Call for Proposals: Special Issue of WLN

Rachael Cayley

Special Issue of WLN: Transfer of Learning in the Writing Center

Guest Editors: Dana Lynn Driscoll (Indiana University of Pennsylvania) and Bonnie Devet (College of Charleston)

A vital topic in higher education is transfer of learning, or what is generally known as students’ ability to adapt, apply, or remix prior knowledge and skills in new contexts, including educational, civic, personal, and professional.  As recent writing center scholarship attests, transfer of learning is of key importance to the work we do in writing centers, both with our work with clients but also with our tutors themselves.

For this special issue of the WLN: A Journal of Writing Center Scholarship, we encourage contributors to consider, as starting points, some of the following questions related to transfer and centers:

  • How might transfer be defined and considered in a writing center context?
  • How does transfer help characterize the development of consultants, both novice and expert?
  • How do consultants transfer knowledge between settings?
  • What strategies can consultants use to support and encourage clients’ transfer of prior knowledge and skills during sessions?
  • How do clients use the writing center to transfer writing knowledge between courses?
  • What role do dispositions play in transfer in a writing center context?
  • What can writing center directors do to help prepare tutors to better support transfer?
  • How can transfer of learning be a primary mission for writing centers?

We welcome proposals for articles that are no longer than 3,000 words including Works Cited (fewer if there are figures and/or tables], written in MLA format, and a Tutor’s Column that is no longer than 1,500 words in MLA format including Works Cited. We encourage articles that are RAD-research oriented, practical, or theoretical to consider the above and other questions surrounding transfer.

Proposals of 500 words will be accepted until May 1, 2017. Invitations to submit full articles will be issued by June 1, 2017. Invited authors submit drafts Sept. 1, 2017. Revised manuscripts will be due by Jan. 15, 2018. Send proposals here.