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  Proposal Deadline: March 15, 2008
  Acceptance Notification: June 1, 2008

   Proposal Form

   Sample Proposal

   Session Types
            Individual presentation (we will put you on a panel with others)

Panel (two or more individual presentations linked by a theme)

Roundtable (directed discussions on a particular topic)

Performance Art (alternative depictions of research using music, art, dance, film,
            etc.)

Research Fair (a poster session highlighting projects in process)

SIGS (Special Interest Group meetings)

 Call for Proposals

Alternate Routes: New Directions in Writing Center Work
This year's theme invites us to consider where writing centers have been and where they  are going. As the pioneer trails of early writing centers have developed into well-traveled roads and information superhighways, what are the new directions for writing centers?
The road metaphor lends itself to some intriguing discussions.

Intersections
Consider the intersections between various groups:
            Student Affairs and Academic Affairs/Individual Departments
            Composition Programs and Writing Centers
            Undergraduate Peer Tutors and Graduate Student Tutors
            Secondary Education, Two-Year Colleges, and Universities

            How do Community Writing Centers influence the town/gown dichotomy?
            What lies ahead for writing center and library collaborations?

Overpasses
          What if there really are no lower order concerns?
            What do L-2 (ESL) writers teach us about creative composition?
            What are best practices for writing centers in collaboration with academic affairs?
            What are new and future configurations of writing centers within the institutional
            structure?
         
Scenic Loops
          Has writing center practice reached a cul-de-sac? A dead end?
            What are the particulars of tutoring in the Sciences?  Technology?
            How do writing centers support or interact with WAC programs?
            How do writing centers best serve writers and their communities, academic or
            otherwise?
            What is on the horizon in terms of technology in writing centers?
            What will be the best vehicles for learning in the future writing center?

U-Turns
            How is tutoring similar to the post-modern composition classroom experience?
            When can Writing Centers be directive?
            How does graduate student tutoring qualify as peer tutoring?
            How might we productively question received truths of writing center practice?

Blue Highways
          Off-roading and touring without a map—how does a writing center do that?
          In what direction are new international regional organizations going?
             What happens on the road less traveled—when writing centers depart from common
             paths to success?

We invite you take this journey with us.  The first steps are to submit conference proposals and to register for the conference. The IWCA/NCPTW conference welcomes a variety of participants from among administrators and tutors who are undergraduates, graduate students, and professionals from all varieties of writing centers--university, two-year college, secondary school, and community centers. We look forward to your participation.