Alina Vamanu, blog post #9

I have read the chapter "Research in the Writing Center" with a great deal of interest. I think that conducting research on a variety of topics relevant to writing centers is essential to these institutions and to the profession as a whole. For one thing, research enables writing center professionals to acquire a better understanding of the students they work with and attempt to help. For instance, first-generation students may have different writing needs compared to students whose parents are college graduates. Or, international students may benefit from particular tutoring strategies that are not entirely helpful to other groups of U.S.-born students. Research also helps writing center professionals connect with their colleagues and share ideas, useful strategies, or concerns. Conferences and journal publications help cement the profession and make it visible to the academic community and beyond. Lively debates are important ways of keeping abreast of new developments in academia and the broader society, and coming up with creative strategies in response to these changes.

Research in writing centers is essential for numerous reasons. I would be interested in conducting research with international students, ESL students, and non-traditional students to understand their writing needs and the tutoring strategies they find most helpful. I think it would also be interesting to study online tutoring vs. in-person tutoring, and the extent to which different groups of students benefit from them. For instance, one could have a group of students enroll in both online and in-person tutoring sessions, and then interview them to explore the ways in which they respond to each of these two forms of tutoring.

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