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Writing Center continues to make its mark
with student-focused approach
The Chillicothe Campus Writing Center continues to make its mark with its ability to help students learn the craft of effective writing while further fostering the sense of a learning community on campus. In fact, business is booming this academic year, with traffic up approximately 25 percent in fall quarter 2009 compared to the previous year, according to Writing Center Coordinator Debra Nickles.
The center’s success is built on a student-centered approach that focuses on peer education and encourages students to become critical thinkers in written communication. The center’s tutors are Chillicothe Campus students who can most easily relate to their classmates and continue classroom teaching in a more personalized setting.
“The best aspect of peer-to-peer tutoring is that tutors, as students themselves, have great insights into what it means to be a student here on the Chillicothe Campus and what is expected from various instructors,” Nickles said. “Finding that common ground as students builds trust in a way that may be somewhat unique to the Learning Commons. For example, when tutors offer guidance on writing assignments, they often have a great sense of what the instructor may be looking for and sometimes have more one-on-one time with students to talk openly about specific issues that instructors identify. We really see a lot of work as an extension of what goes on in the classroom, only in a one-on-one setting.”
The Writing Center, which is part of the Learning Center, is located in Quinn Library and shares space with the Math Center.
Brandi Weaver, a Huntington High School graduate, is a Writing Center veteran tutor of four years. She earned her bachelor’s degree from Ohio University in 2007 and is pursuing a library information degree from Kent State University while taking some classes at Chillicothe Campus.
"The students who visit the center are put at ease when they realize that the tutors are also students,” Weaver said. “They tend to open up more around us, and it helps when they see we have similar perspectives and that we feel their pain, in terms of juggling school and other responsibilities.
“The most fulfilling aspect is working with students and seeing them make improvement," Weaver added. "Sometimes you can see that light bulb go off in their heads when they understand a new concept.”
Other student tutors, like Caleb Marhoover and Sarah Cook, agree that the approach is effective.
“Peer to peer tutoring, unlike student-professor relationships, can
be relaxed and highly individualized,” said
Marhoover, a geology major from Eastern High School. “We can provide a
tutee with thoughtful suggestions that are grafted singularly and not
blanket statements meant to generally benefit a large group of
students.”
Cook, a middle childhood education, English language arts & social studies major from Beavercreek, said that the opportunity for interaction between tutors and tutees is key to success.
“Occasionally, fast-paced university-level classes may not allow the one-on-one instruction time that some students require," Cook said. "If students come into the Writing Center a bit overwhelmed by a task that lies ahead, simply having an assignment explained from another perspective may make it clearer to the student.”
This peer-to-peer approach enables tutors to meet the needs of the varying learning styles innate to Chillicothe Campus's diverse student body.
“Speaking as a prospective teacher, I know that good instruction must be a reflective process," Cook added. "Helping one another make it through a difficult assignment or simply brainstorming ideas together creates a unique community of collaborative learners on our regional campus. It is through constant practice and our own interaction and discussion with our peers that we become better tutors."
The Writing Center’s staff strives to help student-users learn and apply skills that are durable and not just focused on the assignment at hand.
“We take a writer-oriented, not a product-oriented approach,” Nickles said. “We are not an editing service, but we talk with students about the writing process and how to apply the critical thinking process to their writing at all times. We are looking to redefine the meaning of the word ‘tutor’ and break out of the remedial connotation. Rather, the center is for individuals who want to go more deeply into their writing and their learning.”
The center maintains a close relationship with faculty members on campus to better understand their expectations. In fact, many of the tutors are recommended by instructors. The center has been involved in outreach activities, with quarterly writing contests that allow Chillicothe Campus students to demonstrate their creative writing talents and workshops on relevant topics such as research writing and APA style. To offer a range of insights and breadth of knowledge, the center looks to identify tutors from across the curriculum.
Its location in the library makes use of other resources, such as library staff members, as well as helping to strengthen the library’s role as the academic hub of campus.
“What really makes the Writing Center so effective is the thoughtfulness and dedication of each student-tutor,” Nickles said. “They really deserve kudos for juggling their own work, academics and personal life so well while at the same time providing top-notch feedback on writing.”
“More faculty members are finding the center’s services useful and are inviting us into their classrooms to offer brief research brush-ups," Nickles added, "and by requesting that their students work with the center before submitting papers and projects. Quite a few instructors have said that they notice a big difference in the students’ work once we have worked with them.”
The center has expanded its hours of operation this academic year to 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Thursday and noon to 4 p.m. on Friday. Walk-ins are welcome, but students are encouraged to make an appointment by calling (740) 774-779 or by e-mailing the coordinator at nickles@ohio.edu.
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