Recall, Recognise, Re-Invent: The Value of Facilitating Writing Transfer in the Writing Centre Setting

Abstract

The Writing Centre in Maynooth University, Ireland, is proud of its learner-centred approach (Biggs 1999, Lea et al. 2003. In the Centre we begin where students are, by asking them about their writing concerns. We also appreciate the need to recognise and build on their approaches to writing, their effective writing processes and their writing achievements. We see this under the broader heading of 'writing transfer'. In this article, we outline our strategies to promote transfer and thinking about transfer with students before and after one-to-one appointments. In a small-scale research project we conducted, our research questions accentuated two potential principles of transfer, as noted in the Elon Statement on Writing Transfer, that '[s]uccessful writing transfer occurs when a writer can transform rhetorical knowledge and rhetorical awareness into performance … [when they] draw on previous knowledge and strategies … [and] … transform or repurpose that prior knowledge, if only slightly', and that University programs can 'teach for transfer ' (Perkins and Salomon 1988) through the use of enabling practices (Elon 2013: 4). Our work suggests that highlighting transfer in the writing centre context reinforces our learner-centred approach while also acknowledging the literacy archives with which our students present.

SWIFT beginnings – exploring the effectiveness and transformative character of a Summer Writing Institute For Teachers (SWIFT)

“…Accepting writing's essential function in meaning making and finding, knowing and becoming, we assert that in education supporting writing matters. Because 'all writers always have more to learn about writing' (Rose, 2016, p. 59), and because 'learning to write effectively requires different kinds of practice, time, and effort' (Blake Yancey, 2016, p. 64) when we work with writers we help them to develop effective writing processes and to foster writing transfer which we hope will facilitate flexibility, agility and cross genre competence (Anson & Moore, 2016;Farrell & Tighe-Mooney, 2015;Moore & Bass, 2017;Yancey, Robertson, & Taczak, 2014). In this regard, we are concerned certainly with text production but also with writerly identity, acknowledging Thomson and Kamler's belief that these two things cannot be disentangled: 'Text work and identity work are inseparable' (2016, p. 21).…”

“…From our examination of the NWP model, and given the success it had achieved in the US, we believed that it could be repurposed to serve local cohorts. We were drawn to the model because of its alignment with our thinking and ethos, and our institutional and sectoral commitments (Farrell & Tighe-Mooney, 2015). In addition, we wished to learn more about how we might best support teachers of writing and writers on campus; centralised support for writing in our university is currently provided under the auspices of the Centre for Teaching and Learning, hence, it is unsurprising that our work is influenced by the substantial literature in this area that seeks to value and support colleagues as writers (Bolton & Rowland, 2014;Elbow & Belanoff, 2003;Geller & Eodice, 2013;Kitchin & Fuller, 2005;O'Farrell & Fitzmaurice, 2013;Sword, 2012;Wisker, 2013).…”