Got Guilt? Consultant Guilt in the Writing Center Community

During class discussions, the author's fellow consultants would often lament consultations that could have gone better if they had only known the "rules" of how to handle the situation. They perceived that there were acceptable and unacceptable ways to approach certain situations, rather than a range of flexible choices. The author began to wonder, then, what are these "rules" that infiltrated what she saw as the flexibility and collaborative spirit of the writing center? Following this inquiry, the author explored the current discourse in writing center literature about flexibility and collaboration, with particular focus on two foundational texts--"The Idea of a Writing Center" by Stephen North and "Minimalist Tutoring: Making the Student Do All the Work" by Jeff Brooks--and critiques of them as well. The author then questioned her fellow consultants about when and why they felt guilt following consultations. The pattern she discovered, within a small sample of eleven consultants, revealed that guilt originates in how the writing center community is situated within the larger university and how an individual writing center community is structured. These findings, while disconcerting, help highlight areas in which writing centers can better support their consultants through training and conversations to encourage flexibility, cultivate collaboration, and maintain the health of the writing center community. (Contains 1 figure.)