Blog 2: North and Lunsford

Summary:

    Lunsford's paper does well to pick apart the very idea of a writing centre, mainly in regards to the idea of collaboration taking precedence in control within a centre.  She goes into detail on how collaboration can both help and hinder students, as well as those who work within the professional field.  In the end, she concludes that the ideal function of a writing centre should be what she calls a "Burkean Parlor", wherein the focus is on collaboration between the writers and tutors.  She acknowledges the stigma that many hold towards collaborative writing, and counters with the argument that in the 21st century, we are going to have to be more reliant on each other to keep up with more complex workplaces, as well as forwarding the field of diversity.

    North's essay follows the same sort of idea that Lunsford puts up in her paper, but with more of a focus on what exactly he sees wrong with the writing centres at the time of writing.  He points out that there is a widespread misunderstanding pertaining to the core function of a writing centre.  This, of course, is the idea that a writing centre is simply a place to go have someone edit your paper for you; or more vexing, that writing centres are a place to go to get papers written for you in their entirety.  This evidently doesn't sit well with him, and he spends the rest of the paper defending the position of writing centres as a place to engage in rhetorical dialogue with trained instructors, which results in an equal ground for discussion on how to improve a paper, benefiting both student and instructor in some cases.  

Commentary:

    Having only been to the writing centre at CNU one time, I didn't really have a good grasp on what a writing centre was all about.  Before these readings, I had assumed that they were more geared towards being a place to alleviate writer's block, or to assist with a final revision.  I feel like I have a much better understanding of the purpose and function of writing centres now, and may make an effort to visit more frequently in my last two semesters.  The idea of working collaboratively with others on a paper seems highly beneficial, especially in regards to exploring ideas that you may not have materialized while working alone.

Question:

    Why were (or are) people seemingly so opposed to the idea of collaborating in writing centres?