Muriel "Mickey" Harris, Ph.D. and Elizabeth Foster, WLN
Muriel “Mickey” Harris, Ph.D., is the founder of the Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL) and founder and editor in chief of WLN: A Journal of Writing Center Scholarship. Elizabeth Foster is an assistant editor at WLN.
What is WLN's mission?
MH: To help writing center people communicate with each other and share their knowledge. WLN was the first journal long before there was even a field of writing centers. We just started as a little newsletter to keep in touch because there are so many people who have not had either a formal experience or education in writing centers. We were trying initially to reach that audience, helping each other learn about writing centers. There were no books, no journals, nothing. There are still people entering the field, but there are now very experienced writing center people who’ve been around for years looking for new ideas and ways to develop their writing centers further. We have a range of audiences of people, and we invite people to share their work and scholarship, their ideas, their insights, and that goes through tutors. We’ve always had a tutors’ column, written by and for tutors.
What skills do you think are most important for someone interested in an editorial career?
EF: One skill that I find really important is just knowing which fights are important for you to pick and which fights are not. Sometimes you will have very strong opinions on something, and it’s a very valuable skill to just be able to say, ‘This is not precisely how I would have placed that comma, but you know what, it’s fine, it’s fine, it’s correct, MLA is not going to come down on us, and we all have more important things to do.’ Having that humility and that ability to view your perspective as one among many, and appreciate when it’s time to move on.
How many times would you say an article is revised?
MH: I don’t think any article ever goes out without a couple of revisions. I think that’s a testament to everything we write can be better through revision. We’ve had some instances where there was some grain of something that was worth publishing, and it took three, four, five revisions. It depends.
How long did it take you to find your editorial communication style?
MH: Writing is a process. It never ends. I don’t think you’ll find it. I think you just keep growing. I wish I could say, ‘Here’s what you do, and you’ll find it in three weeks.’ It just doesn’t work. You just keep working at it.
EF: When you’re working in fundraising, oftentimes there’s a lot of group editing, and unlike WLN, we don’t always have a clear consensus among the group of what our goals really are. I’ve used a lot of organizational skills and the importance of making sure everyone really does have a voice in the process. That’s been very helpful to me in my kind of day job work.
How has your work in writing centers influenced your work as editors?
MH: I just had so many new ideas from things that people sent in. I got so inspired to bring it into our writing lab. I’m so privileged I get to read all this stuff all the time. It influenced my work as a writing center person, but it also gave me a broader perspective on the field, and a couple of times it raised questions in my mind. Someone was writing about something, and it stirred some idea that I had to go off on my own quest to answer my questions. They provoke questions in me.
WLN offers submission opportunities for writing center tutors for its “Tutor Voices” column.
— Megan Hayes '22