The Writing Center student leaders asked a great question: what do you do with a passive FYW student, who seems to want more “hands-on” guidance than we should probably give? Consultants already know the best response is not to write new content or brainstem for them. But what are some tips to help them be more active?

It’s a great question, and as a long-winded answer, we took a very fast tour through the history of composition pedagogy, from the 1860s through the early 1990s. What we learned is that our Writing Center consultants are already pretty equipped to answer this question, and their answers resonate with influential schools of thought in Composition: from the Traditionalists, Expressionists, Cognitivists, the revolutionary focus on “Basic Writers,” and even the “Social Turn.”