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Assistant Dori Critelli (left) and Director Sharon Williams confer at the Writing Center under the watchful eye of George Lyman Nesbitt and Thomas McNaughton Johnston, shown in the photos behind Critelli.
Honoring two innovators
"One misconception about the Writing Center," says Joe Jansen '07, in his sixth semester as a tutor, "is that some students might think the tutors know everything there is to know about writing. At least for me, nothing could be further from the truth, and I think the same goes for most of the people at the Writing Center -- including Sharon. For me, writing, and learning about writing, is a continual process that will never end."
He's right; it does go for Sharon. "How does one learn to be a writer?" Williams asks. "It's a complicated, never-ending process. We help students strengthen specific pieces of writing. And in the process, we teach them strategies that they can continue to use." Trained as an English teacher, Williams arrived on the Hill just in time to be enlisted as assistant director of the Writing Center. The doors opened on Feb. 3, 1987, and the space was dedicated as the Nesbitt-Johnston Writing Center on March 6. Williams and O'Neill spent that first semester doing double duty, handling most of the tutoring themselves while training the first group of 11 tutors from the Class of 1988.
Douglas Hsiao '88, now corporate counsel for Qwest Communications in Denver, was one of them. He discerned a trend that has since become a defining mark of the Writing Center: It's not repair work; it's about getting better. "What I found surprising was that the people who frequently sought help at the Writing Center were not necessarily weak writers who needed remedial work, but were among the strongest writers looking to improve," Hsiao says. He recalls having to "tutor" a senior who had already won a college-wide essay competition. The usual warnings about passive voice and comma splices went out the window; instead, he devoted the conference to offering "fresh eyes" on her argument and how it was organized. "It was a revelation to have a place in college where you could receive that kind of independent peer review of your work," he says.
But if the fundamental principles of student tutoring and writing as a process of revision and improvement seemed novel in the academic climate of the '80s, they also evolved in part from a rich tradition in the teaching of composition at Hamilton itself -- a legacy of the two Hamilton figures for whom the Writing Center is named, George Lyman Nesbitt and Thomas McNaughton Johnston. Nesbitt was Hamilton's valedictorian in 1924 and returned to teach English in 1930, chairing the department from 1952 until 1968 and retiring as Hamilton B. Tompkins Professor of English in 1973. Johnston taught from 1934 until 1972, retiring as Marjorie and Robert W. McEwen Professor of English.
In a neat bit of historical continuity, John O'Neill arrived in 1972 to replace Johnston, and he found in the teaching legacy of the two senior professors a prescient approach to writing. Nesbitt had, decades earlier, arranged for students to exchange papers and get together in small groups to provide feedback to one another about their writing. And the professors had encouraged their students to turn in multiple drafts of papers, continually revising their work.
"They didn't have the jargon -- it didn't exist yet -- but they understood about writing being a process very early on," O'Neill says. "It caught on elsewhere in the 1980s, after Tom and George were dead. I don't want to claim that they and Hamilton originated it, but it was certainly used very early here -- as far back as the 1930s." In dedicating the Nesbitt-Johnston Writing Center in their memory, Hamilton was not only honoring two remarkable professors but also adapting their progressive vision of writing instruction to new needs and technologies.
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"Working as a writing tutor became more fun and fresh with each passing year, and if you think about it, that cannot be said of most activities and jobs."
John Doench ’00
"Undoubtedly, Hamilton’s emphasis on written communication has served me in great and small ways. No matter what kind of job you have, your ability to write a coherent argument is a skill that will serve you."
Doug Hsiao ’88
"Through working at the Writing Center, I have become a much more organized writer. Most of the papers that students bring in generally lack a cohesive structure and attention to nuance. Through teaching others to pay attention to the organizational techniques of writing, I’ve gotten better at effectively communicating my ideas."
Laura Hartz ’07
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