ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the study that have implications for determining best practices in writing centers, including best practices in tutor training. However, in looking for research on tutor-training efficacy and it examined tutors' perceptions of their abilities. The present study of the Wisconsin-Superior Writing Center (UWSWC) aims to shed light on the ways that changes, particularly changes in tutor training and clientele, manifested in the aboutness of its talk. In writing centers like the UWSWC tutors and student writers talk about writing in order to research and plan, draft, and revise and edit writing projects—projects that arise out of a broad range of coursework and across a variety of genres. Linguistic analysis of writing center talk has been ongoing for over 20 years and even earlier research investigated the content of tutors' and student writers' talk in order to determine how participants constructed expertise and collaborated.
