Students’ Writing Research as a Tool for Learning – Insights into a Seminar with Research-Based Learning

Research-based learning is an approach that lets students conduct research to develop content knowledge. This article gives insights into a seminar that followed this approach. It was a collaboration between the writing center and the linguistics department at European University Viadrina in Germany with the aim to explore new ways of combining the learning of content knowledge and writing. In accordance with the stance of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SOTL), this collaboration was meant to be a pilot to generate experiences and knowledge about this approach and its potential for combining discipline-specific learning and writing

Flickers of Hidden Meaning – Braiding Essays as Creative Experience for Academic Writers

In creative nonfiction, the genre of the braided essay is common. This creative art of braiding different strands and outside voices might also be liberating for academic writers as an expansion of academic writing that allows hidden meaning to shine through. This teaching practice paper shares how this genre was used for writing about teaching practice at EATAW 2021. It introduces the genre of the braided essay and uses the steps of the EATAW workshop as an example of how to teach it

Mutual Growing: How Student Experience can Shape Writing Centers

This article claims that working with peer tutors in a writing center can be very valuable for the center’s development, if the director and tutors work together according to crucial principles in writing center pedagogy. Based on the example of the writing center at European University Viadrina, this article shows how the ideas of autonomy and collaboration for both writing support and writing center leadership led to the writing center’s growth

Peer Tutoring in Academic Writing with Non-Native Writers in a German Writing Center – Results of an Empirical Study

Peer tutoring non-native writers seems to pose particular challenges to tutors with regard to the overall goals and principles of peer tutoring that have been expressed in the literature. Principles such as non-directivity and long-term emphasis on the process quality of writing are often assumed to be in conflict with non-native writers’ desire to be actively and directly guided in their process of learning to write in a foreign language. Peer tutoring’s appropriateness therefore remains rather controversial within this particular context. In this article we outline the results of an empirical study focusing on the potential, as well as the limitations, of peer tutoring with regard to non-native writers in a German writing center. Using the method of qualitative content analysis designed to achieve a healthy balance between deductive and inductive aspects of empirical research, we ask the open question: ‘How do peer tutors deal with non-native writers?’ Results show that the limitations of rigid peer tutoring principles become obvious more quickly with non-native writers. However, peer tutoring with non-native writers reveals larger potential, too, and can offer recommendations for peer tutoring in general

Von der Innovation zur Institution: Institutionalisierungsarbeit an Hochschulen am Beispiel der Leitung von Schreibzentren

Die Autorin fragt nach den institutionellen und personellen Bedingungen, unter denen akademische Schreibzentren langfristig etabliert werden können. Beispielhaft analysiert sie die Situation an den Hochschulen in den USA, wo es ähnliche Probleme gibt wie in Deutschland: fehlende Akzeptanz, mangelnde finanzielle Ausstattung und unklare Erwartungen. Als empirische Grundlage dienen Experteninterviews mit Leitenden von Schreibzentren. Untersuchungsschwerpunkt ist die Institutionalisierungsarbeit auf Leitungsebene, die gleichermaßen von absichtlichen und zufälligen Handlungen, Erfolgen und Misserfolgen geprägt wird. Im Ergebnis entsteht ein Modell zur Institutionalisierungsarbeit von Schreibzentrumsleitenden sowie Handlungsempfehlungen, die übertragbar sind auf die Etablierung von Schreibzentren und anderen innovativen Einrichtungen an deutschen Hochschulen.The author asks about the institutional and personal conditions under which academic writing centres can be established in the long term. As an example, she analyses the situation at universities in the USA, where problems are similar to those in Germany: lack of acceptance, lack of financial provision and unclear expectations. Expert interviews with directors of writing centres serve as the empirical basis. The focal point of the investigation is institutionalisation work at management level that is equally characterised by intentional and accidental actions, successes and failures. The result is a model for institutionalisation work by writing centre directors, as well as recommendations for actions that are transferrable to the establishment of writing centres and other innovative institutions at German universities

Supporting and Encouraging Writing

COST Action 15221 (Advancing effective institutional models towards cohesive teaching, learning, research and writing development) strives to create synergy among supports for four crucial components of academic career – teaching, learning, research and writing

Final Action Dissemination (FAD) Report of COST Action 15221 – We ReLaTe

This is the final report of COST Action 15221 – Advancing effective institutional models towards cohesive teaching, learning, research and writing development or ‘We ReLaTe’. The purpose of the report is to present the outputs and outcomes of the Action in fulfilment of the Action’s research and capacity building objectives. The report has been written for any reader interested in the work of a COST Action and for any reader interested in the provision of professional development/learning support for higher education staff in writing, research, learning and teaching which was the topic of the Action

Collaborative Learning as a Leadership Tool: The Institutional Work of Writing Center Directors

Writing center directors have to face complex leadership tasks, but often do not have a background in management or administration studies. This study asks how they accomplish this demanding effort. Following a grounded theory approach, 16 writing centers in the USA were visited and expert interviews with the center directors were carried out. In bringing together the emerging concepts of the empirical work with the theoretical framework of the study of institutional work, this article shows that writing center directors transfer the pedagogy of writing centers to their leadership tasks. They use a stance of collaborative learning to deal with the challenges in their everyday work and to institutionalize their writing centers