Keywords

writing centers, Florida public schools, high school, composition, writing tutoring

Abstract

While working for four years in a college writing center, often with dual enrolled high school students, I began asking myself why our local high schools do not have writing centers of their own. The effectiveness of writing centers in helping students advance their critical thinking and written communication skills is well documented, and yet students of diverse geographical locations and socio-economic status often arrive at college under-prepared for the rigor of academic written discourse. Employing a combination of institutional analysis and constructivist grounded theory, I conducted case studies on three Florida college writing centers, focusing on staffing models, training methods, services offered, and dissemination of information about these services. Drawing on experiential evidence and both qualitative and quantitative studies completed by Ben Rafoth, Jesùs Josè Salazar, and more, I propose adapted and adaptable writing center models for various Florida high school settings, grounding the options in current writing center theory and composition instruction pedagogy, laying the groundwork for further scholarship on the creation of flexible models of supplementary writing development education in Florida’s public school system. I conclude with a set of recommendations for key elements schools must address when creating and maintaining a writing center, including designing classroom space, recruiting and training peer tutors, and identifying a theoretical approach to student writing.

Completion Date

2024

Semester

Summer

Committee Chair

Bowdon, Melody

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

DP0028483

URL

https://purls.library.ucf.edu/go/DP0028483

Language

English

Release Date

8-15-2024

Length of Campus-only Access

None

Access Status

Masters Thesis (Open Access)

Campus Location

Orlando (Main) Campus

Accessibility Status

Meets minimum standards for ETDs/HUTs

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