Kofi #9

As many others have echoed in their blog posts, I think the most important reason that Writing Centers conduct and share their research relates to the sheer breadth of disciplines we see as tutors. Over the past two weeks I have seen a Masters student in Urban Planning, PhD students in Chemistry and Quantitative Sociology, a first-year in Rhetoric, and a senior doing her Thesis (three of these students are English-language learners). The research that we have ready over the course of the semester, particularly the case studies and "Transfer-Based Issues" worksheet, have allowed me to fill the gaps in my own knowledge as a tutor, and meet my individual students as a helpful, resourceful mentor. At the beginning of the semester, I did not have the language to describe grammatical or syntactic transfer, or the knowledge of dialects that might make it possible for me to have more authentic, productive conversations with students who don't speak or write Standard American English.

As far as the IWCC, we might propose some research on the efficacy of discipline-specific Writing Centers, such as those found in the Business school.