ATHENS– The Southeastern Writing Center Association (SWCA) has added a new interactive map to their home page, showing all of the universities in the Southeast with institutional memberships. Athens State University is one of 5 universities shown from Alabama currently represented on an interactive map for the SWCA.
The SWCA was founded in 1981 to advance literacy; to further the theoretical, practical, and political concerns of writing center professionals; and to serve as a forum for the writing concerns of students, faculty, staff, and writing professionals from both academic and nonacademic communities in the Southeastern region of the United States. The SWCA includes in its designated region North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Kentucky, Puerto Rico, and the American Virgin Islands.
“I’m glad we have an institutional membership and are representing our area well!” states Writing Center Director Dr. Tony Ricks.
Ricks recently completed two years of service (Feb. 2012-Feb. 2014) as the Alabama Representative for the SWCA. State Representatives serve in SWCA board-approved positions tasked with promoting the organization and its events. Ricks promoted the organization by establishing an email listserv for state Writing Center directors, planning statewide events for directors and tutors, and securing funding from the SWCA for these events.
The SWCA holds an annual regional conference every February. The next conference will be at Lipscomb University in Nashville from Feb. 19-21, 2015. The theme is “Identities in Consultation: Diversity in the South and Beyond.”
The Athens State Writing Center is staffed with peer writing advisors—students —who work with their peers on various academic and professional writing assignments. Writing advisors engage writers in conversation about their writing, pose questions, and discuss revision strategies. Writing advisors do not edit, proofread, or write texts for their peers—although they do have productive, educational ways to discuss grammar, editing skills, and proofreading.
MEDIA RELEASE/ATHENS STATE UNIVERSITY/GUY MCCLURE, JR.
