Collaboration and Conflict in Writing Center Session Notes

This paper investigates the question of conflict in writing center sessions. Using a corpus of session notes from a large public university, I argue that there is a discrepancy in the reportage of conflict in writing center sessions: on the one hand, conflict in session notes from tutors to tutees tends to be concealed in linguistic markers of agreement; on the other hand, instances of disagreement are generally easily acknowledged to writing center administration, but not students. This incongruity and different attitudes in the reportage invite further debate about the role of conflict in tutor tutee interactions, especially as it bears on the improvement of writing. I offer a critique of the orthodoxy of conflict avoidance in writing center theory and practice, and call for more attention both to the genre of the session note as a site of writing center practice and the question of conflict as it relates to tutor-tutee interactions.University Writing Cente