Kayla Maguire, Manhattanville College, Analyzing First-Year Student Perceptions of the Writing Center
My name is Kayla Maguire, and I am a junior at Manhattanville College. I am a double major in Psychology and Childhood Education, and I am a peer tutor at the Andrew Bodenrader Center for Academic Writing and Composition. I began this research as part of an internship with the Writing Center at Manhattanville in the Fall of 2020, and this poster walks readers through my initial research questions and the goals I had for my research. It also highlights the mission statement of the Writing Center at Manhattanville College, the study that inspired the framework for my research and how I adopted parts of the study for my own research. It then delves into my own research findings based on the survey that I distributed to 34 first-year students in College Writing classes, and the conclusions that I drew from the results of my research. Upon beginning my research, I knew that the COVID-19 pandemic influenced the number of students who booked appointments with the Writing Center and upon learning of the misconceptions that many students across the world of academia have about Writing Centers in general, I wanted to illustrate through my research that the Writing Center is so much more than what these misconceptions convey. By illustrating this, I also wanted to show that though the Writing Center was fully online for the time being, it and the tutors within it, were still there to help students of all different backgrounds with all types of writing.
As stated before, my research questions and goals were born out of my internship with Manhattanville’s Writing center in the Fall of 2020. Reading the mission statement of Manhattanville’s Writing Center also inspired me to display the Writing Center as the collaborative, encouraging environment that myself, other tutors, and directors of the Writing Center feel it is.
However, to achieve these goals, I wanted to first understand how students view the Writing Center and its services. From here, like in the study done by Joseph Cheatle and Margaret Bullerjahn, I wanted to determine whether these perceptions influence student use of the Writing Center. After investigating these aspects, I then wanted to come up with suggestions based on student input I received through my survey for ways the Writing Center could improve and change to depict the image that it wants students to see.
With these goals in mind, I created a survey that assesses first-year student perceptions and knowledge of the Writing Center. I included questions that both students who utilize the Writing Center and students who do not utilize the Writing Center could answer. Some questions allowed for open-ended answers, which allowed students to freely respond when reporting what they think the Writing Center can be used for and how they would describe it to others. Thirteen students described the Writing Center as a helpful and useful place; one other student described it as “non-judgmental”; this is pleasing to hear as it reflects some core characteristics that Manhattanville’s Writing Center identify with. Other questions utilized the Likert Scale such as the question assessing student agreeableness with the statements: “The Writing Center is an editing service”, “The Writing Center is for “bad” writers, and “The Writing Center is only for first-year students”. As stated in the “My Research Findings” section, students mostly reported strong disagreement with the first and third statements, yet most agreed with the statement that the Writing Center is for “bad” writers.
Evidently, there exists a disconnect in which students who do not feel as though they can improve their writing will most likely not utilize the Writing Center because they do not perceive themselves as “bad” writers. There are many things we can do to attempt to eliminate or diminish this misunderstanding among students. I listed some suggestions in the conclusion section of my poster, but what I would most recommend is, firstly, that tutors of the Writing Center have conversations with professors and students in college writing classes that facilitate discussions about the idea of the Writing Center as a space where students of all levels can improve their writing skills. I would also recommend that the Writing Center continue to build their social media presence and make posts that convey the messages that tutors and Manhattanville’s Writing Center preach to students.
While this huge disconnect does exist, there is something to be said about student disagreement with two other major misconceptions about the Writing Center: “The Writing Center is an editing service” and “The Writing Center is only for first-year students”. The fact that students disagree with these statements means that they understand and acknowledge that the Writing Center is #1 a place that can help develop other skills than editing, and #2 a place that can be utilized by students of any academic level. So, it can be concluded that Manhattanville, the Writing Center, and tutors and faculty associated with the Writing Center have done a good job in showing students that we are much more than what many misinformed students believe we are. Conveying that there is always room for writers of any age and ability to improve will be a huge help when attempting to increase the number of students who utilize the Writing Center; I believe that through campus-wide effort, we can change the way students view and utilize the Writing Center.
If you are interested in my research and would like to contact me with any follow-up questions, or comments regarding my research, I can be contacted through my email: kaylamaguire1301@gmail.com. I hope you found this research as interesting and exciting as I do, and I hope that the insight and suggestions for improvement I provided can help you and the Writing Center you advocate for, and support improve and reach more students! It is no easy feat to change the way students see the Writing Center, but our collaborative research and actions can foster new and transformed perceptions and utilization of the Writing Center.
Academic sources are listed on my poster. Photo sources are listed below:
Question Marks – The Origins… – Creativelix.com ⦿ Expressing Concerns
Pencil Cartoon Images, Stock Photos & Vectors | Shutterstock
10 Reasons the U.S. Education System Is Failing (Opinion) (edweek.org)