Writing Center Scholarship: faculty outreach

Hey Readers,

Cooperation from faculty is crucial in sustaining the Writing Center ( WC ).  According to Wendy Bishop, faculty referrals make more impact compared to a friend's recommendation or scheduled class visits.  However, some faculty may not recommend the WC because they feel that their authority is threatened.  Lea Masiello and Malcolm Hayward recommend continuous dialog with faculty through discussions of "shared pedagogical beliefs" and WC's mission and services.

Faculty's referrals are good concrete incentives that could motivate students to go to the WC.  Motivation, such as better grades and extra credits, is important or else students will make tons of excuses, such as having no time or conflicting learning styles.  Margaret O. Tipper cautions that the "feminine" and indirect nature of WC pedagogy may go against most males direct and competitive learning style. 

Winning extra credits might appeal to students, especially male students.  This may be superficial, but at least it'll get the students in the WC.  With exposure to the WC as a resource, students can make up their minds in the future and decide from experience whether to return or not.

In our WC, most of the students we've helped so far came because their professors recommended them to us.  Only a few came because we visited their freshman seminar class.  We haven't encountered any faculty, who felt threatened by our pedagogical approach.  We're upfront with our mission and style.  We also understand that it's not good to confuse students with jargon.  A student's sense of "grammar" may encompass structure, organization, clarity et al.  We've helped more female students compared to male students, and most students came for extra credit.