Weaving Knowledge Together: Writing Centers and Collaboration

First published in 1998. In a 1996 review article in College English, Elizabeth Rankin contrasted the method and epistemology of two recent books on writing pedagogy, describing one as "grounded in the experience of student writers and teachers" and the other as "academic." Rankin’s labels highlight one of the leading sources of tension in composition research—the tension between practice and theory—a tension that echoes in writing center research and publications. This collection of chapters seeks to build on the inherent collaborativeness of writing centers, capturing the voices of the student writers and tutors who are at the core of writing center work.