Open Admissions and the Construction of Writing Center History: A Tale of Three Models

Abstract

Carino argues that instead of following/believing in the evolutionary (writing clinics evolving to full centers of today) or the dialectical (a center that spurned their given institutional roles as a supplement to classroom work and developed own philosophies) models of writing center history, we, as readers, should focus on a cultural model when thinking about this complicated history. A cultural model of writing center history allows for multiple influences of culture when thinking about he development of the center, as opposed to thinking about only one (i.e. open enrollment of the 60s and 70s).