The Dangling Modifier: Call for Papers Spring 2022 Issue
Responding in the Writing Center, the Writing Center Responding
Response constitutes so much of the daily practice in writing centers. As fluid spaces where many personnel and departments overlap and intersect, those who work in and run writing centers necessarily respond to a variety of situations, issues, and needs. In addition to these acts of responding, tutors also must accurately gauge the responses of the students with whom they work as well as facilitate students’ responses to the expectations and challenges of given writing contexts. Furthermore, this thematic presence of response exceeds the daily practice of individuals in centers, for writing centers must also respond to situations as an organization: tutors and administrators, as a set of individuals, collectively respond to the sweeping challenges of our unpredictable reality (such as, say, a pandemic) and the collective needs of the writers who they serve.
Accordingly, The Dangling Modifier’s theme for this issue is response. Contributors are welcome and encouraged to follow their interests within this expansive theme; the notion of response is intended as a starting point, not a boundary. Nor must response be considered in a monolithic way, as it is undoubtedly a word with many dimensions–some examples being affective, practical, and verbal forms of responding. Below are only a few examples of possible questions to address:
- How can tutors help students best respond to new genres in which they are writing (e.g., research papers, discussion board posts, narratives) or new genres they are encountering (e.g., assignments sheets, syllabi)?
- How can a tutor control their personal response as well as mediate a student’s response to overly harsh, negative, maybe even discriminatory professor feedback?
- Does tutoring experience affect the way a teacher responds to student writing?
- In what ways do teachers use the writing center in response to students’ needs?
- What are the best ways to respond to conflict in the writing center? (Tutor to tutor conflict, tutor to student, student to teacher, tutor to admin, admin to admin, student to admin, etc.)
- As writing tutors, writing program administrators, and students, how do we respond to uncontrollable circumstances (i.e. pandemic, weather, funding, university expectations)?
- Do different tutoring formats (online synchronous, online asynchronous, and in-person) change the way tutors respond to students?
In keeping with the spirit of the previous issue of The Dangling Modifier, we welcome more creative and playful submissions beyond traditional personal essays and research projects. We will gladly accept:
- Graphic memoirs
- Comics
- Poetry
- Creative Nonfiction
- Visual Art with Brief Artist Statement (Drawing, painting, pottery, sculpting, etc.)
We accept both short and long-form submissions (please send an email query if over 2,500 words). Submissions should adhere to MLA style when appropriate.
Deadline: February 1st, 2022
Email submissions and inquiries to danglingmodifier.mtsu@gmail.com