Purpose
The IWCA Website is dedicated to providing all who work in writing centers around the world with timely and practical information about the International Writing Centers Association (a National Council of the Teachers of English Assembly), about writing center work for peer, graduate, and professional tutors, and about directing a writing center. Because of the nature of writing center work, we wish to make this a collaborative site, with many different voices represented. For that reason, we have openned submissions to the site for news items, feature pages, and suggestions.
We hope that you find this a useful resource to support your work in writing centers.
Goals
There are many important and high quality materials on the old web site, for many years maintained by Bruce Pegg, that we believe should be maintained by the new Website. These include, but are not exclusive to, the list of online resources, the writing center start- up kit, information about IWCA itself, and the list of online writing centers. We believe, however, that the site needs to be reorganized into more recognizable/useful categories. Ultimately, any design needs to consider carefully the needs of its readers. Among others, the IWCA sites readership consists of peer tutors, professional tutors, graduate students, directors, faculty, and people who are interested in starting writing centers. The goal of a good design is that it easy to navigate and provides the information the reader is seeking quickly and efficiently. A web site design must also anticipate use, and be responsive to the needs of its readers. For example, an extended audience for the IWCA site will undoubtedly be student writers and other writers seeking information about writing in general. Such an audience should be redirected to resources that are more appropriate for their needs. Likewise, to be responsive to readers, the web editor must be aware of their needs and interests. Overall, we believe that reorganizing the site and giving it a fresher, more up-to-date, and professional look with the needs of its readers in mind should be the initial aims of the Web Editor.
After reorganization/redesign, the IWCA Website would like to pursue further projects that will enhance the content of the site. These documents would be useful for those interested in the scholarly materials available about writing centers. Further, we would like to emphasize resources for peer tutors, graduate students, professional tutors, and directors on the site, such as interactive question and answer forums, a writing center FAQ, mail lists, scholarly readings, interactive training materials, and links (with permission of the creators) to the invaluable materials that writing centers from around the world have created.
Furthermore, we would like to see that individuals can become members of IWCA and pay their dues via the web site. We believe, also, that people should be able to purchase materials from IWCA press, order the Writing Center Journal, or subscribe to the Writing Lab Newsletter online as well.
On the whole, we believe that the IWCA web site can
be the glue that binds the diverse writing center community together.
It can be a place where people come to see what is going on in the community,
discover how they can participate, and learn more about writing center
work and philosophy.
Submitting to the website
There are two main ways that the writing center community can submit to the IWCA web site:
News items and announcements are current information pertaining to the entire writing center community, such as conference information, success stories, and accomplishments.
Feature web pages are specific and practical resources that writing center personnel can make use of.
The IWCA Website encourages submissions. For more information, see our submissions pages as linked above.
Web Editor
Christopher Ervin, University of South Dakota
Editorial board
Eric Crump, University of Missouri--Columbia
Michele Eodice, University of Kansas
Greg Dyer, University of Sioux Falls
Clint Gardner, Salt Lake Community College
Jon Olson, Pennsylvania State University
(c) 2006 International Writing Centers Association