Get Online with Training

The warm glow of a computer screen can never replace face-to-face training courses, workshops, or advice from colleagues. But electronic training resources can be engaging supplements; they give us perspectives from outside the walls of our own centers, and they let us move at our own pace through training activities. Below are some of the best writing consultant training sites on the Web, along with a sampling of electronic training tools some centers have designed for in-house use. Enjoy.

Manuals and Journals
Composition Center Tutor Training 
Dartmouth College presents a host of training materials designed for its tutors, including advice from tutors, two role-playing videos, suggestions for handling various writing concerns, and tips for tutoring online.

Tutor.edu 
Appalachian College Association wrote this manual for its writing consultants. It’s chock full of advice on a broad range of topics, including the student/tutor relationship, the clueless student, research strategies, and writing center ethics.

Dangling Modifier 
Penn State University and the National Conference on Peer Tutoring in Writing bring you this newsletter for writing consultants. It includes the Tutor Guru, book reviews, reports on conferences, and other articles of interest to writing consultants.

Writing Lab Newsletter Back Issues 
Here you’ll find the Purdue University Online Writing Lab’s Writing Lab Newsletters from 1977 to 1996. The Newsletter publishes pieces aimed at consultants and administrators. The articles posted may be dated, but they’re still enlightening.

Videos

Training Topoi 
The University of Texas at Austin Undergraduate Writing Center posts videotapes of all its training workshops, called Topoi, online. The videos are password protected for viewing by their staff only; however, so other centers can see what they’re up to, they have made four available here: African American English, working with writers who are disabled, keeping writers engaged, and time management.

Training for Tough Tutorials 
The University of Richmond offers a suite of videos of people role-playing challenging consultation situations. Organized by topic, Tough Tutorials videos tackle situations such as working with non-traditional students, ESL writers, and reluctant revisers.

Blogs and Listservs

PeerCentered 
A well-designed blog for writing center consultants, PeerCentered is sadly underused. It could be the site for a fantastic dialogue; let’s take advantage of it.

WCenter 
WCenter is a cordial, supportive writing center listserv, populated mostly by administrators who care about the views of consultants. Don’t be shy about joining this lively online conversation.