Books (Centre for Language and Speech Technology (CLaST))

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Changing spaces: Writing centres and access to higher education
(SUN PRESS, 2011) Archer, Arlene; Richards, Rose
INTRODUCTION: Nowadays most tertiary institutions in South Africa boast a writing centre, some of them more than one. University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) and University of Cape Town (UCT) have a general writing centre each and also a Law writing centre, for example. Most of the writing centres are permanent fixtures and many have permanent staff. This book serves to outline differing theoretical approaches to writing which underpin the various centres, as well as differing implementation of some of these theories in particular social and political contexts. It showcases writing centres from seven institutions in South Africa and reflects on practices in these differing contexts. It situates all of this in terms of some of the tensions writing centres around the world experience, such as the relation between the generic and the discipline-specific in teaching writing, the extent to which writing centres need to engage with the increasingly multimodal requirements in student assignments, the placement of writing centres in institutions, and degrees of perceived legitimacy and authority. The unique South African context shows the significance of these issues in sharp relief.