Keywords

Writing center, tutoring, tutoring practice, resources, writing resources, writing consultation

Abstract

This research examines the use of writing resources in tutoring sessions, which is considered one of the valued tutoring practices at the University Writing Center (UWC) at the University of Central Florida (UCF). This research explains the methodology and presents the findings of a study that serves as a partial answer to the call for more evidence-based research in the field of writing center studies. There is scholarship that explains the importance of using resources to facilitate learning, but there is a lack of empirical research that explores the patterns and variations in the resources that writing tutors use, the ways they are implemented in tutoring sessions, and the effects of the moves tutors and writers make involving resources. To address this gap in the research, the researcher developed a study of tutoring sessions in the UCF UWC to explore the role of writing resources as they are used to mediate activity in tutoring sessions. This research investigates the relationship between the use of resources by the tutor and/or the writer and the impact this has on the facilitation of the writer's learning during the consultation. To gain insight into these areas of interest, tutoring sessions were video recorded and follow-up interviews were conducted with the participants to gain insight into the choices made involving resources and the resultant consequences. This research demonstrates the potential of writing resources to contribute to the collaborative knowledge development processes that happen in tutoring sessions to address writing concerns. This study also provides insight into the control that tutors have over the distribution of knowledge in the way that they implement resources into the tutoring session. What we can learn from these findings is a step toward developing a more evidence-based practice in the writing center.

Notes

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Graduation Date

2015

Semester

Spring

Advisor

Hall, Mark

Degree

Master of Arts (M.A.)

College

College of Arts and Humanities

Department

Writing and Rhetoric

Degree Program

English; Rhetoric and Composition

Format

application/pdf

Identifier

CFE0005644

URL

http://purl.fcla.edu/fcla/etd/CFE0005644

Language

English

Release Date

May 2015

Length of Campus-only Access

None

Access Status

Masters Thesis (Open Access)

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