Praxis: A Writing Center Journal • Vol. 23, No. 1 (2025)

From the Editors: somethingsomething

Sam Turner
The University of Texas at Austin
praxisuwc@gmail.com

Mary Fons
The University of Texas at Austin
praxisuwc@gmail.com

Throughout our Fall 2025 issue, authors highlight the roles and perspectives of those engaged in the daily work of the writing center across institutional contexts and from various angles. Furthermore, the calls to action across this issue are as varied as the methods employed, reminding us that what we often call “the” writing center is actually composed of abundant complexity and diverse voices. 

This issue begins with three column essays by writing center practitioners who [something about the spectrum of experience; DeLeon is 28 years in the WC, Lentz is 1 year (!), Warndof is somewhere in between :-))]

Next, Vicki R. Kennell, Ashley Garla, and Genevieve Gray offer “Untapped Potentials: Leveraging Disciplinary Expertise for Graduate Writing Consultant Education,” which examines the intersections between the disciplinary homes of generalist graduate consultants and their writing center work, and highlights the untapped potential of the theory and pedagogy of consultants’ home disciplines in developing effective consultant training programs.  

Responding to the call for more attention on the perspectives and practices of tutors who employ equitable, inclusive, and anti-racist pedagogies, Chloe Ray and Erin Goldin’s “‘How I Speak Doesn't Really Matter; What I Speak About Does’: BIPOC Tutor Voices on Linguistic Justice in the Writing Center” highlights the factors that impact how tutors at a Hispanic Serving Institution engage linguistic justice in their writing center practices.  

Chris Borntrager and Taylor Weeks’ “Reexamining ‘Attitudes of Resistance’: A Survey-based Investigation of Mandatory Writing Center Appointments” arose out of the authors’ need to better understand what happens in writing center appointments that are incentivized or required by instructors. Borntrager and Weeks’ findings encourage future studies into how the field may inhabit a more welcoming stance toward the writers who visit WCs at the behest of their instructors. 

Next, Abraham Romney takes up the issue of naming in “Coming to Terms: A Quantitative Analysis of Naming Conventions in and of United States Writing Centers.” Romney assesses workplace and worker naming conventions across nearly 600 US-based writing centers, and builds upon conversations that attempt to define the work we do in the midst of a “complex academic landscape of multiple literacies and modes.”

In the last of this issue’s focus articles, Nathan Lindberg contributes to on-going conversations around artificial intelligence by suggesting how writing centers may be well-positioned to explore the affordances of artificial intelligence writing tools. In “Evolving Perceptions of GenAI Writing Tools: Why Writing Centers Should be GenAI Pioneers,” Lindberg reports findings from interviews with students who were “early adopters” of generative AI in order to argue for a future of field-wide engagement with generative AI writing tools. 

Finally, this issue ends with two reviews: Shi Pu’s Critical Thinking in Academic Writing: A Cultural Perspective (2023), reviewed by Jonathan Faerber, and Thomas Girshin’s The Creative Argument: Rhetoric in the Real World (2024), reviewed by Alex (Oleksiy) Ostaltsev.

We here at Praxis remain deeply grateful to the reviewers, authors, and copy-editors that helped make this issue a reality. We especially want to thank our brilliant undergraduate intern, Audrey Fife, who provided invaluable assistance (during her summer break!) as we prepared this issue for publication. We close this editors’ introduction with an announcement regarding a change in Praxis’s leadership. Ali Gunnells will be stepping down as co-managing editor to pursue other opportunities, but she would like to express her heartfelt thanks to her co-managing editor Sam Turner and all those involved in Praxis for their continued work and dedication. Though we are sad to say goodbye to Ali, Praxis is excited to welcome Mary Fons to the team this fall as the new co-managing editor.