Survey of Common Practises: Canadian University Writing Centres

 

I am a graduate student of the StFX Masters of Adult Education program. For my thesis research, I am evaluating the work of the StFX Writing Centre. I want to develop a tool to document writing centre goals and methods used by writing centre staff to assess attainment of those goals. I hope to compare the work the StFX Writing Centre is doing with the work being done by other Canadian undergraduate university writing centres and develop a standardized method to evaluate and implement ‘best practices.’

 

Your responses will be kept confidential and used only to improve our practice at St. F.X.  No individual university responses will be released. The project is scheduled for completion in December 2005, and summary results will be made available to participants.

 

University:                                                                  Date of Survey:                                    

 

Contact Person:                                                            Telephone/email:                                  

 

1.            A.  How many undergraduates are enrolled in the university? FT                    PT              

a)      1st year:                              c)  3rd year:                  

b)      2nd year:                             d)  4th year:                  

 

      B.         How many graduate students are enrolled?                               

 

2.            A.        How many total visits did your writing centre log in:

a)      2002-2003?                      

b)      2003-2004?                      

            B.         How many individual visits did your writing centre log in:

a)      2002-2003?                      

b)      2003-2004?                      

C.        How many No-Shows did your writing centre log in:

c)      2002-2003?                      

d)      2003-2004?                      

 

3.                  What is your policy to deal with students who do not show up for scheduled appointments?

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               

 

4.                  How do students make appointments? (check all that apply)

Walk-in                                    o

Pre-booked via telephone         o

Pre-booked via email                o

Pre-booked via drop-in            o

 

5.                  What is your average appointment length?                    

 

 

6.            How many hours/days a week are you open?                         

Hours of Operation:      Monday:                                             

                                                Tuesday:                                              

                                                Wednesday:                                        

                                                Thursday:                                            

                                                Friday:                                                 

                                                Saturday:                                             

                                                Sunday:                                               

 

7.            Are you open during the summer (May-August)? YES o   NO o

If YES, how many hours per week?                             

 

8.            To which department does your Writing Centre report?                                    

 

9.            Does your writing centre director hold a faculty position? YES o   NO o

a)      If YES, in what department?                                                    

b)      If NO, what are the Director’s academic qualifications?                                                                                                                        

 

10.        Approximately what is your total annual budget?                                              

Of that total, what is allocated for:

Instructional Staff:                                                        

Support Staff                                                               

Tutors                                                                         

Program Delivery                                                         

Advertising                                                                  

 

11.        A.        How is your writing center funded?                                                      

B.                 Are there revenue-generating activities conducted by the Writing Centre? YES o   NO o

If YES, briefly describe those activities. If possible, provide the approximate revenue generated from these activities :                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 

 

12.        How many student peer tutors do you employ?                                    

 

13.        How many permanent tutors do you employ?                                       

 

14.        What is the salary range for tutors?                                                                   

 

15.              On average, how many hours per week do the tutors work?                             

 

 

If available, please enclose a brochure/flyer that details #16 & #17

16.              What is the mandate of your writing centre?                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      

17.              What are the goals of your writing centre?                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        

 

18.              How do you determine you have achieved those goals?                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  

 

19.       What procedures are in place to evaluate the operations of your writing centre?

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               

 

20.       What changes would you make to the operations of your writing centre?                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         

 

21.              Is there anything preventing you from implementing those changes?

NO o              YES o            If YES, please list the factors preventing change:

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     

 

22.              With respect to your writing centre, how do you define success?

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     

 

 

23.              In what ways is your writing centre successful?                                                 

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               

                                                                                                                                               

 

 

24.       In what ways is your writing centre not successful?                                                       

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               

                                                                                                                                               


Please indicate your level of satisfaction with the following aspects of your work:

 

0

Does not Apply

1

Very Dissatisfied

2

Dissatisfied

 

3

Neutral

 

4

Satisfied

 

5

Very Satisfied

Instructors’ qualifications

 

o

o

o

o

o

o

Space to conduct appointments

 

o

o

o

o

o

o

Appointment length

 

o

o

o

o

o

o

Resources used during tutoring sessions

o

o

o

o

o

o

Attitude of students regarding role of writing centre

o

o

o

o

o

o

Attitude of faculty regarding role of writing centre

o

o

o

o

o

o

Amount of funding from the university

o

o

o

o

o

o

Visibility of the writing centre on campus

o

o

o

o

o

o

Your role in detecting student plagiarism

o

o

o

o

o

o

Your role in dealing with student plagiarism

o

o

o

o

o

o

Other (Please describe)

 

o

o

o

o

o

o

 

Please indicate the degree to which you agree or disagree with the following statements:

 

0

Does not Apply

1

Strongly Disagree

2

Disagree

 

3

Neutral

 

4

Agree

 

5

Strongly Agree

The Writing Centre is an important part of this campus

o

o

o

o

o

o

There are enough tutors to handle the work load during peak times

o

o

o

o

o

o

The method of scheduling appointments is effective

o

o

o

o

o

o

The resources used during tutoring sessions are appropriate

o

o

o

o

o

o

Writing centre tutors have too much input on students’ essays

o

o

o

o

o

o

The number of appointments a tutor books within a timeframe is appropriate

o

o

o

o

o

o

Other (please describe)

o

o

o

o

o

o