Statement of Purpose

Statement of Purpose

We provide individual onsite and remote writing support to all members of the Macalester community at every stage of their writing processes. We partner with other departments and offices across campus and at other institutions to promote research and development in writing and writing pedagogy. Our undergraduate peer writing tutors consult with student writers and support research into writing pedagogy, center policies and programming, and campus outreach. 

Because we serve a diverse community at an institution dedicated to inclusivity and global citizenship, we acknowledge that writing pedagogy, like all of higher education, has equal potential for oppressive or liberatory power, and we strive to cultivate the latter while dismantling the former. We recognize that our students do not come to Macalester with uniform skills, educational backgrounds, privileges, and intellectual capital, and that none should suffer academically as a result of those differences. We are determined to increase access to liberatory knowledge for all students and to develop a daily practice of anti-oppressive pedagogies. 

This work includes a commitment to outreach and education about the broad validity of various world Englishes and their dialects, and the sociopolitical implications of academic writing. It includes our support for writers from historically marginalized or oppressed groups, such as international and/or multilingual students, first-generation students, and students of color; and for conversations about writing that challenge historical notions of “standard” academic English by interrogating and broadening traditional conceptions of audience, purpose, and meaning. With faculty and student collaboration, we strive toward a common understanding of effective assignment design, writing process and assessment, and writer development, in the hope of reaching a more consistent, humane, and equitable definition of success in writing.