Author: Canadian Writing Centres Association

After the Fire: Reflections and Learning by Ripple Effect

~ Canadian Writing Centres Association

Nia Pazoki (she/her) is a Ph.D. candidate in Educational Psychology at Simon Fraser University and one of the Writing Services Coordinators at the Student Learning Commons (SLC). Her work focuses on inclusive education, displaced and neurodivergent youth, and reflective pedagogies grounded in community care. At the SLC, she co-develops and facilitates writing programs for students and collaborates across campus to create thoughtful, equity-focused learning spaces. Nia believes in slow scholarship, story-sharing, and writing as a way of building belonging.

At Simon Fraser University (SFU), the Student Learning Commons (SLC) is a hub for academic support, peer learning, and community-based programming. As part of this work, the SLC has been exploring new ways to create inclusive, reflective learning spaces. One such initiative was the SLC Movie Night, a pilot event held at SFU’s Belzberg Library that brought together students, staff, faculty, and community members for an evening of storytelling, film, and relational reflection.

This event began as a feeling, an idea shaped slowly over time. I’d been inspired by Soup Circles, a program led by Dr. Julia Lane at the SLC. Watching her bring students together through story, warm food, and reflection reminded me that care doesn’t need a big budget, it just needs attention. I started thinking about what a version of that could look like through the lens of Universal Design for Learning (UDL), one that emphasized emotional accessibility, low-barrier participation, and a sense of shared presence. From there, SLC Movie Night took shape: a quiet invitation to slow down, gather, and reflect together.

Then came long, thoughtful conversations with Queckou Wambantem, a community scholar who helped me think more deeply about why and how we gather. He reminded me that offering space is not always enough. We need to offer tools, frameworks, ways of making sense of what we hold. “What if we help students build worldviews,” he asked, “not just inherit them?” He spoke about the importance of not projecting a single worldview, especially one steeped in Western academic norms, but instead, supporting students in composing what he calls “isotropic worlds”: inclusive, multidimensional understandings that affirm and stretch across difference.

His insights echoed broader teachings within Indigenous methodologies, which emphasize meaning as something co-constructed rather than delivered. In such frameworks, shaped in part by anthropological and community-based research traditions, knowledge is formed through consensus, situated storytelling, and collective reflection, where every participant’s contribution shapes the shared understanding (Kovach, 2009; Lavallée, 2009). These ways of knowing resist hierarchies of expertise and instead centre relational accountability and the value of presence.

Those conversations gave this event its frame. And film gave it its form.

Film, as a medium, offers a shared experience that is both artistic and intellectual. It invites reflection, provides emotional and narrative entry points, and allows viewers to make meaning in their own ways (Marks, 2000; hooks, 1996). A good film doesn’t dictate interpretation, but rather opens space for layered engagement and personal resonance. A good film doesn’t ask you to agree. It asks you to notice.

That’s how How People Got Fire entered this event. We chose this short, animated film because of its roots in Indigenous storytelling and its quiet depth. But really, it was the circle we built around the film that gave it life.

From the outset, it was clear this gathering couldn’t be shaped in isolation. To centre Indigenous stories with respect and care, guidance from within the community was essential. That’s why the presence of Courtney Copoc (Coco), an Indigenous educator and entrepreneur, became the most integral part of the process, offering cultural grounding, insight, and a way of holding space that gave the gathering its shape and spirit.

When I arrived to set up the room, I arranged it like I would any typical workshop: tables in a circle, handouts at each seat. It looked fine. But when Coco arrived, she paused. “These tables are barriers,” she said gently. Not just physically, but energetically. They blocked the flow, she explained, even the spirits, a perspective grounded in Indigenous understandings of space as relational and energetically alive (Lavallée, 2009). That moment shifted nuances. So, we moved the tables aside, softened the space into a circle, and placed one extra chair at Coco’s suggestion, for the spirit. The reflection prompts were gathered onto a single sheet and placed at the centre. Nothing more was needed.

Our circle that night included students, community members, staff and faculty members. Everyone introduced themselves. No one passed. We moved clockwise, another gentle cue from Coco. In many Indigenous traditions, this direction follows the path of the sun and honors time and balance (Lavallée, 2009). Even movement, I realized, carries intention.

We watched How People Got Fire in silence. Letting it move through us.

Afterward, Coco opened the circle with a story of her own, shared with such openness and strength that it shifted the energy of the room. People responded in kind. One participant spoke about being a white man who had never been taught these histories. Another shared how community anchors him. Someone spoke of rhythm, language, and breath. I offered thoughts on lived experience and storytelling as healing. We stayed in that shared space, letting each voice shape the room.

Windchief and Ryan (2018) write about reflection as something relational, something shaped by land, story, and community. Shapiro (2020) reminds us that when we reflect in inclusive ways, we begin to question assumptions and locate ourselves within broader systems. Fleming (2014) describes insight as a metacognitive process, emerging when we allow ourselves space to connect internal awareness with what we encounter. Obleser (2025) refers to this as “cognitive quiet”, a state where silence, rhythm, and presence allow for deeper learning (p. 107). That’s exactly what it felt like. Not a room of ideas, but a collective pause. A quiet togetherness.

To close, I passed around a card. It read:

Something stirred tonight.
Maybe it was a memory.
A silence.
A sentence that won’t quite leave you alone.
You don’t need to explain it.
But if you feel like speaking to it, even just to yourself, here’s a place to begin…

The rest of the card offered reflection prompts. People were welcomed to write, draw, or just carry it with them. One person emailed me afterward to say they were still thinking. Still moved. They called it, “learning by ripple effect.”

Behind the scenes, this event was made possible by many hands. I reached out to folks across SFU, Student Services, Graduate Studies, CERi, the Institute for the Humanities, Public Square and community partners like 312 Main and the Bill Reid Gallery. I connected with Indigenous-focused groups like the Indigenous Student Centre and FNMISA. We put up posters at the Vancouver campus and even sent a few to Burnaby. The Belzberg Library team helped us get the event on campus screens and the SLC website.

In the process, I met so many people working behind the scenes. People who care deeply and do their best, even without a full communications team. That care showed up, in quiet ways, but it mattered.

The circle was small, but it was real. I hope it continues. With rhythm and intention, I’d love for this to grow into a monthly gathering: films, stories, reflection, and care.

Thank you to the Belzberg Library, the Student Learning Commons, and the wider SFU community for supporting this event. To Courtney Copoc, thank you for reminding us that space is not just physical, but deeply relational. And to Queckou Wambantem, thank you for offering ways of thinking that invite the world to slow down, expand, and move with greater care.

References

Fleming, S. M. (2014). The power of reflection: Insight as a meta-cognitive process. Current Biology, 24(14), R658–R660.

hooks, b. (1996). Reel to real: Race, sex, and class at the movies. Routledge.

Lavallée, L. F. (2009). Practical application of an Indigenous research framework and two qualitative Indigenous research methods: Sharing circles and Anishnaabe symbol-based reflection. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 8(1), 21–40.

Marks, L. U. (2000). The skin of the film: Intercultural cinema, embodiment, and the senses. Duke University Press.

Obleser, J. (2025). Cognitive quiet: On the neuroscience of reflection and silence. Mind & Brain Review, 38(1), 102–115.

Shapiro, S. (2020). Cultivating critical reflection in teaching: A framework for inclusive pedagogy. Teachers College Press.

Windchief, S., & Ryan, M. (2018). Indigenizing academic spaces: The relational process of storytelling and reflection. Critical Studies in Education, 59(1), 74–86.

Announcement | CWCR/RCCR Is BACK: Meet the Blog Editorial Collective

~ Canadian Writing Centres Association

After a brief hiatus following Brian Hotson’s last post as editor March 26, we’re thrilled to announce that the CWCR/RCCR is BACK!

If you attended the CWCA/ACCR’s 2025 conference June 16-18, this announcement may not come as a surprise; others, however, may have questions: who is this “we”? And, what does “BACK!” entail?

Brian’s departure—after years of excellent editorship—left a noticeable silence in the Canadian writing centres community. Since 2019, when Stevie Bell, Liv Marken, and Brian Hotson founded the Canadian Writing Centre Review / revue Canadienne des centres de rédaction as “an outlet for scholarly writing on writing centre theory, pedagogy, administration, histories, and stories specific to Canadian context of writing mentorship outside of for-credit courses across educational contexts”, the blog has connected writing centre professionals across the country, sharing announcements, opportunities, and creating a community account  “that captures the places, people, and contexts shaping writing centre developments” (Hotson, 2019). For many, the blog functioned as an antidote to the isolation that so many of us experience in our roles and work.

The empty boots of the editor role seemed to echo the themes of precarity and capacity at the CWCA/ACCR 2025 conference. Out of conversations with the CWCA/ACCR board members and writing centre colleagues, a few things became clear:

  1. There is a lot of enthusiasm for continuing the work of Brian, Stevie, and Liv et al.
  2. Brian’s editor boots are really big.
  3. With our current precarious environment, there doesn’t seem to be capacity to take on significant amounts of additional work.

Who is this “We”? Meet the members of the CWCR/RCCR Editorial Collective (Team? Co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co-co Editors?) 

As our terms with the CWCA/ACCR board drew to a close, my dear friend and colleague, Julia Lane (two years as Membership Chair) and I (two years as Member-at-large and four as Secretary) spoke about our shared desire to both stay connected to the national community and support the blog: we nervously decided to put our names forward as co-editors—re-envisioning the editor, associate editor, and contributing editor roles as an “editorial collective” or team—encouraging any interested folks to join so that we may pool our experience and perspectives…and share the labour! Joining Julia and I are Gillian Saunders, Joan Garbutt, Nadine Fladd, Maria C. O’Connor, Vanessa Nino, Cara Violini, and Özlem Atar.

Julia Lane

Julia Lane is a queer, vegan, feminist clown. She is also a Writing Services Coordinator in the Student Learning Commons at Simon Fraser University where she is always trying to connect with and learn from more students about what writing means in their lives today.

She previously served as the CWCA/ACCR Membership Chair. She also served for a short time as an Associate Blog Editor under the guidance of Brian Hotson and Stevie Bell. She was responsible for publishing the SLC blog (“In Common“) while it was active.

Julia is very excited to be working with the blog editorial team and is also grateful to all those who have created, contributed to, and cared for the CWCR/RCCR blog to date!

Gillian Saunders

Gillian Saunders (she/her) is an Academic Skills Advisor at UVic and a sessional instructor in academic writing and English language learning and teaching. Her in-progress PhD research examines undergraduate students’ experiences with discourse socialization and writing support in required academic writing courses. Gillian holds an MA in English language and literature from Queen’s University, a TESOL certification, and a certificate in editing from SFU. She has many years of copyediting experience, including the Arbutus Review and The BCTEAL Journal. Gillian has been a member of CWCA for as long as she can remember, and a member of the CWCA board as grad student representative since fall of 2024. She is super excited to be inspired by her wonderful colleagues and the good work of the CWCR/RCCR blog!

Nadine Fladd

Nadine Fladd (she/her) is the manager of Grad and Postdoc Programs at the Writing and Communication Centre at University of Waterloo, where has supported graduate students, postdocs and faculty throughout all stages of the writing process since 2015. She completed her PhD in English—with a focus on collaborative editing practices in Canadian fiction—at Western University in 2014. Since then, her research interests have broadened to include academic writing pedagogy and the writing practices of graduate students, including dissertation writing retreats and the use of generative artificial intelligence in theses and dissertations. She has been an active member of CWCA/ACCR since 2018 and has served as both Secretary and Membership Chair. She is looking forward to learning more about the excellent things her colleagues doing through the CWCR/RCCR blog!

Joan Garbutt

Joan Garbutt has been practicing as a Writing Skills Specialist at Brandon University for 13 years in beautiful Treaty 2 territory, shared homeland of the Dakota, Anishinaabek, and Metis Nations. Now, this prairie landscape is home to many people from across Turtle Island and beyond. Joan is a settler descendant of English, Irish, and Scottish heritage who researches and writes about allies of Indigenous Peoples in post-secondary spaces. Her life is greatly enhanced by grandchildren, travel, knitting, and being active.

Maria C. O’Connor

My name is Maria C. O’Connor. I am a journalist, researcher, and instructor specializing in communication, technology, and digital media. Currently, I am pursuing a Master of Arts in Communication and Technology at the University of Alberta, where I also work as a Graduate Teaching and Research Assistant. My academic interests focus on the impact of Generative Artificial Intelligence on writing practices, both in academic and professional contexts.

Prior to my graduate studies, I worked as an instructor and Head of the Hypermedia Communication, Technology, and Society Discipline at the University of Havana, where I integrated AI tools into journalism education. I am passionate about exploring how emerging technologies shape media, communication, and education, and I actively contribute to research and public discussions on these topics.

Vanessa Nino

Vanessa Nino is the Writing Skills Coordinator at Sheridan College, overseeing English & Writing Tutors and Applied Computing Tutors within Library and Learning Services. She provides training, mentorship, and pedagogical support to enhance tutoring effectiveness, focusing on Universal Design for Learning (UDL), AI-assisted tutoring, and academic integrity.

Vanessa collaborates with faculty to integrate writing support into courses and mentor’s co-op students from the University of Waterloo and Sheridan. Previously, Vanessa was an Instructional Designer at Mohawk College, developing faculty training and digital learning resources. She has also taught communication and writing courses at Sheridan and Humber College. Passionate about student success, digital literacy, and innovative learning strategies, Vanessa explores AI tutoring tools to enhance academic writing support.

Cara Violini

Cara Violini (she/her) is a Writing Specialist for Athabasca University’s Write Site. Her doctoral research focuses on inclusive writing centre pedagogies for students with disabilities. Cara holds undergraduate degrees in English and Education, an MA (Literary Studies), and an MFA (Creative Writing). She is currently the reviews editor for Discourse and Writing/Redactologié (DW/R), co-editor of DW/R’s special issue on writing and AI, and editor of the Journal of Integrated Studies. Cara is currently the chair of the Alberta Writing Centres Association, recently joined the CWCA board as secretary and is very excited to collaborate with the CWCA/RCCR blog editorial board.

Özlem Atar

Özlem Atar is a writing coach at Queen’s University Student Academic Success Services and assists students at all levels with a variety of academic writing projects in fall and winter terms. She also contributes to Gradifying Blog, a platform under the auspices of Queen’s School of Graduate Studies and Postdoctoral Affairs.

Özlem holds an MA in English Language Teaching (ESL/EAL) and PhDs in Communication Sciences and Cultural Studies. Her most recently completed project engaged contemporary narratives of irregular migration across the Americas. Her other primary research project focused on Latin American and Muslim women’s post-9/11 writing. Özlem explores the junction between migrant justice advocacy and literature, so the ethics, aesthetics, and politics of migration narratives comprise much of her reading, writing, and teaching.

Jenna Goddard

Jenna (she/her) is a neurodivergent, feminist settler who lives and writes on the traditional lands of the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc within Secwépemc’ulucw, the traditional and unceded territory of the Secwépemc. She is the Senior Writing Centre Coordinator and an Associate Teaching Professor at Thompson Rivers University, training and supporting undergraduate and graduate tutors in the Writing Centre, and teaching writing and research-related courses. Her work-related passions include learning sciences, writing assessment, academic integrity, and social justice education; her writing passions include poetry and creative non-fiction.

Jenna has been privileged to be part of the CWCA/ACCR board for the past six years as Secretary and Member-at-large, and is thrilled to put her experience as a copy editor to use as part of the CWCR/RCCR editorial collective! She is also intensely uncomfortable writing about herself in the third person.

Where to from Here?

The editorial collective will be meeting in August for a retreat, guided by the expertise of Brian Hotson, so please stay tuned for updates! Until then, we’re keen to use the momentum generated by the conference. We are calling out for blog posts (approx. 500-1000 words) related to your conference experiences. In particular, we welcome:

  1. Your conference reflections: What did you learn? What is still rattling around in your brain/heart/body? Are there actions you want to commit to taking as a result of the conference? (If you are a tutor who attended the conference, we especially want to hear from you! Co-authored submissions are warmly encouraged as well!)
  2. Extension of a conference presentation, roundtable, or workshop: If you were a conference presenter, consider sharing further about your work on the blog. You can write up your presentation and also share any insights you may have gained through presenting your work to the CWCA/ACCR community.
  3. Writing inspired by the conference writing prompt book, “Pause & Presence in Precarious Times“: If you are doing any writing inspired by the prompts in the workbook and would like to share it, we’d love to see it!

You can submit your ideas for a blog post in a short “pitch” (aim for fewer than 250 words) to cwcr.rccr@gmail.com. If you have a full blog post already written and ready to go, please feel free to also send that to our editorial team.

We look forward to hearing from you!

Jenna, on behalf of TEAM BLOG (“official” name TBD, obviously)

References

Hotson, B. (2019). About the blog: Chronicling narratives of writing mentorship in Canada and facilitating scholarly exchange. Canadian Writing Centre Review/ revue Canadienne des centres de rédaction. https://cwcaaccr.com/cwcr-rccr-blog/

Trying to capture the full story: Making a post-tutoring session survey

~ Canadian Writing Centres Association

Volume 2, No. 1 Summer 2021
by Emma Sylvester

Emma Sylvester is Coordinator, Writing Centre and Academic Communications, Saint Mary’s University.

Introduction

As Writing Centre (WC) practitioners, how do we know that students are actually benefitting from our work? Plenty of research has shown that WC use improves students’ grades (e.g., Driscoll, 2015; Thompson, 2006; Trosset et al., 2019, Dansereau, et al., 2020), but how do I know that translates to my own unique institution or to the session I had with a tutee this morning? As a tutor, the immediate feedback of seeing a student’s “lightbulb moment” or hearing their expressions of gratitude gives me some indication that I’m doing something right. Unfortunately, these experiences aren’t reliable or comprehensive indicators of the benefits of the WC, and they don’t tell me about the student’s full emotional experience in session or their long-term learning. Further, in the post-covid era, ripe with asynchronous sessions and cameras left off, these moments are potentially fewer and farther between.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Zt4bRIYDrOHFxtgO8iRzuJAZ4DyUp5YLbsA4oAWTrY0/edit

Post-session surveys are widely used across WCs not only to learn about how students value writing tutorials, but also to inform program development, assess and refine tutor practice, collect data for study and publication, and even to justify the existence of the centres themselves (Bromley et al., 2013). The need to collect, analyse, and apply data related to students’ experience in session is obvious and inherent in the ongoing development of WC practice, but taking a rigorous approach to this process is often forgotten amidst other seemingly more important (and let’s just say it, more interesting) work.

Continue reading “Trying to capture the full story: Making a post-tutoring session survey” →

Pandemic Graduate Student Writing and Transition Support: Reflections and Predictions (Part 3)

~ Canadian Writing Centres Association

Vol. 2, No.8 (Spring 2021)
Liv Marken, Contributing Editor, CWCR/RCCR

Link to Part II

PART III: Looking Ahead

In last week’s instalment, Jill McMillan, a Learning Specialist at the University of Saskatchewan, and Nadine Fladd, a Writing and Multimodal Communication Specialist at the University of Waterloo, shared their thoughts about accessibility, transition, and international student support. In part three, our final instalment, Jill and Nadine look ahead to what they envision keeping and what will be changed in the slow transition back to campus. Continue reading “Pandemic Graduate Student Writing and Transition Support: Reflections and Predictions (Part 3)” →

There will be no switch flipping in my future: A look at post-COVID writing centres

Photo of a light switch
~ Canadian Writing Centres Association

Vol 2., No. 7 (Spring 2021)
Julia Lane, Phd, Writing Services Coordinator, Student Learning Commons

Early in the pandemic, Kate Elliott, a Graduate Writing Facilitator with the SFU Student Learning Commons, wrote Maintaining Social Cohesion in a Time of Social Distancing, a blog post which she generously allowed me to contribute to. The post was about the opportunities that this moment of seeming isolation presents to get creative about supporting connectivity through virtual means.

Here I am over a year later reflecting once again on Kate’s incredible ability to focus on connectivity in the time of social/physical distancing within a week of everything shutting down the first time. We have been told to maintain distance from one another to keep each other safe, but that doesn’t mean that we can safely forego the social. It is clear that Kate’s emphasis on the ongoing need for social connection remains central. Throughout this past year, writing centres have been challenged to re-consider and re-imagine our roles in our wider institutions and to get creative with opportunities to support human connection—remotely—while we all experience ongoing crisis. Continue reading “There will be no switch flipping in my future: A look at post-COVID writing centres” →

Pandemic Graduate Student Writing and Transition Support: Reflections and Predictions (Part 2)

~ Canadian Writing Centres Association

Vol. 2, No. 6 (Spring 2021)
Liv Marken, Contributing Editor, CWCR/RCCR

Link to Part I

PART II: Accessibility and Transition

Last week, we heard from Jill McMillan, a Learning Specialist at University of Saskatchewan, and Nadine Fladd, a Writing and Multimodal Communication Specialist at the University of Waterloo. They talked about their pandemic year. Here, in part two, they share their thoughts on graduate student transition, and accessibility, particularly in regard to international students. Continue reading “Pandemic Graduate Student Writing and Transition Support: Reflections and Predictions (Part 2)” →

Pandemic Graduate Student Writing and Transition Support: Reflections and Predictions (Part 1)

~ Canadian Writing Centres Association

Vol. 2, No. 5 (Spring 2021)
Liv Marken, Contributing Editor, CWCR/RCCR

This three-part series looks at how the pandemic affected both graduate student writers and graduate student writing support.We speak to Jill McMillan, a Learning Specialist at the University of Saskatchewan, and Nadine Fladd, a Writing and Multimodal Communication Specialist at the University of Waterloo.

Part I: In the Thick of It

Here, in part one, we learn about Jill’s and Nadine’s roles and work, and how the pandemic has supported intercampus collaboration and better use of resources to benefit the overall student experience.

Liv: Thank you, Nadine and Jill, for speaking with me about your experiences this year.

Could you tell me a bit about who you are and what you do at your institutions?

Nadine: Sure. I am one of several Writing and Multimodal Communication Specialists at the Writing and Communication Centre at UWaterloo. My role, in particular, focuses on supporting graduate students, postdoctoral fellows and faculty, so a lot of the work that I do focuses on developing programs for graduate students, such as Dissertation Boot Camp, a program called Rock Your Thesis that is designed to help students start their dissertation or thesis writing process on the right foot, and orchestrating and coordinating writing groups and writing communities. In between these activities, I also do a handful of appointments with grad students, postdocs, and faculty each week.

Nadine Fladd, Writing and Multimodal Communication Specialist, University of Waterloo

Jill: I’m a Learning Specialist, and I work with Student Learning Services. And yes, there’s a lot of overlap in terms of Nadine’s and my dossiers; there is a focus on programming—facilitating workshops, designing new workshops, trying to think of new initiatives that are going to have value for our graduate student population. I’ve also been hosting virtual writing groups and offer one-to-one appointments, though the majority of the one-to-one support comes from our amazing writing help centre. I also offer a course for international grad students. But otherwise, the focus is on designing new programs, creating new initiatives, trying to connect to other campus partners, and thinking of how we can pool resources, which I think is especially important these days as we just try and figure out how we can offer support without replicating services.

Liv: Have either of you have you found that moving online has helped to reduce that duplication and increase communication between communication units?

Nadine: Maybe, but I feel like every university does have that compartmentalizing of units.

Liv: Has that lessened during the pandemic, stayed the same, or intensified?

Nadine: I think that the Writing and Communication Centre had pretty strong collaborative relationships with campus partners before the pandemic, and that has been a blessing. What I’ve seen is more communication between those campus partners and each other than I’ve seen in the past. So, for example, our Student Success Office has traditionally hosted an orientation for graduate students and during the pandemic the Graduate Studies and Postdoctoral Affairs office helped design and took the lead on building an infrastructure for an online orientation program and has since handed that program over to the Student Success Office. So there’s collaboration there that didn’t exist before that I think has been really useful.

Liv: That’s positive. Jill, what have you noticed?

Jill: It’s certainly helped me as someone who is relatively new to campus to make some of those connections a bit more easily. Of course, you still encounter some of these instances where there is duplication popping up, but then you reach out and make that connection. And so, it’s possible that that duplication will eventually turn into a collaboration at a future point. So, I think that in some ways I do recognize that there have been some strange benefits to how everything has happened over the last year in terms of the shift to remote teaching and learning. I think it really has forced people to think, “oh, how do we make use of the limited resources that are currently available to maximize the student experience?”

Jill McMillan, Learning Specialist, University of Saskatchewan

Nadine: We have an incentive system. So, students have a digital coffee card that they can fill out every time they attend a writing session. And when you’ve attended 12 writing sessions, you earn a mug that has a #WaterlooWrites logo on it. We see a lot of repeat members in our writing community, and people get to know each other and talk to each other during the breaks and help each other. We see a lot of regulars in those communities for sure.

Liv: Interesting. Now, in terms of your own work, how have you kept up professionally or what’s really helped to you in your job?

Nadine: I’m lucky because unlike a lot of writing centres, I have a team I work with of full-time permanent staff who do the same work I do. I’ve learnt a lot from other members on the team as we navigated this together. A lot of my professional development this past year has been technological. One of my colleagues, Elise Vist, our digital guru on the team, has taught me how to do things like build online asynchronous workshops through Rise 360, and so now we can build these really slick looking modules full of videos and interactive elements. And that’s not something that I ever would have even considered trying to attempt a year and a half ago. It wasn’t on my radar.

So, in some ways, the pandemic has been a push to expand my range of teaching tools. And in a lot of ways, at the beginning of the pandemic, we were focused on trying to recreate what exists in our in-person programming in an online format. And I think that worked for a while. But what students have needed after a year in isolation and after a year of video calls has changed. I think my approach to teaching has really gotten back to the very basics of starting with what is the goal, what is the objective and building from there rather than trying to transfer an in-person equivalent to an online environment.

Jill: We have an academic integrity tutorial now and we’re currently just beginning to work on some new writing modules. So, you know, it’s been good to learn all about Panopto, WebEx and other online platforms.

In part two, posted next week, Jill and Nadine share their thoughts on accessibility, especially around international student writing support.

Advocating for Accompliceship: An Interview with Neisha-Anne Green

CWCA 2020 logo
~ Canadian Writing Centres Association

Vol 2., No. 10 (Spring 2021)
Vidya Natarajan, Writing Program Coordinator, King’s University College & CWCA/ACCR Conference Co-Chair

Her “Moving Beyond Alright” address, delivered at the 2017 IWCA conference in Chicago,  was one of the most stirring calls to righteous action that writing centre professionals had ever heard.  Neisha-Anne S. Green, carrying the responsibility of being the first Black person to deliver the annual conference keynote in the 34-year history of the IWCA, made a passionate case for “social and civic justice” in writing centres, and the active accompliceship of those in power towards those disenfranchised. In this year of racial reckoning, she has agreed to deliver the opening keynote at CWCA’s 2021 conference, “Transformative Inclusivity.” I could not be more thrilled. 

When we meet virtually, her warmth and passion flow right through and beyond the edges of the little Zoom window on my screen. I mean to ask her about the two striking paintings that flank the portraits on the wall behind her chair, but end up asking, instead, how she would like to be addressed—Professor Green, Neisha, Neisha-Anne? Continue reading “Advocating for Accompliceship: An Interview with Neisha-Anne Green” →

One year on: COVID Snapshot of writing centres in Canada

~ Canadian Writing Centres Association

Vol 2, No. 3 (Spring 2021)
Brian Hotson, Co-Editor, CWCR/RCCR

At the beginning of the lockdown across Canada and the move to online support, we asked our colleagues to provide a snapshot of their centres. These posts from March 2020 (here, here, here, and here) are historical markers and records of an unprecedented time in higher education in Canada. One year on, we’ve asked again for a March snapshot–how have tour centres changed, what have you learned, and where are we going. Here are the responses.

Continue reading “One year on: COVID Snapshot of writing centres in Canada” →

Memoirs of a Former President

~ Canadian Writing Centres Association

Vol 2., No. 2 (Spring 2021)
Heather Fitzgerald, Past-President, CWCA/ACCR

Presidents writing about their time in office has become de rigueur, so it seems only fitting that, as my 6-year term on the presidential track of the Board of the Canadian Writing Centres Association / association canadienne des centres de rédaction comes to an end, I take a moment to reflect on this period of my career. I don’t expect to garner the royalties of a Barack Obama (unless the blog editors have some marketing tricks up their sleeves that I don’t know about), but I hope my experiences might inspire others to consider whether serving on this Board might enrich their lives and work as it has mine. 

I was invited to put my name forward as Vice-Chair of the CWCA/ACCR Board by a chance encounter with then Vice-Chair Lucie Moussu, who I’d met briefly at a conference in 2014. At that point, I had never served on any Board and really had no idea what board service would entail, but I figured it was only a one-year term so I couldn’t get into too much trouble in such a short time. 

Continue reading “Memoirs of a Former President” →

Supporting students for interview assignments

~ Canadian Writing Centres Association

Vol 2., No. 1 (Spring 2021)
Brian Hotson, Co-Editor, CWCR/RCCR.

Google slides for presenting this material as a workshop.

Interviewing gives students greater intimacy with an event or subject in a way not otherwise possible with secondary research. In interview assignments, students connect first-hand to an individual’s accounts of, for instance, their participation in a protest event or reflections on their career in ways that support their understanding of course content. Interviewing is a process that is very much like writing; it involves stages of researching, outlining, writing, rewriting, and editing. For this reason, writing specialists and tutors situated within locations of writing support have much to offer students as they prepare for and write about interviews. Continue reading “Supporting students for interview assignments” →

Join the CWCA/ACCR Board of Directors!

CWCA/ACCR members enjoy an evening social during the 2019 annual conference in Vancouver
~ Canadian Writing Centres Association

Serving as a member of the CWCA/ACCR board is an excellent way to contribute to the community’s continued development, develop cross-country connections, and add to your professional CV.

There are a variety of roles for volunteers to undertake. Offer your expertise with organizational skills as Secretary, your social media and web design prowess as Digital Media Chair, or your enthusiasm for social networking as Membership Chair (see below for the full list of open positions). Continue reading “Join the CWCA/ACCR Board of Directors!” →

Free-falling into the Digital Divide: Reading on smartphones in writing centres

~ Canadian Writing Centres Association

Vol. 2., No. 6 (Winter 2021)
Brian Hotson, Co-Editor, CWCR/RCCR

How does fundamental change happen? Sometimes slowly, and then all at once.

Students started saying that they didn’t need to hand in a printed copy of their papers; the instructor asked them to submit them electronically only. They weren’t getting hardcopies of their assignments from their instructors either; they were showing us their assignment instructions on their phones. I remember the all-staff training session where I said that we would allow students to use their devices to show us their assignments. There were protests and conversation, but we agreed that it was the right thing to do for our students. It was a fundamental change, and we all felt it. I developed guidance for the tutors and students. The students were happy with the change, and the tutors who protested adapted were happy the students were happy

Of course, now this is quaint nostalgia. None of us has seen student work on 8.5 x 11 sheets of paper since March 2020, and many of us won’t see one again until maybe September, if ever. Continue reading “Free-falling into the Digital Divide: Reading on smartphones in writing centres” →

Confronting oppressive language in our tutoring practice: Some guiding thoughts

~ Canadian Writing Centres Association

Vol. 2, No. 5. (Winter 2021)
By Roniksha Kumar

Roniksha Kumar is an undergraduate student and a Peer Tutor at the University of Waterloo Writing and Communication Centre. As an aspiring educator, she is committed to learning and applying Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion practices in her work and everyday life.

Anti-oppressive writing goes beyond academics—it reflects the writer’s experiences, their colleagues, and those who do not have opportunities to express themselves. Oppression is intersectional, including, but not limited to, the marginalization of race, socioeconomic status, gender, sexuality and disability. A commitment to learn how intersectionalities of oppression present themselves in writing enhances a critical lens to view historic and existing power structures. Continue reading “Confronting oppressive language in our tutoring practice: Some guiding thoughts” →

Black History Month: Black-Authored Resources for Writing Centres

~ Canadian Writing Centres Association

Vol. 2, No. 4 (Winter 2021)
CWCR/ACCR Editorial Board

Canadian writing centre involvement
While Canada recognizes Black History Month, as Writing Centre professionals, it is our responsibility to address the gaps in our own education in February and beyond. Furthermore, we must confront the fact that these gaps were created intentionally to exclude learning about Black excellence, both historical and contemporary. It is our work to both name anti-Black racism as a force that has shaped our knowledge and our field, and to take up antiracist practices to re-shape our knowledge and our field. 

Many Black writers, thinkers, scholars, and educators have made and are continuing to make significant contributions to Writing Centres, both as places of practice and as spaces for theorizing. We are taking this opportunity to amplify this work and to acknowledge and thank our Black colleagues for their contributions, which have been made in environments that are too often exclusionary, hostile, racist, and traumatic. Continue reading “Black History Month: Black-Authored Resources for Writing Centres” →

Announcement || Procrastination Avoidance Week, March 8-14, 2021

~ Canadian Writing Centres Association

Julia Lane is Writing Services Coordinator at Simon Fraser University

We’d like to invite you to join in the pan-Canadian, collaborative, cross-institutional Procrastination Avoidance Week from March 8-14 2021, coinciding with National Procrastination Week.

Our concept is that we will host a week of shared programming and virtual support, with themes for each day. Our small committee including me and Ruth Silverman of Simon Fraser University, as well as Sandra Smith from the University of the Fraser Valley, have fleshed out this idea and produced this Google Doc that for everyone to participate. Please fill in the google doc by February 16th at midnight Pacific Time if your institution would like to join in the fun. Details are provided below about what we are looking for institutions to contribute. We hope that many institutions from across the country will participate. Continue reading “Announcement || Procrastination Avoidance Week, March 8-14, 2021” →

Is it really worth it to write for a blog?

Image of woman at her computer
~ Canadian Writing Centres Association

Vol. 2, No. 2 (Winter 2021)
Brian Hotson, Co-Editor, CWCR/RCCR

Brian Hotson is the director of Academic Learning Services at Saint Mary’s University. He is the current Co-Editor the Canadian Writing Centre Review / revue Canadienne des centres de rédaction (CWCR/RCCR), and past editor of the WLN blog, Connecting Writing Centers Across Borders.

You’ve just received an unsolicited e-mail to write a post for an academic blog. The blog looks interesting, and you’re considering replying. But you have questions

Blogging is growing, not waning, in importance for academic writers who are interested in testing and workshopping ideas, as well as finding collaborators and publishers. When used in combination with other media platforms, such as twitter, blogging can amplify a writer’s voice, audience reach, and provide a platform to promote ideas and concepts into their field and literature. Writers can use info graphics, gifs, and other multimodalities in addition to text, things often associated with academic journals. And, they are usually fairly quick to turn out. Continue reading “Is it really worth it to write for a blog?” →

Announcement || CWCA/ACCR 2021 Conference CfP – Transformative Inclusivity: Social Justice and Writing Centres

~ Canadian Writing Centres Association

8th CWCA/ACCR Conference

CWCA 2020 logo

Transformative Inclusivity:
Social Justice and Writing Centres

May 17 – 21, 2021

Virtual Conference

“[A] culture of access is a culture of participation and redesign”
–Elizabeth Brewer, Cynthia L. Selfe, and M. Remi Yergeau

Conference Context

For our 2021 conference, the Canadian Writing Centres Association / association canadienne des centres de rédaction welcomes proposals on any writing centre-related subject, but particularly proposals that consider and/or critique frameworks of inclusion, access, and accessibility. These themes may be related to anti-racist work and Indigenization at writing centres, to our recent experiences arising from the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as to writing and writing centre theory, pedagogy, praxis, programming, administration, research, physical and online environments, advocacy, or activism.

Writing centres have committed to making their spaces and services accessible, inclusive, and democratic, not least to students and tutors from marginalized backgrounds (Geller et al., 2007; Greenfield & Rowan, 2011; Hitt, 2012; Lang, 2017; Martini & Webster, 2017). Even as COVID-19 has inflected, sharpened, and foregrounded systemic inequities, the Black Lives Matter movement, Indigenous movements for social justice such as 1492 Land Back Lane and Idle No More, and the Disability Rights Movement have called upon us, with greater urgency than ever before, to expand the definition and the scope of access, and revitalize writing centres as social justice projects. Continue reading “Announcement || CWCA/ACCR 2021 Conference CfP – Transformative Inclusivity: Social Justice and Writing Centres” →

Asynchronous Affordances: WriteAway’s Pandemic Experience

~ Canadian Writing Centres Association

Vol. 2, No. 5 (Fall 2020)
by Megan Robertson

Megan is a BC ELN (British Columbia Electronic Library Network) Coordinator providing support for tutors and coordinators throughout BC and Alberta.

While the rush to emergency remote teaching occurred out of necessity due to the COVID-19 disruption, writing supports already operating only online have an opportunity to reflect on their existing approaches. WriteAway, British Columbia and Alberta’s online asynchronous writing support consortium of post-secondary students, was first piloted in 2012. Through a series of cautious expansions over several years, the service enters this new reality of online tutoring firmly in its operating stage with eighteen participating institutions. Continue reading “Asynchronous Affordances: WriteAway’s Pandemic Experience” →

Writing: It’s an outdoor vibe

~ Canadian Writing Centres Association

Vol. 2, No. 2 (Fall 2020)
Lauren Mckenzie, Language Specialist
Saint Mary’s University Writing Centre and Academic Communication

Lauren Mckenzie lives in Halifax, Nova Scotia and works at the Writing Centre and Academic Communications at Saint Mary’s University. Lauren is currently completing her MA TESOL and research interests include critical and social justice pedagogy, rebellious thinking, fascination and distraction.

Writing can be a challenging process that takes time, thought, revision, and mental focus. Students are challenged more than ever to find or recreate writing spaces as traditional venues such as the library or student lounges have limited or no availability. However, it is possible to create the mental and environmental conditions that will help you to enjoy the writing process and increase productivity as you adjust to studying from home. Continue reading “Writing: It’s an outdoor vibe” →