A Response to "The Idea of a Writing Center"

First, I would like to note I have never blogged before. Are there rules to blogging? Must we be grammatically correct as if this is an official assignment? From what I understand, we were supposed to read the first essay, blog, and then read the second essay. That's what I'm doing.

Overall, I was not highly impressed with "The Idea of a Writing Center". I find North's subject matter and opinions interesting, but I struggled to read the whole piece. I got bored. North's initial energy, however,  was fantastic. He was obviously very passionate (and angry) about the idea of writing centers, but after the first few pages the energy seemed to decrease. Perhaps if the intial anger was toned down, the rest of the essay could have the same level of energy and feel more cohesive.

This is a random response: I hate North's excessive use of long dashes. It started to get really distracting and made some of the paragraphs feel choppy. I found myself counting dashes.

Okay, now that I have all of those complaints out of my system, I should probably respond to the content.

I totally agree with Norths argument. Contrary to the ideas of many students and teachers, the writing center should not be a "fix-it" shop. While it is important for students to understand grammar and punctuation, grammar and punctuation alone don't make a good paper. In the grand scheme of writing, a missed comma is not the bigest deal. North writes (and rephrases/repeats serveral times)  that the writing center's job "is to produce better writers, not better writing" (50). This is such a great concept. It's sad to think that most writers fail to see this big picture. Instead of looking at just the logistics of a specific paper, we must focus on the writer as a whole.

Additionally, I liked how North talked about how we must adapt to each writer. We should adjust to whatever stage of writing their in, as well as whatever problems they may have.  In the end, however, we still should look for an improvement in the writer, not just the writing."Tutors...must measure their sucess not in terms of the constantly changin model they create, but in terms of changes in the writer" (51).

North's essay finished strong as he connected back to the misunderstanding of what it means to be a writing center. Although it is disappointing teachers and students don't understand the puporse of the writing center, it is even worse to hear writing centers all over the country only serve as "fix-it shops".

While Wittenberg's writing center may be misunderstood, I'm still glad our writing center serves as more than a "fix-it" shop.