Second Annual Open House

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Second Annual Open House

• University Writing Center
• Cal Poly Pomona

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History

• Renovation and Construction in the old 24-hour
  study room began July 17, 2000.
• First tutor hired August 15, 2000.
• Doors opened for business September 23.
• 793 students served in first quarter of operation.

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History Continued

• In the first year of UWC operation, we served
  1,465 students in more than 10,000 student
  contacts.
• Students came in with writing from 226 separate
  courses in 40 different departments.
• In Fall 2002, 1,477 students were served, more
  than in our entire first year.

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UWC Mission Statement

• To promote student success, including improving
  student retention and graduation rates, by
  providing support for student writing in all
  disciplines and at all levels through appropriate
  advice and feedback in workshops and one-on-one
  tutoring.
• To help students complete required remediation in
  English in a timely and effective manner through
  workshops, study groups, and one-on-one tutoring.

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Mission Statement (Cont.)

• To provide appropriate support to non-native
  speakers of English and other students who need
  to improve their communication skills in Standard
  Written English.
• To provide access and instruction in using
  dictionaries, handbooks, style guides, and other
  resources and materials, in printed and
  electronic form, that will aid students in
  producing well-written, accurately documented,
  appropriately formatted, professional looking
  texts.

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Mission Statement (Cont.)

• To provide student support services for the
  Graduation Writing Test including orientations
  for first-time takers, consultation and workshops
  for those who fail, and accurate information for
  all students.
• To assist faculty in understanding student
  writing problems, integrating writing into their
  courses, making effective assignments, and in
  responding effectively to student writing.

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Mission Statement (Cont.)

• To hire and train a diverse student staff and to
  provide training and work experience that lead
  each individual in the short term to be an
  effective and responsible Writing Center employee
  and that lead in the long term to enhanced career
  opportunities and job effectiveness.

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John Edlund, Director
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Olga Johnson, Office Coordinator
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Our Fall 2003 Staff
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Who Are the Tutors?

• Full or part-time student status at Cal Poly
  Pomona
• B or better in Freshman Composition courses
• At least 3 quarters or 2 semesters of college
• Minimum 3.0 GPA score of 8 or more on the GWT
  (or equivalent)
• Good writing and speaking skills.

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Who Are the Tutors?

• Tutors do not have to be English majors in fact,
  because the UWC is a University-wide service, it
  is best if tutors come from a variety of
  disciplines.
• Tutors also have to pass two UWC tests.
• A multiple-choice Grammar and Proofreadingtest.
• A response to a student paper.

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The Essential Tutor-training Ingredient Pizza
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Tutor Training

• Each new hire is given a 68-page booklet Working
  in the University Writing Center Techniques and
  Strategies for Effective Tutoring.
• On-line WebCT-based training program.
• Each quarter begins with a two-and-a-half hour
  orientation meeting.
• Bi-weekly staff meetings occur throughout the
  quarter.

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Staff Orientation, Winter 2002
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More Staff Orientation
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The One-on-one Conference

• One-on-one appointments are 30-minutes long.
• We are focused on improving the writers skills,
  not just on fixing the paper.
• We are not a grammar fix-it shop or a
  proofreading and editing service.
• We raise issues and offer advice. The writer
  makes decisions about what to revise.

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Making an Appointment

• Students can make appointments at the front desk,
  or by calling [phone].
• Some students are referred by instructors, but
  most visits are initiated by students.
• Walk-in service is possible, but only if a tutor
  is available.
• If a student doesnt show up, the appointment
  will be held for 5 minutes. After that the
  tutoring slot is given to a walk-in.

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The Front Desk
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The Tutoring Plan

• The tutor greets the student, and asks what he or
  she wants to work on.
• The tutor looks at the assignment and skims the
  paper to see what the most important problems
  are.
• The tutor presents a plan for the conference to
  the student and negotiates with the student if he
  or she doesn't agree.  
• The tutor begins to implement the plan, making
  sure that student is engaged, taking notes, and
  making revisions.

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Three Levels of Response

• Global/Rhetorical (Assignment, thesis, arguments,
  evidence, organization, etc.)
• Syntax/Style (Readability, or a sentence-level
  negotiation of meaning.)
• Grammatical Systems (Long-term language
  acquisition issues including grammatical forms,
  idiomatic usage, etc.)

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Typical Tutoring Sessions
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Typical Tutoring Sessions
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Typical Tutoring Sessions
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English Writing Groups

• The UWC supports the developmental writing
  program in the EFL Department with group tutoring
  sessions.
• Each group includes a tutor and up to eight
  students.
• English 095, 098, 099, and 102 students are
  required to attend at least eight group meetings.
• In a typical fall quarter, about 650 students are
  involved in this program.

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English Writing Groups

• A typical group session includes
• Presentation by the facilitator of a handout
  discussing a useful writing technique or
  strategy.
• Group discussion of an assignment one of the
  members is struggling with.
• Student presentations of essay drafts. At each
  meeting the facilitator will ask if anyone has a
  draft to share with the others. This practice
  helps students revise their papers with a sense
  of audience.
• Planning sessions for future Writing Center
  appointments. In many cases it is useful to
  follow up a group tutorial session with a
  one-on-one appointment.

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English Writing Groups

• Student evaluations of the Writing Groups have
  been very positive.
• Last quarter 98 agreed with the statement My
  English Writing Group helped me improve my
  writing.

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Writing Group in Action
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GWT Services

• One-on-one tutoring.
• GWT workshops
• Explain scoring guide and scoring process.
• Thesis development.
• Organizing a college essay.
• Explain sample essays.
• A selection of practice topics.
• GWT information booklet.

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GWT Workshop
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Statistics and Evaluations

• Every student visit to the UWC is recorded in our
  database.
• We track the student, the purpose, and the
  course.
• Every tutorial session is evaluated by the
  student or students, and the answers are also
  input into the database.

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Center Totals By Year

• Year Students Contacts
• 2000-01 1,465 10,492
• 2001-02 1,872 15,363
• 2002-03 1,797 10,950
• As of 1/22/03, about half way through the fiscal
  year.

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01-02 Contacts by PurposeTop Five Categories

• Count of Total
• ENG-GROUP 8,104 53
• REVISE 3,287 21
• COMPUTER 2,977 19
• PROOFREAD 481 3
• WORKSHOP 221 1

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01-02 Students by First Language (Top 5)

• Count Total
• English 627 33
• Spanish 237 13
• Vietnamese 232 12
• Chinese (Cantonese) 221 12
• Chinese (Other) 108 6

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01-02 Students by Ethnicity (Top 5)

• Count of Total
• Asian American 738 39
• Hispanic 425 23
• Visa Student 189 10
• Other 180 10
• White 153 8

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01-02 Students by Major (Top 5)

• Count
• Undeclared 226 12
• Electr Cmptr Eng. 138 7
• Computer Information 129 7
• Business 100 5
• Accounting 80 4

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Evaluation Form

• We ask the student to respond to the following
  statements and questions
• In general, the tutoring session was helpful.
• The tutor helped me understand how to improve my
  writing problems.
• After this tutoring session, I feel more
  confident that I will be able to improve my
  writing.
• My tutor started the session on time.
• Would you recommend this tutor to a friend?

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01-02 Evaluations for Center

• The tutoring session was
• Total Pct.
• Very Helpful 5,881 66
• Helpful 2,511 28
• Somewhat helpful 429 5
• Not helpful 39 0.4

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Poetry Readings

• The Writing Center hosts between two and four
  poetry and fiction readings per quarter,
  organized by Faith Barrett of the EFL Department.
• We have also hosted publication parties for the
  Pomona Valley Review a student-edited literary
  magazine.
• The Writing Center is for talented writers as
  well as struggling ones.

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Poetry Reading in Progress
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Goals for the Future

• Expand GWT Services.
• Implement tutor-training course.
• Offer web-based on-line tutoring.
• Increase opportunities for collaboration with
  faculty across the disciplines.