"College readiness has several dimensions, but of particular import is readiness to produce scholarly work that meets the expectations of college instructors. Differences from high school and college are well documented in the literature, and this study adds to that body of work by delineating the characteristics of first-year college assignments through a qualitative analysis of college faculty assignment instructions. Three themes emerge from the analysis: information
literacy, especially initiating inquiry; academic writing, especially citing evidence in support of a thesis; learner dispositions, especially curiosity, open-mindedness, self-reliance, and perseverance. Findings have implications for high school library programs and high school teachers as well as librarians working with first-year college students."
From Praxis: "California community colleges were especially hard hit by higher education funding cuts. Diane Putnam explains that those cuts are profoundly affecting the Cabrillo College Writing Center, its students, and its tutors. A year ago, the Writing Center at Cabrillo College in Aptos, California was at the top of its game."
Excellent site to search for data on a number of topics such as student success rate, graduation, etc. You can start with a college name or topic and have the data sorted in numerous ways
The McDaniel Writing Center twitter serves to notify students of appointment openings and relevant college events. It also highlights information about specific tutors' unique skills and experiences, such as tech expertise.
This purpose of this web site is to maintain an online archive of the proceedings of the Two-Year College Association of the National Council of Teachers of English (TYCA/NCTE). Contact TYCA Archivist Clint Gardner for more information.
a report from Cs on materials development; a report from Cs on "Writing Lab Possibilities as the Small College/University; a discussion of staffing (undergrad, grad peers; professional; faculty; self-instruction) for materials-centered vs. student-centered labs (i.e. the difference between teaching more students with fewer staff vs. offering one-on-one support); a 4Cs report on "Setting up a Writing Lab";
Baruch College's Writing Center has curated collections of handouts on various topics (writing process, analysis and argument, structure and organization, grammar, etc.). A large collection of handouts drawn from many colleges and universities.
Position statements on graduate student writing center administration, two-year college writing centers, disabilities, diversity, and racism/anti-immigration/linguistic intolerance.
From Neal Lerner's July 2011 message to WCenter:
Folks, the latest issue (July 2011) of the Journal of Writing Research includes a very impressive study by James Williams and Seiji Takaku of the relationship between college students' self-efficacy, help-seeking behaviors, writing center visits, and writing performance. Here's a link to a pdf of the study:
http://www.jowr.org/articles/vol3_1/JoWR_2011_vol3_nr1_Williams_Takaku.pdf
Here's a snippet to take to your dean:
"The analysis showed that those students who frequently obtained writing center tutoring received higher grades in composition than those who did not, regardless of their ESL or native-English-speaker status. The frequency of writing center tutoring seemed to be especially valuable for the ESL students, who outperform their domestic cohorts, receiving significantly higher grades in composition."
This open-access book, available on the WAC Clearninghouse, can be downloaded. Authors are Brock Haussamen with Amy Benjamin, Martha Kolln, Rebecca S. Wheeler, and members of NCTE's Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar. The book is described as follows:
NCTE's Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar provides this much-needed resource for Kâ€"college teachers who wonder what to do about grammar-how to teach it, how to apply it, how to learn what they themselves were never taught. Grammar Alive! offers teachers ways to negotiate the often conflicting goals of testing, confident writing, the culturally inclusive classroom, and the teaching of Standard English while also honoring other varieties of English. This hands-on approach to grammar in the classroom includes numerous examples and practical vignettes describing real teachers' real classroom experiences with specific grammar lessons-including ESL issues-as well as a review of grammar basics.
Name: Marilyn E. Little Age: A perennial 39 Writing Center: College of Lake County Writing Center Grayslake, IL (A two-year college) School enrollment: 15,828 Year in school and area of study: I earned an Associate of Arts degree in Languages in 2003. I'm currently enrolled in an ESL for teachers certificate program.
Name of center: Community Writing Center Institutional affiliation: Salt Lake Community College Location: Salt Lake City, Utah Web address: http://www.slcc.edu/wc/community/ Director: Tiffany Rousculp Year opened: 2001 History: The basic idea for the Community Writing Center emerged during a tennis match.