Community in the Writing Center

I believe the role of community in the writing center is quite obvious, it is directly related to the difference in the social layout of a writing center environment to that of the typical classroom environment. This community environment is created through the inclusion of students as ‘teachers’ and as peers, this breakdown of roles that typically create stress and assert a sort of hierarchy puts forth a calm and comfortable environment where students find themselves in a community- a place where they feel welcomed, and not simply somewhere where they are any less than that of those assisting them. The connection that students to students can reach through comfortable social conversation and expressed reflective thought, where it is believed the student to teacher connection is lacking, creates a greater sense of community in the center.

Community also effectively plays a role in the writing center when it comes to the actual understanding of different processes of writing, through others we see how thought is conjured, exchanged, and changed, and from there we understand our own thoughts and abilities to interpret knowledge. The presence of a sense of community in the writing center is undeniable, and the community itself fosters a growth of knowledge for everyone within the special environment.

Regarding the breaking down of barriers that comes with student-to-student learning, the relationship between audience, peer-tutor, and community is inherent. With the audience being the tutees, and the student peers as tutors, we essentially have what becomes a comfortable learning community for everyone involved. The relationship between the two (audience and peer-tutor) is unique from that of most learning environments (adult tutors to students, students to teacher), in that both the learners and the ‘teachers’ are very similar, whether it be through age, similar social setting, same university; this inherent connection creates a very specific ease that other social settings are not able to break apart from, and thus creates a greater sense of community. Though the distinction between tutor and tutee is intrinsic to the process, the connections created due to the ‘peer to peer’ environment in the writing center is what makes it a fluid community working towards a greater and shared goal- improved writing skills.