback/responses, with writers in real-time, online settings.

Asynchronous online tutoring - The training focuses on knowledge, skills, tools, practices, and resources that guide tutors to work, typically through written feedback or audio/visual responses, in online spaces where writers are not present with them, including via email and online writing lab submissions.

Verbal feedback/response - The training focuses on knowledge, skills, tools, practices, and resources that guide tutors to ask questions, give suggestions, answer questions, and respond to writers’ issues or concerns through oral means of communication.

Written feedback/response - The training focuses on knowledge, skills, tools, practices, and resources that guide tutors to ask questions, give suggestions, answer questions, and respond to writers’ issues or concerns through written means of communication.

Instructional feedback/approaches - The training focuses on knowledge, skills, tools, practices and resources that enable tutors to explain, tell, or provide writers with basic information, tools, processes, or strategies.

Motivational feedback/approaches - The training focuses on knowledge, skills, tools, practices and resources that enable tutors to validate and encourage writers to aid confidence and other affective needs.

Scaffolding feedback/approaches - The training focuses on knowledge, skills, tools, practices and resources that enable tutors and writers to guide and support each other through the process of developing new knowledge and skills. 

Listening skills/rhetorical listening - The training focuses on knowledge, skills, tools, practices and resources that guide tutors to actively listen to writers’ practical, affective, and metacognitive needs.

Writers’ identities - The training focuses on guiding tutors to effectively support writers’s goals within the context of their identities/intersection of identities and institutional systems.

Tutor ethos/persona - The training focuses on helping tutors understand and develop skills and confidence for their role when working with writers

Tutoring session logistics - The training focuses on guiding tutors to effectively act or react during specific segments of the tutoring session, including tasks, procedures, and processes that occur before the session begins, when welcoming the writer and starting the session, in the middle of the session, when wrapping up the session, and for after the session ends

Writing process - The training focuses on helping tutors understand that writing is a process, approaches within that process, and how the writing process influences the tutoring process

Prewriting/brainstorming - The training focuses on knowledge, skills, tools, practices, and resources that guide tutors to help writers as they get organized to write, including reviewing the assignment prompt, discovering or clarifying ideas, and organizing thoughts

Drafting - The training focuses on knowledge, skills, tools, practices, and resources that guide tutors to help writers as they work on writing and organizing their sentences and paragraphs

Revising/editing - The training focuses on knowledge, skills, tools, practices, and resources that guide tutors to help writers as they revise and edit aspects of what they have written.

Global/higher-order/higher gravity concerns - The training focuses on knowledge, skills, tools, practices, and resources that guide tutors to help writers recognize and address global elements of their writing, such as organization, thesis statements, clarity of ideas, use of supporting evidence, etc.

Sentence-level/lower-order/lower gravity concerns - The training focuses on knowledge, skills, tools, practices, and resources that guide tutors to help writers as they recognize and address sentence- and word-level elements of their writing, such as grammar, punctuation, mechanical, and formatting issues.

Writing in the disciplines/writing across the curriculum - The training focuses on knowledge, skills, tools, practices, and resources that guide tutors to help writers who are working in specific genres or fields, especially those beyond rhetoric, composition, literature, and language.

Diversity and inclusion - The training focuses on knowledge, skills, tools, practices, and resources that guide tutors to create spaces where all feel welcome.

Accessibility - The training focuses on guiding tutors to make use of knowledge, skills, tools, practices, and resources that help writers access and use writing center services to the greatest extent possible.

Linguistic justice - The training focuses on guiding tutors to make use of knowledge, skills, tools, practices, and resources that help writers bring and make use of their various linguistic backgrounds in consultations and writing projects and/or promote outreach beyond their center.

Outreach - The training focuses on guiding tutors in identifying opportunities for writing center staff to work, play, and engage with communities outside of their writing center space.

Research - The training focuses on guiding tutors in identifying research questions, designing studies, practicing qualitative and quantitative methods, and sharing research findings in writing center publications and conferences.