Constellating Identities and Workplace Genres in Writing Center Discourse

Abstract

This study investigates the ways in which blank, written workplace genres mediate relationships and identities in the writing center. Forms developed for scheduling and recordkeeping are part of everyday practices that administrators, tutors, and student writers think little about, and attention should be given to these forms because they are often the first and last points of interaction the writing center has with student writers. Although these documents are typically thought of as outside the session, I situate these forms as literacy objects bound up in a sequence of literacy events that bookend a session in the writing center. Therefore, this project takes up a broader conception of a session that includes the written workplace genres that bring those events into being -- the client intake form and client report form -- both of which are studied within the context of their intended use, their actual use, and how they have changed over time. The analytical framework designed for this study brings together theories of genres, speech-acts, and performativity to account for the ways in which generic forms mediate the writing center workplace and affect the bodies that move through it.