Local Practices, Institutional
Positions:
Results from the 2003-2004 WCRP National Survey of Writing Centers
Between
September 2004 and March 2005, the Writing Centers Research Project
(WCRP) at
the
We announced our survey through an e-mail contact list,[1] the Wcenter listserv, the Writing Lab Newsletter, and the Writing Center Journal, inviting writing center directors to fill out the survey at the WCRP website. One benefit of the online survey is that the data from previous surveys remain, so returning respondents only need to record new data. In the long term, the online database will allow us to track changes over time. However, such benefits come at the cost of overall reliability: because we do not know the exact number of potential respondents (as researchers using a mailed survey would), we have no sense of how many people did not respond to our survey. For future surveys, as we announce through more channels and as more directors reply, we hope to gain a larger, more inclusive sample.
Another limitation involves the options respondents had for answering the survey questions. Many questions received non-responses (blanks or zeroes), which were difficult to interpret since the survey did not provide “Don’t Know” and “Not Applicable” response options. For instance, when many directors did not give a response to the question about the total number of OWL conferences, we were uncertain whether they responded this way because they did not have OWLs or because they did not keep track of the number of those conferences. The structure of some questions made it difficult to interpret non-responses. For this reason, in our analysis we will take percentages from the number of respondents who gave a quantifiable answer for each particular question, and not from the total number of survey respondents. We will also speculate on plausible reasons for the lack of responses to certain questions, which we hope will illuminate the lack of data in some areas.
In addition to the limitations of our survey instrument, we were faced with a problem inherent to making categorical statements about writing centers: local practices at writing centers are so varied that it was difficult to make useful connections between survey categories or to make generalizations on the national level. On the one hand, the diversity of responses indicates the flexibility of writing centers in meeting local needs as they cross traditional institutional boundaries in terms of location and staff. On the other hand, this diversity may make it difficult to draw conclusions about “typical” writing center administration or about how writing centers “ought” to operate. For this reason, readers should be careful when comparing the statistics presented here with the records from their own writing centers.
As
Table 1 shows,
the bulk of the 245 respondents came from 4-year comprehensive
universities
(with MA or specialist degree programs), research universities, 4-year
liberal
arts colleges, 2-year post-secondary colleges, and other post-secondary
institutions (for example, theological and pharmaceutical schools).
Writing
centers at secondary institutions made up such a small part of the
overall
response that they were removed from data analysis beyond the overall
response (see
Tables 1 and 2). While much can be learned from the writing centers at
secondary institutions, it was impossible to glean any meaningful
conclusions
from seven high schools.
Table 1: Respondents by Institution Type n=245
|
Institution Type |
# Respondents |
% Respondents |
|
|
|
|
|
Comprehensive |
66 |
27 |
|
Research |
61 |
25 |
|
4-Year Liberal Arts |
58 |
24 |
|
2-Year Post-Secondary |
47 |
19 |
|
Other |
6 |
2 |
|
Secondary |
7 |
3 |
As Table 2 shows, the majority of
respondents came from public institutions. Five institutions could
identify
themselves as neither public nor private.
Table 2: Public vs. Private Response n=240
|
Institution Type |
Public |
Private |
|
|
|
|
|
Comprehensive |
42 |
23 |
|
Research |
44 |
16 |
|
4-Year Liberal Arts |
9 |
46 |
|
2-Year Post-Secondary |
47 |
0 |
|
Other |
3 |
3 |
|
Secondary |
3 |
4 |
|
Totals |
148 |
92 |
The
following
sections do not represent all of the data culled from the WCRP survey.
Survey
questions often asked for data by semester or quarter (for example, one
question asks how many tutors/consultants worked in the writing center
each
term in the 2003-2004 academic year). Because we had more complete
responses
for Fall 2003, we focused our analysis on that set of data.
Additionally, we
organized our analysis around the following questions, some of which
are common
questions asked about writing centers:
What do writing centers look like?
In structuring our analysis this
way, we hope to provide information on many of the key aspects of
writing
center administration in ways that will be helpful to writing center
directors.
Affiliation
Part 2 of the
2003-2004 WCRP survey asked
respondents to
situate their center within the university community. “
While 27% (n=219) of respondents
identified their
writing centers as "Independent" to some degree, a recent Wcenter
listserv conversation makes clear that "independence" is a slippery
concept. Participants in the listserv conversation explored varying
definitions
of “free-standing” as applied to writing centers and commented on the
institutional forces and trends influencing transitions from English
and
Composition-based programs to “independent” or “free-standing” service
centers.
“Free-standing” might, according to this conversation, refer to the
creation of
a “full-time director’s position” (Bagley) as well as a formal
existence
“outside of the English Department or the Writing program” (Wislocki).
Further
discussion makes clear that even when direct funding originates outside
of any
department, tenure, teaching assistantships, and course release
arrangements
are inevitably tied to departmental resources. The 2003-2004 WCRP
survey should
be read against this backdrop.
Of
centers responding
to queries about departmental or program affiliation, 39% (n=219)
identified
some connection with the English Department. Simultaneously, 10%
(n=219) reported
a structural relationship with a university-wide component. The bases
for these
affiliations, when identified, include location of tenure, course
release
arrangements, and funding mechanisms. Only 29% reported English as
their
primary program affiliation (n=219). Rhet/Comp or Writing Program
affiliations
are reported by 12% of respondents, and just under 1% are based in
communications programs. Only 5% of centers responding reported a
departmental
affiliation other than English, Rhet/Comp, Writing, or Communications
(Table 3).
Table
3: Departmental Affiliation of Writing Centers
|
Primary Affiliation |
% of Responses to
Affiliation Queries n=219 |
|
|
|
|
English |
29% |
|
Independent |
27% |
|
Rhet Comp or Writing |
12% |
|
Learning Skills or
Student Services |
10% |
|
English + a
University-wide Entity |
10% |
|
College or
University-wide Entity |
8% |
|
Other Programs |
5% |
|
Communications |
1% |
In this survey, 10% (n=219) of
respondents reported centers aligned with either
Despite
strong
ties to English, Rhet/Comp, and Writing Departments, respondents’
comments
reinforce a perception of centers striving for a non-departmental
image. In
addition to the 10% of respondents answering “other” to questions about
their
departmental affiliation and specifying a university-wide entity, a few
respondents commented that, for example, they cover “all subjects” or
“all
disciplines.” One commented on efforts to change a university-wide
perception
of the writing center as “English Department affiliated,” adding that
“with the
introduction of our CAC program next year, we would like to make the
center
more interdisciplinary.” In his 1998
article “Writing Centers in Times of
Whitewater,” Lester Faigley recognizes the complications involved with
the
anti-hierarchical, multidisciplinary position of writing centers. Faigley finds strength in writing centers
operating “outside the course and degree structure” as a model for
institutions
that must “have the flexibility to adjust to different needs as they
arise at a
time when more and more people will need additional education” (15).
At
the same time, however, Faigley notes the “tenuous” nature of funding
for
services operating beyond departmental structure (15), an issue also
addressed
by Harvey Kail in 2000 when he characterized his writing center budget
as a
collection of “‘donations’ from the community, a form of ritualized
giving from
a variety of units on campus,” a budget that is “broad based but
unstable”
(27).
The
2003-2004 WCRP
survey also describes ongoing complexity in definitions of who writing
centers
serve and how they are funded. Survey questions asking for writing
center
affiliation, for example, offered the following options: Independent,
English
Department, Rhetoric/Composition Department,
Location
It
is clear from
reports of physical location that "independence" refers primarily to
funding and reporting structures since only 2% (n=218) of the centers
responding to queries about physical location reported free-standing
facilities
(writing centers located in their own buildings). Similarly, only 2%
reported
multiple locations, a response suggesting that Kail’s and Kinkead and
Harris’s
predictions of increasingly distributed influence have not yet been
fulfilled.
Most writing centers (52%) inhabit space in classroom buildings. The
next most
frequently reported location is space in the University library; 16% of
the
respondents reported this location. Another 10% are located either in
or
adjacent to learning skills centers or broad-based student services
facilities.
Writing centers physically located within academic departments comprise
5% of
the total. An intriguing 1% report a location within or adjacent to
residence
halls (Table 4).
Table 4: Physical Location of Writing Centers
|
Reported |
% of Responses to
Location Queries n=218 |
|
|
|
|
Classroom Buildings |
52% |
|
Library |
16% |
|
Other |
11% |
|
Learning Skills or
Student Services Facilities |
10% |
|
Academic Departments |
5% |
|
Multiple |
2% |
|
Free-Standing |
2% |
|
Residential |
1% |
According
to the
survey, writing center facilities ranged in size from a maximum of
12,500
square feet to a minimum of 20. The median square footage comes to
1000. To
identify any associations between square footage (the physical size of
writing
centers) and writing center usage, we conducted a series of partial
correlation
analyses to control for the potential confounding effects of number of
consultants, enrollment, and average session time on writing center
usage as
defined by the number of conferences and the number of unrepeated
student
visits in a semester.[2]
The results of these analyses suggest that the square footage of
writing
centers likely affects usage as defined by number of conferences, even
when the
analysis controls for the size of the consulting staff, enrollment in
the
institution, and length of the average session (r = .22, p
= .053 when the data are logarithmically transformed to induce
normality). The analysis suggests that increased space in the writing
center
will likely correlate with an increase in the number of conferences,
regardless
of the size of the student body or client base.
Longevity
Approximately
one
third of the respondents who answered queries about years in existence
(n=191)
reported that their center has been open fewer than 10 years. Another
third
have existed 10 years but not 20. The remaining third have been in
operation
between 20 and 54 years. Fifty-two centers, or 28% of those responding
to
queries about longevity of the current center as well as longevity of
any
center at the institution (n=183), reported that the current center has
existed
for fewer years than the institution has had a center. The median age
at which
centers report new startups is 6 (Min=2, Max=35). It is unclear from
the data
whether these new startups represent satellite locations for existing
centers,
new centers with distinct identities, or restructurings of existing
centers.
The natural question arising from the data asks whether writing centers
are in
the midst of a fundamental shift in structure, function, positioning
within the
university, service mission, or all of these, a question the WCRP
survey is not
designed to answer.
Typical
Session Profile
According
to
respondents, 45% of writing centers (n=149) plan for 50-60 minute
sessions.
Another 14% plan for 30 minutes. Centers reporting no maximum session
time
amount to 25% of responses to the question. Even for those centers
reporting
fixed session maximums, comments indicated that flexibility is key and
that
extensions may be granted based on the center's workload (whether
clients are
waiting), individual client needs (including disability and ESL
status), and
length of the text under discussion. In practice, most sessions (66%
where n=195)
last 30-40 minutes. Another 28% last 50 minutes on average. Only 1%
last 15
minutes, and 4.6% last 60 minutes or longer.[3]
To
complete these sessions, the median number of consultants employed by
writing
centers is 13 (Max=108, Min=1, n=188). Most centers reported being open
between
40 and 84 hours (25% at 0 - 39 hours per week and another 35% open from
40 – 48
hours per week). A substantial percentage of centers (37%) stay open
from 49 –
84 hours (a 12 hour per day schedule, 7 days a week yields 84 hours).
The
minimum number of hours per week reported is 4. The maximum is 640.
Responses
exceeding a 12 hour per day, 7 day per week schedule may reflect
multiple
locations or calculations of available OWL hours.
The
median
reported number of unduplicated users per semester is 400 (Min=20,
Max=2837, n=79).
The number of visits per semester reported for purposes other than
conferences
varies widely. The maximum reported is 54,180; the minimum is 10.
Visits to the
center for purposes other than conferences may include workshops,
classes, or
use of other writing center resources.
Whom Do
Writing Centers Serve?
The survey data indicate that most writing center resources were available for use by both students and faculty/staff. Eighty-five percent of respondents (n=238) stated that their writing center services were used by more than one group of users, while only 7% of respondents reported that their services were meant exclusively for undergraduate and graduate students. The WCRP survey results also indicate that writing centers were the major writing support services available to students. A majority of respondents (62.5%, n=216) stated that they had no other writing-related support or services available on campus.
Even
when
writing-related services other than those provided by the writing
center
existed, they almost always had a limited scope. For example, three
respondents
mentioned writing tutoring as part of “athletic services,” three
mentioned
additional writing support services for “ESL students,” two mentioned
the
existence of writing services in residence halls, and one mentioned the
existence of a “community learning center.” Respondents reported a
range of
other forms of writing-related services available at their
institutions,
including a “Spanish Learning Center,” a “Career
Center (for help w/resumes and cover letters),” a
“Learning Center (basic writers),” and “Graduate
Writing Services in Social Work, Law, Public Policy, & Nursing.”
These
responses suggest that most “other” writing-related services are
restricted to
certain categories of students, sometimes with remedial connotations,
or to those
in certain disciplines.
While a variety of writing-related services are available across some campuses, writing centers often serve a range of students themselves. A recent discussion on the Wcenter listserv suggests the effects of both student diversity and the presence of other writing support services on campus on writing center operations. Alan Coulter states that developmental students on his campus “have their own writing lab,” and that the writing center “will accept them if they need additional help.” Meanwhile, some members on the same listserv suggest that “the funding source(s) usually determine(s)” who uses writing center services (Black), while others argue that writing centers’ own missions should help decide who uses those services (Salem).[4] Because the survey only addressed entities that self-identified as “writing centers,” some students who are served by other units that perform similar work may not be represented here.
The
2003-2004 WCRP
survey data shows that undergraduate students are the major recipients
of
writing center services. Eighty-five percent of respondents (n= 238)
indicated
that writing center services are available to undergraduate students,
and 47%
of respondents stated that graduate students also receive services in
their writing
centers. Since most postsecondary institutions educate more
undergraduate than
graduate students, undergraduate students represent a higher proportion
of
writing center users. By institution type, 92% of responding writing
centers at
comprehensive universities, 91% of responding writing centers at
four-year
liberal arts colleges, and 82% of responding writing centers at
research
universities reported that they provide services to undergraduate
students.
These numbers do not indicate the services available
to undergraduates at each institution type; instead, they indicate how
individual directors described the clientele of their writing
centers.[5]
Across
the board, 17% (n=238) of respondents reported that writing center
services are
used exclusively by undergraduate students, while 7% of centers
responding to
the survey identified graduate students as the sole users of their
services. As
reported in Table 5, many writing centers also offered their services
to
faculty and staff. However, one four-year liberal arts college
(>2%), eight
comprehensive universities (12%, n=66), and an equal number of research
universities (13%, n=66) reported that they restrict their writing
center
services to students (graduate and undergraduate) only.
|
Institution Type |
Services to Undergrads
Only |
Services to Undergrads
and Graduate Students |
Services to All,
Including Faculty/Staff |
|||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Number |
% |
Number |
% |
Number |
% |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Comprehensive n=66 |
61 |
92 |
52 |
79 |
46 |
70 |
|
4-Year Liberal Arts n=58 |
53 |
91 |
12 |
21 |
32 |
55 |
|
Research n=61 |
50 |
82 |
43 |
70 |
36 |
59 |
|
2-Year Post-Secondary n=47 |
36 |
77 |
N/A |
N/A |
27 |
57 |
|
Other n=6 |
3 |
50 |
5 |
83 |
5 |
83 |
Survey
respondents
seemed to find it easy to classify students in terms of their degree
status,
such as graduate and undergraduate, but difficult to break the number
down into
other descriptive categories such as native and non-native users of
English, or
domestic ESL and international ESL students.[6]
For example, only
21% of survey respondents
were able to answer a question about the number of ESL students served
by their
writing centers. The median number of ESL student conferences (among
those who
reported numbers) in the Fall of 2003 was 45, with a maximum of 1500,
and a
minimum of just one.
The
low number of
responses to the query about ESL students might give the impression
that
non-native English speakers—whether US citizens or foreign students—are
either
not present in many colleges and universities or use writing center
services in
small numbers. In order to understand these unexpected results in
proper
perspective, we need to keep in mind a recent demographic reality in US
institutions of higher learning, scholarship in ESL writing in these
institutions, as well as recent conversations on the Wcenter listserv.
These
resources and anecdotal evidence suggest that very few, if any,
colleges and
universities in the
Therefore,
it may
be safely said that many respondents found it difficult to respond
accurately
to this question because they either did not have exact records or a
system to
identify ESL writers or because writers did not always self-identify as
ESL.
The other potential reason—that ESL writers might have used services
especially
meant for them—does not seem plausible, for only three respondents
identified
those services on campus. Therefore, it may be possible that ESL
writers chose
not to identify as ESL to resist being marked as “other.”
While “ESL” is sometimes used to describe
multilingual students with a basic or elementary level of proficiency
in
English, it is also used exclusively to describe English language
students in
programs such as intensive English as a second language (IESL). In some
cases,
students with a fairly good command of English might be reluctant to
call
themselves ESL because of its remedial connotation, while on the other
hand its
association with international visa students makes many domestic
multilingual
writers uncomfortable with identifying themselves as ESL. Likewise,
some
writers may have been speaking a variety of English or “world english”
all
their lives, and ESL or “non-native” is simply not applicable to their
cases.
In any case, these writers may not consider themselves fully
assimilated into
the mainstream (American) English-speaking culture, but they may not
have
wanted to be seen as separate from the rest of the writing center’s
users.
Responses
to the
question about online writing labs/centers (OWL) were equally
intriguing. While
only 37 institutions (16%) indicated that they had OWL services
available in
the Fall semester of 2003, a recent Wcenter listserv discussion (“What
is an
online writing center?) suggests that not everybody conceptualizes OWLs
the
same way. Referring to Jo Koster’s work, James Inman says that “online
writing
center” is currently used to refer to anything from online web sites
providing
“information about in-person writing centers” and “those that provide
online
resources but no online tutoring” to “those that provide online
tutoring.” In his recent research, Peter
England found
that many of the so-called “online writing centers” offered nothing
other than
some contact information, handouts, and the like. The fact that this
conversation continued into 2005 means that “OWL” is still used to
refer to as
diverse species of services as it was in 1996, when, in the first issue
of Kairos,
Jane Lasarenko classified “self-styled” OWLs into three kinds: i) those
that exist
to “advertise” a traditional writing center online, “listing hours,
services
offered, and location”; ii) those that offer “on-site tutoring
services” and
handouts; and iii) those that “offer a complete set of online services,
including online manuscript submission and feedback.” It is the second
but
mostly third kind of OWLs that serious scholarship in OWLs explores to
examine
“its own look-and-feel” (
The
data from the
Fall of 2003 showed a median of 74 online conferences, with a maximum
of 1131
and a minimum of 10. In the survey, respondents were asked to count
only such
conferences as “e-mail consultations, center-sponsored chat groups, or
center-sponsored online courses” as online consultations. The survey
also
specified that “web hits” should not figure into the number of
consultations.
Against the backdrop of contemporary Wcenter conversation, however, it
cannot
be ascertained whether all of the 37 respondents meant the same thing
by
“online consultations.” An issue related
to the number of online consultations is the number of consultants who
work
online. Of the 238 respondents who answered the survey question about
the
number of online consultants, 17% stated that they had at least one
online
writing consultant; the median reported number of consultants was 3,
but
answers ranged from a minimum of 1 to a maximum of 80. The survey data
and
other anecdotal evidence suggest that definitions of OWLs and online
consultations are still being negotiated by the writing center
community and
point to a huge variety in practices.
Consultant Background
The
survey contained a section seeking information about writing center
consultants. In this section, respondents were asked about the number
of
consultants, how many hours consultants work per week, how consultants
are
compensated for their work, and the educational level of consultants.
According
to survey results, most writing centers seem to employ a variety of
personnel—few
respondents reported that their writing centers are staffed by only one
of the
categories offered by the survey (undergraduate students, graduate
students,
faculty, work-study employees, professionals, or volunteers).
Respondents who
reported that their writing centers’ personnel are made up of only one
category
of consultant are at institutions whose student populations necessitate
such
staffing. For example, the category most frequently chosen exclusively
was
“undergraduate” (45 respondents chose this option; n=204), and 87% (39)
of
those choosing that category are at four-year liberal arts or
comprehensive
institutions, which have only undergraduate and Master’s-level students
from
which to draw. Likewise, the eight writing centers in which personnel
are
exclusively graduate students are located at research institutions, and
the six
writing centers in which personnel are exclusively faculty are at
two-year
colleges, where there are few upper-level students to serve as a pool
for
writing center consultants.
Most respondents (138, or 68%) reported that their writing center personnel are drawn from more than one category of consultant. In fact, 28% (66) of the 204 who responded to this question report that their writing center personnel come from three or more categories of consultants.
Compensation
Survey
responses indicate that writing center personnel are compensated for
their work
in a variety of ways—course release, work-study, stipends, tuition
remission,
course credit, hourly pay, or combinations of these. Many writing
center
directors reported that they have little control over their
consultants’
compensation, or over if and when consultants receive pay increases.
Respondents offered comments such as “Institution has determined the
compensation
for student workers,” “Tutors are hired as work-study employees, and
make the
minimum wage regardless of length/quality of service,” “There is no
room for
pay advancement since $7.50 is the top of the student wage scale,” and
“Our
graduate assistants’ stipend is determined by the College of Liberal
Arts &
Sciences. We have no control over the amount.” Compensation is often
related to
education and experience, but at some institutions the consultants
start at the
highest pay rate for their employment category at their university, so
there is
no room to offer higher wages to individual consultants.
The survey asked respondents to
provide the average hourly wage for consultants at the undergraduate,
graduate,
and professional levels. We averaged those responses to arrive at the
pay rates
depicted in Table 6. The mean hourly wage for undergraduates across all
institution types is $7.01 (n=151, SD=1.54); the minimum reported wage
is $5.00
per hour, and the maximum is $12 per hour. Of the 151 who responded to
this
question, 45 (30%) pay undergraduates $7.00 an hour, and 30 (20%) pay
undergraduates
$8.00 an hour. Nine (6%) paid $10.00 or more an hour.
Table 6: Mean hourly wage according to consultant level and institution type.
|
|
Undergraduate |
Graduate |
Professional |
|
|
|
|
|
|
All Institutions |
$7.01 (n=151; SD=1.54) |
$10.52 (n=72; SD=4.3) |
$15.76 (n=41; SD=5.7) |
|
Two-Year Post-Secondary |
$7.15 (n=20; SD=1.3) |
$10.33 (n=6; SD=1.4) |
$13.43 (n=14; SD=5.4) |
|
Four-Year Liberal Arts |
$6.50 (n=44; SD=1.3) |
$7.33 (n=6; SD=2.6) |
See note* |
|
Comprehensive |
$6.96 (n=49; SD=1.57) |
$9.59 (n=23; SD=3.0) |
$16.43 (n=14; SD=5.3) |
|
Research |
$7.60 (n=35; SD=1.7) |
$11.97 (n=34; SD=5.2) |
$17.27 (n=11; SD=6.6) |
While undergraduate
consultants’
positions as simultaneously students and employees is complicated,
graduate
students who work as consultants in writing centers have the added
complication
of cultivating a professional place for themselves within academia. In
her
article discussing the unique position of graduate student writing
consultants,
Connie Snyder Mick describes the complex role they play: “No matter how
well
graduate students can identify with undergraduates as they both write
papers,
take tests, and receive grades for their work, graduate students’ role
in the
university is complicated by the other rewards they can receive from
the university,
through both financial and professional assistance” (38). The place of
writing
center work in a graduate student consultant’s graduate school
experience
should be kept in mind when considering the following numbers. Other
factors influencing
graduate student hourly pay rates are alternative forms of compensation
including stipends, tuition remission, and course releases; in
addition, some
graduate students take on extra responsibilities in administering
writing
centers.
Across all institution types, the mean wage for graduate students who are paid by the hour is $10.52 (n=72, SD=4.3). The highest hourly wage reported for graduate consultants is $27.00 and the lowest is $5.00. Research institutions pay a little above the mean at $11.97 per hour (n=34, SD=5.2), and four-year liberal arts schools pay well below the mean at only $7.33 per hour (n=6, SD=2.6). The hourly wages of graduate student consultants should be interpreted cautiously. Many respondents reported that graduate student consultants at their writing center receive stipends; some respondents may have extrapolated an hourly wage from the stipend while others did not respond to this question because the data they had did not answer the question the survey asked.
The mean wage for professional writing center consultants across all institutions is $15.76 per hour (n=41, SD=5.7). The highest hourly wage reported for professional consultants is $30.00 and the lowest is $8.00. Professional consultants working at two-year institutions earn a mean of $13.43 per hour (n=14, SD= 5.4); the mean wage of those at comprehensive institutions is $16.43 per hour (n=14, SD=5.3); research institutions reported a mean wage slightly above the average at $17.27 per hour (n=11, SD=6.6).
Because
consultants are compensated for their work in a variety of monetary,
educational, and professional ways, determining how they earn raises is
difficult. Several respondents described pay structures in which
consultants
receive raises after taking a writing center-related course or after
working a
certain number of hours or semesters. Some respondents reported that
they
schedule pay increases annually, while others reported that their
personnel
receive raises when the institution’s administrators decide to give
raises to the
entire university (or to the employee class to which writing center
personnel
belong). Many writing center directors seemed to have little control
over both
what their consultants earn and the criteria determining pay increases.
Some
reported that no system exists for implementing raises at their writing
centers.
Working
in a
The survey also asked respondents to provide information on the number of hours consultants work per week and the number of conferences performed in the writing center per semester. In analyzing these numbers, we looked for correlations with institutional enrollment. The responses suggest that writing center consultants work about the same number of hours a week regardless of the size of the institution in which they work. The mean number of hours per week that respondents said an average consultant at their writing center works is 13.16 (n=198, SD=5.7). Based on respondents’ comments, this number seems to be determined at least partially by work-study requirements and the number of hours of tutoring considered equivalent to teaching one classroom course. The number of conferences per semester differs significantly, even among writing centers at institutions with similar enrollments. While correlations of institution size with the number of conferences per semester did not yield statistically significant results, some interesting details emerged. For example, 6 of the 29 writing centers in institutions with enrollment at or under 1500 reported that the number of conferences in one semester was higher than their institutions’ enrollment for that semester. We also found that high enrollment does not always correlate with high numbers of consultants or sessions: one writing center at an institution with enrollment below 1500 reported having 72 consultants, while a writing center at an institution with an enrollment between 10,001 and 25,000 reported having only 3 consultants. The greatest number of sessions in the Fall semester (5624) was reported in the highest enrollment category (greater than 25,000), but the fewest sessions for the same semester (17) occurred in an institution with between 1501 and 3500 students—the second smallest enrollment category. Numbers of consultants and sessions depend on a number of factors: writing center publicity, institutional climate, availability of consultants, session length, and other local circumstances. A writing center is affected by so much more than its institution’s size that average numbers of consultants and sessions do not represent individual writing centers well. A sense of the range of responses to questions about the number of consultants and sessions can be gained from Table 7.
Table 7: Range of Reported Number of Consultants
and
Number of Sessions at Writing
Centers According to Institutional Enrollment for
Fall 2003
|
Institutional Enrollment |
Number of Consultants |
Number of Sessions |
||
|
|
Low |
High |
Low |
High |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
0-1500 |
0 |
72 |
30 |
1480 |
|
1501-3500 |
3 |
50 |
17 |
2405 |
|
3501-10,000 |
4 |
50 |
200 |
4200 |
|
10,001-25,000 |
3 |
80 |
457 |
4740 |
|
25,001 and up |
13 |
108 |
1478 |
5624 |
The number of consultants working in each writing center varies widely. Twenty-six respondents (n=189) reported that 5 or fewer consultants work in their writing centers, while 22 reported large staffs numbering 30 or more. Ninety-nine writing centers were clustered in a range between 6 and 15 consultants. The variation in the number of consultants working in writing centers suggests that different images are evoked by the phrase “writing center”: in discussions of writing centers, everyone may imagine his or her own writing center—its atmosphere, pace, and tone—but these numbers suggest how widely individual writing centers may differ.
One factor that may be affecting the demographics of writing center consultants is the requirement by many accrediting bodies that graduate teaching assistants accumulate several hours of graduate-level coursework before they can teach in classrooms. Some institutions meet this requirement by assigning first-year GTAs to writing centers. In addition to influencing who works as consultants, this scheme affects the position of writing centers relative to writing programs, because the writing center takes on the role of orienting new GTAs to Composition theory and practice.
Titles
Despite
Lex Runciman’s concerns about the term, of respondents who chose only
one title
to name the people who work with writers in writing centers, most (102)
chose
“tutors.” This represents 51% of the 201 responses to this question.[8]
The
second most popular title is “consultants,” which represents 23% of
responses.
Several respondents offered titles not listed as options in the survey:
“Academic Assistant,” “Academic Skills Instructor,” “Counselor,”
“Instructor,” “Intern,”
“Mentor,” “Peer Mentor,” “Reader,” “Responder,” “Teacher of Academic
Writing,” “Undergraduate
Teaching Assistant,” “Writing Assistant,” “Writing Associate,” “Writing
Fellow,” and “Writing Specialist.” These responses, which are among the
15 that
fell into the category “Other,” along with the 27 respondents who chose
more
than one title, suggest that writing centers position their employees
and their
work within their institutions in a range of ways.
The
survey data
suggest that writing center directors are a diverse group of
individuals whose
job conditions and duties vary widely. Detailing this diversity and
looking for
any commonalities were two main goals of the survey data analysis.
Another goal
was to compare as much of the data as possible to data from Dave
Healy’s
earlier national survey (published in 1995) to learn if and how the
position of
writing center directors has changed. Although the WCRP survey’s
section on
writing center directors and Dave Healy’s survey sought much of the
same
information, the two surveys have significant differences, which meant
that we
could not always compare our results to those from Healy’s study.
Healy’s
analysis is restricted to full-time positions, while we include
part-time
positions. Healy’s study also had a slightly larger sample than ours
had: Healy
analyzed a sample of 273 surveys, while we analyzed only 238. Despite
the
limitations, a comparison of the two surveys does suggest some
interesting
trends in writing center administration.
Degree
Writing
center
directors who responded to the survey’s question about director’s
highest level
of education reported a variety of degrees, from BA and specialized
certificates (such as TESL certification) to PhDs. Despite this
variety, a
closer look at the numbers suggests a near consensus on the requirement
of a
graduate degree for this administrative position. Of those who answered
this
question (n= 167), 98% specified a graduate degree as their highest
degree,
with 49% reporting their highest degree as a PhD and 47% reporting
their
highest degree as an MA.[9] A
comparison of
the 2003-2004 WCRP survey to Healy’s suggests that the percentage of
writing
center directors holding a graduate degree in 2003-2004 was very
similar to the
percentage reported in Healy’s 1995 article. Ninety-six percent of the
directors responding to Healy’s survey reported their highest degree as
graduate (30), compared to the 2003-2004 WCRP’s 98%. A breakdown by
type of
graduate degree, however, suggests that the number of directors with
PhDs may
have risen slightly in the past ten years (see Table 8).
Table
8: Comparison of Two Surveys’ Reports of
|
|
Respondents with a
Graduate Degree |
Respondents with an MA |
Respondents with a PhD |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Healy’s Survey n=248 (published 1995) |
96% |
44% |
40% |
|
WCRP Survey n=167 (published 2005) |
98% |
47% |
49% |
Gender
The data from the 2003-2004 WCRP survey suggest that writing center directors tend to be female, a finding consistent with Healy’s earlier survey. Eighty percent (n=238) of the writing center directors who responded to the 2003-2004 survey are female. The percentage of female writing center directors seems not to have changed much in the past decade: Healy reported that 74% (n=271) of directors were female (30).
Employment
Category
The
WCRP survey
also investigated the employment categories of the directors, asking
directors
to choose from one of six categories to describe their position:
graduate
student/assistant, non-faculty professional staff, non-tenured
full-time
faculty, part-time faculty, tenure-track faculty, and tenured faculty.
Although
no one category had a majority of respondents, once grouped into the
two
categories of faculty and non-faculty (see Table 9), a clear majority
emerged:
the majority of directors (65.2%) reported faculty positions. Since the
benefits and working conditions of writing center directors with
faculty status
may vary from institution to institution, and the survey provided no
opportunity for individual directors to specify what their status
means, it is
difficult to interpret what the prevalence of faculty status positions
means
for the profession as a whole.
Table
9a: Employment Category of 2004 WCRP Director
Respondents – Non-Faculty
|
Director
Status |
Number |
% |
|
|
|
|
|
Graduate Teaching
Assistant |
1 |
.6 |
|
Other Non-Faculty |
56 |
34 |
|
Total |
57 |
34.6 |
Table
9b: Employment Category of 2004 WCRP Director
Respondents - Faculty
|
Director
Status |
Number |
% |
|
|
|
|
|
Non-Tenurable, Full-time
Faculty |
35 |
21 |
|
Part-time Faculty |
5 |
3 |
|
Tenure-track Faculty |
43 |
26 |
|
Tenured Faculty |
25 |
15 |
|
Total |
108 |
65 |
Unlike
faculty status, tenure status has a standard
meaning across institutions. Of the directors responding to the
question of
employment category, only 41% reported a tenured or tenurable position.
This
suggests that a majority of directors do not have, and are not in line
to have
tenure, nor do they have the job security and academic freedom that
many people
associate with tenure. The percentage of tenured or tenurable faculty
director
positions seems not to have changed much in the past ten years. Healy’s
findings were very similar to those of the 2003-2004 WCRP survey: in
Healy’s
survey 46% (n=264) of respondents reported holding tenure-track
positions (30).
The many non-tenured (or non-tenure-track) writing center director positions may suggest that the position often lacks institutional status in administrators’ eyes. The high percentage of non-tenurable writing center directors may also be related to the positioning of many writing centers outside specific academic departments. Without a clear departmental affiliation, a writing center director may have no access to a tenure-line position. Whatever the cause, without tenured or tenurable positions, writing center directors often do not have the institutional authority to make important decisions about their centers. Neil Lerner discusses writing center director status, arguing that although some writing centers and their directors have gained acceptance and status, the field still abounds with undervalued directors and under-funded centers. The survey results seem to confirm Lerner’s description of the profession of writing center directors as “bifurcated into the ‘haves’ and ‘the have-nots’” (34)—those with tenure and job security and those without.
The
value of
tenure-track, faculty director positions has also been discussed in a
recent
Wcenter listserv thread entitled “At will vs. contractual employment”
that
began in response to a posting for a staff writing center director
position.
Posts to this thread point out that tenure-track faculty positions
generally
allow a director more authority over resources. According to some
postings to
the thread, these resources include not only money spent on the center,
but
also money spent on and for the individual director, including travel
money and
support for the director’s scholarly research. People who posted to the
thread
also mention respect from people in the institution and job security as
other
advantages of faculty, tenure-track status.
On the other hand, one contributor to the thread, Marcia Toms, argued that non-faculty, non-tenure track positions can have benefits similar to those of tenure-track positions:
One more point to add: just because a WC director is in a staff position doesn't mean many of the TT [Tenure Track] perks can't be there. My Division has paid for my travel to professional conferences, sprung for me to attend the IWCA Summer Institute, supports the time I want to spend writing an article, and just generally values the work we do.
Postings to the thread also demonstrate that job category is only one factor that influences the duties and benefits of a writing center director position. Union contracts and the writing center’s position within the institution are two more factors that may affect job stability and control over resources. In her posting to the thread, Elizabeth Boquet describes the complexities of determining the most effective employment category for a director:
As if
we didn't
all know this already, these are complicated questions. There's no
doubt that
faculty, staff, administrative positions enable and constrain in
different ways
and there are as many reasons to take one or the other as there are
people in
them.
Percentage
of Time and Appointments
The
2003-2004 WCRP
survey data suggest that a director’s percentage of academic
appointment in the
writing center varies widely, with no one percentage dominating the
field. The
percentage with the most responses was 100% (see Table 10); however,
these
responses constituted only 28% of the total responses to this question
(n=155).
This question had one of the lowest response rates of all the director
questions. One explanation for the lack of responses is the difficulty
directors may have in describing their time in the writing center with
the
percentages offered on the survey.
Table
10:
Percentage of Time in
|
% of Appointment in |
# of Respondents
reporting this appointment % |
% of Total Respondents to
the Question |
|
|
|
|
|
100% |
43 |
28% |
|
50% |
38 |
25% |
|
25% |
20 |
13% |
|
75% |
14 |
9% |
|
10% |
12 |
8% |
|
33% |
11 |
7% |
|
66% |
9 |
6% |
Respondents’
discursive comments about specific duties and division of time
demonstrate that
a writing center director may wear many hats. According to the
comments, some
positions require that as much as 80% of a director’s time be spent
teaching
and only 20% devoted to the writing center, while other positions
require
directors to dedicate the majority of their appointment time to the
center,
while also teaching one or two courses a semester. Other directors
reported
dividing their time in different ways. One respondent reported being “half-time co-director; half-time writing &
teaching
consultant.” Another respondent was a graduate student as well
as a
writing center director, and still another director ran the learning
center, to
which the writing center belonged.
Beyond
teaching
and heading the writing center, directors often have many other
responsibilities. One director seemed to have enough duties to fill two
full-time positions, with a contract “for the WC only, but” a workload
that
included “2 or 3 courses a semester” as well as directing the
Composition
program and assisting with at least 2 other programs.
Judging from postings to a 1999 Wcenter listserv thread, the separation of writing center duties from other duties is not always clear for a director (thread begun by George). For example, contributors to this thread point out that instruction of tutor/consultant preparation courses is sometimes included in a director’s writing center time, while at other institutions, the director does not count this course as writing center time and receives a course release to teach the practicum.
Analysis
of the
survey data shows that a director’s percentage appointment in the
writing
center may be connected to the director’s employment category. The data
on
employment category and percentage appointment seem to correlate
positively.
Tenure-track writing center director positions seem to correlate with
smaller
percentage appointments in the writing center. Roughly 80% of tenured
or
tenure-track directors who responded to the question about appointment
with a
specific percentage (n= 59) have a half-time or smaller percentage
appointment
as director of the writing center. Conversely, the data suggest that
non-tenurable and non-tenure-track status correlates with larger
percentages of
time in the writing center (See Table 11). Of the directors who
reported
working full-time in the writing center and who reported their rank (n=
43), a
large majority hold non-tenured faculty status (81%).
Table
11: Percentage of Time in
|
Percentage of Appointment
in the |
|
Tenured and Tenure Track |
|
|
|
|
|
10% |
4 |
8 |
|
25% |
5 |
15 |
|
33% |
4 |
7 |
|
50% |
21 |
17 |
|
66% |
7 |
2 |
|
75% |
12 |
2 |
|
100% |
35 |
8 |
The
survey also
asked respondents to describe their contract appointments as one of the
following four choices: academic year only, 10-month contract, 11-month
contract, or 12-month contract. Of those who responded (n=160), 41% had
a ten-month
appointment, 33% a 12-month appointment, 21% an academic year
appointment, and
6% had an 11-month appointment.
Time Working as Director
The survey data suggest that the time directors have held their positions at their current writing centers also run the gamut, anywhere from less than one year to 26 years. The majority of those who responded to this question, (58%, n=162) have five or fewer years of experience in the position. On the high end, 10% of directors have held their jobs for 15 or more years. The mean was 6.3 years, with a standard deviation of 5.7. Of respondents to this question, 20% have a year or less of experience in that job. The data could be read as suggesting that these directors are new to the job; however, these directors may have experience in other writing centers or they may have rotating writing center positions.
The response rate for the annual salary question was low, with only 159 of the total 238 survey respondents answering. As is the case in many surveys, some respondents may have been uncomfortable reporting their income. Outside of the survey, at least one respondent reported being too embarrassed by a low salary to report it. Another respondent did not report salary, concerned about keeping the information private. Because so few directors responded to the salary question, the conclusions drawn from this analysis are tentative.
Directors
reported
salaries from under $21,000 to over $76,000; however, the numbers on
the high
and low ends were small. A majority (56%, n=159) reported making
between
$34,000 and $55,000 (see Table 12).
Table 12:
|
|
% of Total Respondents to
Question n=159 |
|
|
|
|
< $21,000 |
4% |
|
$21,000 - $34,000 |
15% |
|
$34,000 - $45,000 |
30% |
|
$45,000 - $55,000 |
26% |
|
$55,000 - $76,000 |
20% |
|
> $76,000 |
4% |
The salary data does not provide
a
complete picture of director earnings, though. Some writing center
directors
may earn extra money as instructors. Roughly 70% of the respondents to
a
question about additional payment for instruction (n= 155) reported
that their
salaries did not include income from adjunct or part-time instruction.
In
our analysis of
the salary data, we looked for correlations between salary and other
factors:
duration/ type of appointment, type of university, director gender,
director
experience in the position, director degree, and director employment
category.
When analyzing the salary data according to other variables, the size
of the
sample further decreased, as not all respondents to the salary question
answered all other questions. In addition, due to the many categorical
variables involved in directors’ pay, and the difficulty of analyzing
these
types of data, we analyzed variables individually, without controlling
for
other variables.[10]
Variables that do not seem to influence director salary include duration/type of appointment, type of university (private or public), and gender. To the data on type of director appointment (10-, 11-, or 12-month or academic year), we applied a Kruskal-Wallis test, which analyzes data with more than two groups. This test revealed no statistical significance (p=0.88), suggesting no correlation between salary and duration of appointment. We ran a Wilcoxon rank sum test (which requires two groups only) on directors’ salaries at private and public schools, and the results suggested that directors’ pay does not seem to vary between these two types of institutions ( p= 0.7).
Further
analysis
suggests that salary does not vary according to gender (See Table 13).
The
Wilcoxon rank sum test validated this conclusion, showing no
statistical
significance in the differences in salary across gender (p=
0.48). This suggests that male and female writing center
directors receive equitable salaries; however, this conclusion is only
preliminary. For one, an overall lack of responses to the question
about salary
may have skewed the results. More specifically, female directors
outnumbered
male directors by a large margin: 120 female directors responded to
this
question, compared to only 39 male directors. Proportionally, however,
more of
the men who participated in the survey responded to this question (82%
of all
the men who took the survey answered the question about salary compared
to 63%
of all the women who took the survey). It is impossible to determine if
our sample
provides a fair representative of the salaries of male and female
directors.
Table 13: Salary Classifications for Male and Female Directors
|
|
Female |
Male |
Total |
|||
|
Director Salary |
Number of Respondents |
% of Female Respondents |
Number of Respondents |
% of Male Respondents |
Total Respondents |
% of Total Respondents |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
< $21,000 |
5 |
4% |
2 |
5% |
7 |
4% |
|
$21,000 to $34,000 |
19 |
16% |
4 |
10% |
23 |
14% |
|
$34,000 to $45,000 |
36 |
30% |
12 |
31% |
48 |
30% |
|
$45,000 to $55,000 |
32 |
27% |
10 |
26% |
42 |
26% |
|
$55,000 to $76,000 |
24 |
20% |
8 |
21% |
32 |
20% |
|
> $76,000 |
4 |
3% |
3 |
8% |
7 |
4% |
|
Total |
120 |
100% |
39 |
100% |
159 |
100% |
Variables
that
seem to affect director salary include director experience in the
position and
director degree. For the data on years of experience in the position,
we
calculated the Spearman rank correlation coefficient. The correlation
between
salary and experience was statistically significant (p=.0002),
which suggests that number of years of experience
correlates with higher pay. In our analysis of director degree and
salary, we
excluded from our sample the 4 BA s and 3 specialty degrees, leaving
only the
MAs and PhDs. We applied the Wilcoxon rank test, which calculated a
significant
difference (p < .0001). These results suggest what many assume:
directors
with PhDs on average have higher salaries than directors with MAs.
As
expected, director employment category (or rank) also seems to
correlate with
change in salary. In our analysis of these data, we excluded the five
part-time
directors and one graduate teaching assistant director. We applied the
Kruskal-Wallis test to the four remaining groups: non-faculty,
non-tenured,
tenure-track faculty, and tenured faculty. The test revealed
statistically
significant (p=.0001) differences in
salary by director category when ranked in this order (moving from
lowest
salary to highest salary): non-faculty, non-tenured faculty,
tenure-track
faculty, and tenured faculty. Thus, non-faculty status corresponds to
the
lowest salaries among the four groups and tenured faculty status
corresponds to
highest salaries.
Assistant/Associate
Director
The numbers for responses to questions about assistant and associate directors were very low. At most, these questions had 60 responses, so our conclusions about assistant/associate directors are only preliminary. The low response rate has a few possible explanations. Perhaps the respondents who left the questions blank had no assistant or associate director. Or, they had positions that did not quite fit the survey’s category of assistant/associate director. The low response rate may confirm what Healy describes as the “complexity…of how writing center people refer to themselves” (29). In his article, Healy offers a list of “official titles” for writing center workers, including Writing Center Manager, Writing Center Facilitator, and Writing Coordinator (29), all of which may require duties similar to those of a director or of an assistant or associate director. This complexity may have affected the rate of response to the WCRP survey’s question. One comment in particular hinted at the many writing center positions that did not quite fit the survey’s categories yet still deserve our attention: “We don't have an associate/assistant Director. The position title is Peer Tutor Coordinator.”
Our limited data suggest that assistant/associate directors have a high turn-over rate. Of those responding, the majority had assistant/associate directors with two or fewer years of experience. According to survey responses, most assistant/associate directors’ highest degree is an MA (65%, n=55). Many have only a BA (22%), and a few have a PhD (13%).
The high turnover rate may be partially explainable by the 20% (n=55) of respondents who reported that their assistant or associate director’s employment category is graduate student or assistant. Overall, the responses indicate that a very few of the 55 assistant or associate directors whose employment categories were reported in this survey are tenured or tenure-line faculty: 9%. See Table 14 for other reported categories.
Table
14: Associate/Assistant Director Employment
Categories n=55
|
Employment Category |
Number of Respondents |
% of Total Respondents |
|
|
|
|
|
Non-faculty professional
staff |
26 |
47% |
|
Graduate student/
assistant |
11 |
20% |
|
Non-tenurable, full-time
faculty |
10 |
18% |
|
Part-time faculty |
3 |
5% |
|
Tenure-track faculty |
2 |
4% |
|
Tenured faculty |
3 |
5% |
Data suggest that assistant directors vary in their appointments and salaries. To our question about their contract appointment, 40% reported a 10-month appointment, 33% a 12-month appointment, 24% an academic year appointment, and 4% an 11-month appointment (n=55). According to our data (n= 52), assistant/associate directors generally earn lower salaries than directors, with the majority (56%) earning between $21,000 and $45,000. Some earn very low salaries, with 23% earning less than $21,000. Low salaries may be a result of assistant/associate directors who have part-time and GTA status. However 70% (n=54) said that this salary did not include income from adjunct or part-time instruction; therefore, our data may not reflect the assistant/associate directors’ total earnings.
The
lack of a
stable picture of “the writing center” supports the discussions
occurring on
the WCenter listserv, in the Writing
Center Journal, and at conferences about the fluid nature of
writing centers.
While this fluid nature allows individual writing centers to change and
grow to
meet the needs of their particular institutions, it can also possibly
restrict
that growth by limiting their institutional cache. This divided
position may be
unavoidable, and having a typical vision of a writing center may be
counterproductive, but the position merits further attention and
discussion.
There are some areas of study that may be better left outside of the WCRP survey’s scope. The minimal data we obtained on secondary institutions, OWLs, and ESL students could be improved in future surveys through more and improved questions; however, lengthening the survey may only decrease our response rate since some respondents already claimed that the survey was too long. Therefore, we hope that others will take up the much-needed research to fill in the gaps by creating surveys that focus specifically on these areas.
Based on the WCRP's contact list, we know that many writing centers exist at the secondary level. However, only seven responded to the latest survey. Whether this lack of response comes from secondary institutions not knowing about the survey or from our survey not asking questions appropriate of secondary schools, we do not know. If the latter is the case, we hope that our survey could be used as the basis for a refined survey that meets the needs of these writing centers.
In its three incarnations, the WCRP survey has improved and will continue to improve with the support of writing center directors responding to the survey and helping us to refine our instrument. Despite the limitations of the survey and of the resulting data in helping to create a fixed picture of writing centers across the country, the WCRP survey still holds great value in supplying descriptive data that writing centers can use to meet local needs. Several writing center directors commented after taking the survey that they now knew what information they should record in the future. Having the information necessary to complete the survey requires careful record-keeping, which helps directors meet local needs through being able to account for the operations of their centers. We encourage directors to participate in future WCRP surveys, to help us establish vital benchmark data in this ongoing project.
1. The list of over 1,000
writing centers has been
compiled over several years. We combined mailing lists from the Writing Lab Newsletter and the Writing
Center Journal with membership
lists from the IWCA and all the regional associations that would share
their lists.
We also added names at national and regional conferences, and our
program
assistant has checked our list electronically and added names when
appropriate.
2.
In order to analyze the data with normal-theory methods, the data was
logarithmically transformed to achieve normal, bell-curve shaped
distribution.
9. The respondents
who chose
“specialized degree” did not
always specify if their degrees were graduate degrees. If some were,
the
percentage of graduate degrees may be slightly higher than reported
here.
10. Due to the
categorical nature of the data,
non-normal tests such as Wilcoxon rank sum, Spearman rank correlations,
and
Kruskal Wallis tests were performed on the data.
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