Those of us who work in writing centers mark our time. We schedule in 30minute, 40-minute, 45-minute, and hour increments, and we confer, collaborate, and work in those temporal spaces. That type of time represents the linear quality of how long a session runs, when a writing center pedagogy class begins and ends, the temporal arc of a semester–what the ancient Greeks called chronosUniversity Writing Cente

Black, Devin

Heath, Serena

Klein, Nia

Kory, Fern

McDuffie, Kristi

Taylor, Tim

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Praxis: A Writing Center Journal (2003-2011)SectionsFocusColumns and ReviewsConsultingTrainingNews & AnnouncementsArchivesBrowse past issues of PraxisAbout UsAbout UsSubmissionsSubmit an article to PraxisHome » Archives » Fall 2009 (Volume 7 Issue 1) - Professionalizationand the Writing Center, Part IKairotic Moments in the Writing CenterFall 2009 / Focusby Tim Taylor, Nia Klein, Kristi McDuffie, Fern Kory, Devin Black, andSerena Heath, Eastern Illinois UniversityMaking the most of proper timing in a consultationSituating Kairos–Tim TaylorThose of us who work in writing centers mark our time. We schedule in 30-minute, 40-minute, 45-minute, and hour increments, and we confer,collaborate, and work in those temporal spaces. That type of time representsthe linear quality of how long a session runs, when a writing center pedagogyclass begins and ends, the temporal arc of a semester–what the ancient Greekscalled chronos.But the time tutors [1] spend in conferences and the time directors devote totraining and supervising writing consultants is marked by opportune momentsthat are varied, complex, and diverse. There are myriad spaces for crucialdecision-making within the time constraints of writing conferences anddirectorships. They mark and drive our work. This article will explore the ways adifferent conception of time–what the ancient Greeks called kairos–shouldinform and improve our work in writing centers since “kairos points to aqualitative character of time, the special position an event or action occupies ina series, to a season when something appropriately happens that cannothappen just at ‘any time,’ but only at that time, to a time that marks anopportunity which may not recur” (Smith 47). As James Kinneavy relates in hislandmark essay about the concept, kairos “might be defined as the right oropportune time to do something, or right measure in doing something” (58).So, at the basic level, kairos is “an embodiment of carpe diem … with adecidedly individualistic motif” (Hawhee 20). This complementary and, weargue, much more important concept of time emphasizes the individuality ofeach rhetorical situation or occasion (kairon). In ancient Greece and Rome,when rhetors attempted to persuade in the assembly or the courts, they had toinvent and arrange their argumentative strategies “on the spot,” and, likewise,tutors make judgments on the spot (Kinneavy 67). Among many decisions,tutors decide when to be direct, when to be indirect, when to ask a question,when to move to another part of the paper, when to address mechanical orcitation issues, and when and how to conclude a session.Because writing consultants work with diverse individuals ondiverse projects, it is crucial that directors and consultants breakfree from a mindset of how sessions are supposed to proceed andembrace the Isocratian ideals of phronesis and kairos [...].The demands of chronos bind us, however. We only have so much time withwriters who visit our centers, and as directors we only have so much time toobserve consulting sessions and help tutors develop as professionals. Similar toAnne Ellen Geller who calls for writing center directors and consultants to thinkmore reflectively about what she terms as “epochal time,” we also argue thatwe should shift our “concerns from the unyielding demands of clock time to thefluidity and possibility of epochal time,” an argument that connects to theancient idea of kairos–right timing, propriety, decorum, due measure, wisemoderation, the opportune moment (8). Likewise, Debra Hawhee, in “KairoticEncounters,” offers the idea that kairos is connected to invention in the classicalcanon, so she terms it as “invention-in-the-middle” (17). This conceptualizationof kairos aligns with the idea of students coming to writing centers as they arein the middle of their thoughts–they are inventing themselves as writers andinventing their papers. Writing centers, based on such ideals, are sites forinventing-in-the-middle. And, as described by Muriel Harris, a writing center isemblematic of “a middle person” (27), an intermediary who has practicalwisdom (what the Greeks called phronesis) since “practical knowing–theknowledge of the practitioner–arises out of the individual’s recognition of a setof possibilities for actions, internalized images, descriptions, and prescriptions”(32-33). Tutors recognize possibilities and think about when to intervene, whento sit back, when to be direct in their questions, when to embrace silence tomake writers think, when to explain the moves of academic discourse, andwhen to focus on helping a student learn to edit and proofread more effectively.We agree with Carl Glover that writing consultants need to have a “‘kairos-consciousness’: a readiness to respond appropriately to the opportunitiescreated in the tutor-client relationship” (15). And this kairos-consciousnessneeds to be developed in tutor training courses and on-going professionaldevelopment opportunities. Because writing consultants work with diverseindividuals on diverse projects, it is crucial that directors and consultants breakfree from a mindset of how sessions are supposed to proceed and embrace theIsocratian ideals of phronesis and kairos that help speakers focus on “what ispractical and expedient under any given set of circumstances–the principle ofkairos” (Sipiora 9). Since tutors’ audiences are directly in front of them andconferences obviously involve spoken communication, the original subject ofclassical rhetoric, conferences require consultants to adapt and improvise as thewriting situation, the writer’s ideas, and the writer’s reactions dictate. So,rather than having an ideal of how sessions progress, successful writingconsultants play and experiment with the ideas, the tangents, the hiccups, thestarts and stops, and the multiple ways sessions run like their writers–asindividuals. Those who study and practice writing center pedagogy, likestudents of Isocrates, need to have “an intense awareness of occasion,audience, and situational context. Such is a life based on kairos” (Sipiora 15).The sections that follow examine professional lives based on kairotic thinking–the work of writing consultants and writing center directors. The stories andreflections showcase how we have developed a strong kairos-consciousness inour work, and, as I relate in the conclusion, how kairos can work as anessential guiding principle for promoting strong professional development. In “IfAristotle Ran the Writing Center…,” Melissa Ianetta challenges us to use classicalrhetoric as “a useful analytical framework” (38) for our work, and she alsodescribes her essay “as an invitation to the possibilities offered to bothdisciplines when the history of rhetoric is read alongside writing center studies”(39). The writing center consultants who have separate sections in this article–Klein, McDuffie, Black, and Heath–had that opportunity during graduate schoolsince they took my History of Rhetoric graduate seminar alongside our writingcenter practicum. As they read Gorgias, Isocrates, Plato, Aristotle, Cicero, andQuintilian, they made connections between ancient rhetoric and the writingcenter, especially how kairos informs the work they do. Their sections offerreflections on kairotic moments they experienced as consultants in the writingcenter while Kory and I offer our own perspectives on kairos and kairoticmoments as directors of this writing center. The ancient rhetorical conceptfosters a strong intellectual investment in the work we do in the writing center,and we argue that kairos is a crucial tool for fostering important reflectivepractice for both writing consultants and writing directors.[To continue reading "Kairotic Moments in the Writing Center," please click onthe links below]The Write Time–Nia KleinThe Most Vital Kairotic Moment–Kristi McDuffieNurturing Kairos-Consciousness–Fern KoryRight Place, Wrong Timing–Devin BlackUsing Kairos to Mediate–Serena HeathSituating Our Rhetorical Practice–Tim TaylorNote[1] In this article we use the terms consultant and tutor interchangeably.Works CitedBenedikt, Amelie Frost. “On Doing the Right Thing at the Right Time.” Rhetoricand Kairos: Essays in History, Theory, and Praxis. Eds. Sipiora, Phillip andJames S. Baumlin. Albany, NY: SUNY P, 2002. 226-35.Boquet, Elizabeth H. Noise from the Writing Center. Logan, UT: Utah State UP,2002.Geller, Anne Ellen, et al. The Everyday Writing Center: A Community ofPractice. Logan, UT: Utah State UP, 2007.Geller, Anne Ellen. “Tick-Tock, Next: Finding Epochal Time in the WritingCenter.” The Writing Center Journal 25.1 (2005): 5-24.Glover, Carl. “Kairos and the Writing Center: Modern Perspectives on an AncientIdea.” The Writing Center Director’s Resource Book. Eds. Murphy, Christina andByron L. Stay. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, 2006. 13-20.Harris, Muriel. “Talking in the Middle: Why Writers Need Writing Tutors.” CollegeEnglish 57.1 (Jan. 1995): 27-42.Hawhee, Debra. “Kairotic Encounters.” Perspectives on Rhetorical Invention.Eds. Atwill, Janet M. and Janice M. Lauer. Knoxville, TN: U of Tennessee P,2002.Hill, Carolyn Eriksen. “Changing Times in Composition Classes: Kairos,Resonance, and the Pythagorean Connection.” Rhetoric and Kairos: Essays inHistory, Theory, and Praxis. Eds. Sipiora, Phillip and James S. Baumlin. Albany,NY: SUNY P, 2002. 211-225.Ianetta, Melissa. “If Aristotle Ran the Writing Center: Classical Rhetoric andWriting Center Administration” The Writing Center Journal 24.2 (2004): 37-59.Kinneavy, James L. “Kairos in Classical and Modern Rhetorical Theory.” Rhetoricand Kairos: Essays in History, Theory, and Praxis. Eds. Sipiora, Phillip andJames S. Baumlin. Albany, NY: SUNY P, 2002. 58-76.McAndrew, Donald A. and Thomas J. Reigstad. “What Tutoring Is: Models andStrategies.” Tutoring Writing: A Practical Guide for Conferences. Portsmouth,NH: Boynton/Cook Publishers, 2001. 42-69.Miller, Carolyn R. “Foreward.” Rhetoric and Kairos: Essays in History, Theory,and Praxis. Eds. Sipiora, Phillip and James S. Baumlin. Albany, NY: SUNY P,2002. xi-xiii.Newkirk, Thomas. “The First Five Minutes: Setting the Agenda in a WritingCenter Conference.” The Longman Guide to Writing Center Theory and Practice.Ed. Robert W. Barnett and Jacob S. Blummer. New York: Pearson Education,2008. 302-315.Poulakos, John. “Kairos in Gorgias’ Rhetorical Compositions.” Rhetoric andKairos: Essays in History, Theory, and Praxis. Eds. Sipiora, Phillip and James S.Baumlin. Albany, NY: SUNY P, 2002. 89-96.Sipiora, Phillip. “Introduction: The Ancient Concept of Kairos.” Rhetoric andKairos: Essays in History, Theory, and Praxis. Eds. Sipiora, Phillip and James S.Baumlin. Albany, NY: SUNY P, 2002. 1-22.Smith, John E. “Time and Qualitative Time.” Rhetoric and Kairos: Essays inHistory, Theory, and Praxis. Eds. Sipiora, Phillip and James S. Baumlin. Albany,NY: SUNY P, 2002. 46-57.Thompson, Isabelle, et al. “Examining Our Lore: A Survey of Students’ andTutors’ Satisfaction with Writing Center Conferences.” The Writing CenterJournal 29.1 (2009): 78-105.____________________Tim N. TaylorTim N. Taylor teaches writing, rhetoric, writing center theory and practice, andcomposition theory and pedagogy at Eastern Illinois University. He works asDirector of the Writing Center and Director of Writing Across theCurriculum. His scholarship has appeared in College English, WPA: WritingProgram Administration, and Teaching English in the Two-Year College, and heis the author of the Instructor's Manual for Writing Arguments, (7th & 8theditions).____________________Nia KleinNia Klein is a second year graduate student in English at Eastern IllinoisUniversity, concentrating in Composition and Rhetoric. She has a particularinterest in writing as healing. Nia has been a writing consultant in the writingcenter at Eastern Illinois University for two semesters, and she also works as ateaching assistant in first-year composition at Parkland College in Champaign,Illinois.____________________Kristi McDuffieKristi McDuffie is a Master’s candidate in English at Eastern IllinoisUniversity. Her focus is on rhetoric and composition, and her researchinterests are Composition Studies, Linguistics, and Gender Studies. She was awriting consultant in the Writing Center for two semesters and now teachesfreshman composition.____________________Fern KoryFern Kory is a professor of English at Eastern Illinois University whoseinterest in composition pedagogy was sparked early in her graduate work atUniversity of California, Santa Barbara, where she was mentored as ateacher of composition by Sheridan Blau, and where she participated in theSouth Coast Writing Project Summer Open Program. For more than tenyears, she has been Assistant Director of the EIU Writing Center (founded in1981 by Jeanne Simpson), and during that time she has worked alongside four(very) different directors. She values the truly collaborative nature of writingcenter work and the opportunity to work with our graduate assistant tutors,who bring fresh energy and insight to the writing center each year. Regional,National and International Writing Center Association conferences (mostrecently the ECWCA conference at Purdue) have also been a source ofinspiration and growth.____________________Devin BlackDevin Black is working toward an M.A. in Literary Studies at Eastern IllinoisUniversity. His research interests include critical analysis of literary theory andinformation exchange.____________________‹ From the Editors:Professionalization and theWriting Centerup Mentoring Students withSpecial Circumstances ›Serena A. HeathSerena A. Heath is working on her M.A. in Composition and Rhetoric at EasternIllinois University. She is currently working on an online plagiarismassessment for the Freshman Writing Program, and her research interestsinclude ethical issues of composition pedagogy and writing across thecurriculum. As a creative writer, she has written poetry for The Vehicle, astudent publication at EIU, and writes creative nonfiction.    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