Tutoring Translingual Writers: The Logistics of Error and Ingenuity

The writing center is perfectly positioned to take the lead in institutional responses to the exigencies of translingualism. Translingual writers—writers who move with variable facility between linguistic and rhetorical expression in two or more languages— present challenges and opportunities for writing center workers. At the core of writing center work with translingual writers is the question of how we can help writers find voice and agency in environments that ostensibly privilege standardization in language use. Translingual writers in the writing center challenge us to push the boundaries of institutional support for writers whose linguistic multiplicity results in innovative, non-traditional discourse.