Overview of The Writing Center Activities—January 2006

 

In June 2005 The Writing Center moved from its second location in two and a half years to Liberal Arts 144. The new location provides three tutoring stations, office space for one full-time adjunct faculty, and a reception area. Phone, email, and website contacts remain unchanged. Tutors report a significant increase in the number of students who drop by the Center to ask questions and make appointments. 

 

1.  Tutoring

 

The Writing Center is open for tutoring weekdays for 11 weeks in autumn semester, 15 weeks in spring semester.  Limited tutoring hours are offered in wintersession and the first session of summer school. During autumn and spring semesters, we offer six to nine hours of evening tutoring for non-native speakers of English exclusively; these students are also welcome to make appointments during our daytime hours. The Center offers tutoring six hours per week in the Academic Support Center of the College of Technology.

 

Tutoring sessions last 30-90 minutes and take the form of a structured conversation between tutor and student on the strengths and weaknesses of the student’s thinking, planning, and writing in the context of a specific assignment. Tutors are professional teachers and not peer tutors. Most tutors have advanced degrees and prior teaching experience when they are hired; each is trained and evaluated throughout each academic year of their employment. The majority of all tutoring sessions focus on planning or revising papers for classes and admissions applications.

 

In addition to coaching students on writing papers, The Writing Center helps students prepare to take or retake the UDWPA. Tutors do not teach the UDWPA texts but show students how to read a text actively. They supply students with reading questions and practice essay questions as well as feedback prior to each exam. The tutors are also trained in the UDWPA scoring rubric and are available after an exam to interpret the results of the exam for each student who requests this service.

 

Table 1. History of visit totals and capacity Autumn 2002-Autumn 2005.

 

Semester

A ‘02

S ‘03

A ’03

S ’04

A ’04

S ’05

A ’05

S ’06

Client visits

624

975

1,131

1337

989

1,099

1,200

 

 

UM-Mtn. hrs/wk

 

 

34

 

34

 

39

 

45

 

39

 

44

 

39

 

41

COT hrs/wk

6

6

6

6

6

6

6

6

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Table 2. Clients by academic class, Autumn 2005.

 

Class

# of Students n = 606

Percent of Total

Freshmen

190

31.0

Sophomore

53

8.7

Junior

121

20.0

Senior

207

34.0

Graduate

25

4.0

 

Table 3. Clients by academic concentration, Autumn 2005.

 

College or School

# of Students n =606

Percent of total

Arts and Sciences

224

37.0

    Biological Sciences

38

6.2

Forestry

25

4.1

Fine Arts

28

4.6

Journalism

19

3.1

Education

63

10.0

Health Professions

36

6.0

Business Administration

105

17.3

General (Undeclared)

62

10.0

 

 

2.  Workshops

 

The Writing Center director and staff lead in-class workshops customized to meet the instructional goals of the instructors who request them. The workshops range from a 20-minute overview of The Writing Center’s services and how to use them, to multi-hour workshops that teach students how to better address the writing demands in a specific course or discipline. The Writing Center staff offer two separate preparatory workshops for the UDWPA prior to each exam date. This year, we offer each workshop twice before each exam. Workshop I shows students how best to prepare for the exam through a close reading strategy and an explicit test-taking strategy. Workshop II shows students how to structure an essay of the type expected for the UDWPA.

 

Table 4. Writing Center workshops offered Autumn 2002-Autumn 2005.

 

Semester

A ‘02

S ‘03

A ‘03

S ‘04

A ‘04

S ‘05

A ‘05

S ‘06

WPA workshops

4

6

14

9

9

13

8

12

 

WPA Workshop attendees

 

 

65

 

123

 

311

 

213

 

127

 

265

 

244

 

In-class workshops

12

32

31

27

31

14

27

 

 

 

3.  Writing Assistant Program

 

The Writing Assistant Program pairs student writing assistants with instructors of courses that have a significant writing requirement. The job of the writing assistant is to respond to student papers in writing before those papers are turned into the instructor for a grade.

All WAs are hired, trained, scheduled, and supervised by The Writing Center; most are UM graduate students. Instructors may request a writing assistant every semester.

 

Table 5. History of Writing Assistant effort, Spring 2003-Autumn 2005.

 

Semester

S ‘03

A ‘03

S ‘04

A ‘04

S ‘05

A ‘05

S ‘06

Writing Assistants

7

8

12

6

8

5

5

WA hours

200

318

345

130

223

132

 

WA faculty

8

6

11

4

9

8

 

 

4.  TESOL Practicum

 

Students enrolled in Linguistics 494, an Applied Linguistics practicum, observe or tutor non-native speakers of English in The Writing Center during the tutoring hours reserved for ESL students. Approximately 25 students in Linguistics 494 have participated in the program since it began in Sept. 2002.

 

5.  Academic courses

 

The Writing Center offers two sections each semester of  Critical Writing II (UNC 270). Class size is capped at 22 and approximately 30 students complete the course each semester. The course teaches students to analyze their writing tasks, read critically, and write in an orderly, well-developed, and clear fashion. An online version of UNC 270 was developed and offered in 2005; it will be offered again in autumn 2006.

 

6.  Media

 

The Writing Center website was redesigned in summer 2005 to make it more accessible to users, easier to update, and reflective of recent changes to the implementation of the UDWPA. Advice on how to prepare for the UDWPA was expanded and instructional handouts for faculty and students were added. The website is at www.umt.edu/writingcenter. The former website for the UDWPA is no longer in service.

 

Each semester the Writing Center Bulletin is issued to all faculty to inform them of our programs and hours for the new semester. The Bulletin also offers instructional tips and updates the faculty on new or existing Writing Center programs.

 

7.  Writing Mentor Program

 

The UM Educational Opportunity Program (EOP) contracted with The Writing Center this year to pilot a new program to help EOP students prepare to meet UM’s writing proficiency requirements. The Writing Center designed and scored a 30-minute writing assessment for students enrolled in the EOP sections of C&I 160. Working closely with the course instructors, Center staff is advising the students in these sections on the steps

Writing Mentor Program (cont.)

 

they need to take to meet UM’s writing proficiency standards as they progress towards a degree. In autumn 2005, 124 students were assessed and 25 students met with Writing Mentors for advising on w-course selection, writing issues, and the UDWPA. The program will continue through spring 2006 before EOP decides whether to continue it or not.

 

8.  Administration of the UDWPA

 

The Writing Center administers the Upper Division Writing Proficiency Assessment with the assistance of the Registrar’s Office. The exam is offered six times per academic year.

 

Table 6. Summary of student performance by semester Autumn 2002-Autumn 2005.

 

Semester

A ’02

S ’03

A ’03

S ’04

A ’04

S ’05

A ’05

WPA attempts

572

697

1,665

537

985

1,654

922

WPA passes

295

474

1,076

285

550

904

611

WPA fails

277

223

589

252

435

750

311

% passing

51.5

68.0

64.6

53.0

55.8

54.6

66.2

% test pick-up

28.0

29.0

19.0

-

-

-

20.0/40.0

 

Table 7. Summary of attempts required by students who

      have passed, Autumn 2001-Autumn 2005.

 

Passed on Attempt #

 

 

Passing Students

n =5,403

 

%

1

4,076

75.0

2

841

15.5

3

288

5.3

4

125

2.3

5-9

73

1.35

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

September 2005 UDWPA Exam: Student Attributes

 

●          75% of those who registered took the exam                  388/514

●          58.5%  passed the exam                                               227/388

●          21% were retaking the exam                                         82/388

●          59% had 90 or more credits                                         229/388

●          15% had 69 or fewer credits                                         58/388

●          58.5% had GPA of 3.0 or higher                                  219/374

●          39.5% had no grade recorded for ENEX 101               153/388

●          10% passed with no ENEX or W-course                      39/388

●          19.8% of those failed had no ENEX or W-course         32/161

 

 

 

Sept. 2005 Exam Data

 

#

Attribute

Passed (n=227)

Failed (n=161)

 

 

Total

%

%

Total

1

A in ENEX

63

27.7

24.2

39

2

A/B in ENEX

113

49.7

54.0

87

3

Ψ LD w-course

90

39.6

47.0

76

4

1 LD w-course

126

55.5

49.0

79

5

2 LD w-course

38

16.7

8.0

13

6

1 UD w-course

79

34.8

34.7

56

7

2 UD w-course

27

11.8

8.0