What makes a Writing Center Experience Useful? Perceptions of Native, Non-native, and Generation 1.5 Writers

Grant Eckstein; Kate Matthews

Praxis: A Writing Center Journal 2024 web Open Access

What makes a Writing Center Experience Useful? Perceptions of Native, Non-native, and Generation 1.5 Writers

Grant Eckstein ; Kate Matthews

Abstract

Within universities, writing centers are often seen as service providers that allow students to receive support and feedback on their writing. The usefulness of writing centers has been evaluated by things such as total number of visits and return visits, students’ trust and comfort in asking tutors questions, and tutors’ overall knowledge of writing concepts. But few researchers have shone light on students’ own perceptions of the usefulness of a writing center, especially perceptions between native English (NES), non-native English (NNES), and Generation 1.5 students. We did just that by sending a usefulness survey to 800 universities across the U.S. We analyzed the data from 463 student responses to these surveys using non-parametric statistics and found that NNES and Generation 1.5 students reported more difficulty making an appointment than NES writers. They also reported being slightly less likely to ask their tutor questions, trust their tutors, and return to the writing center, which is perhaps the most important outcome of usefulness. This information can help writing center administrators better anticipate multilingual writers’ needs and take steps to improve informational materials and the writing center experience for these writers which may increase their overall attendance.

Journal: Praxis: A Writing Center Journal
Published: 2024
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Open Access: OA PDF Gold
Topics: writing centers multilingual writers
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What makes a Writing Center Experience Useful? Perceptions of Native, Non-native, and Generation 1.5 Writers

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