Optimizing Appointments at the Writing Center
January 2023
Background
The Writing Center at an R1 university was understaffed and fully booked. The administrative team wanted to maximize the reach of their services and ensure they were meeting the greatest needs of their clients, but they were also concerned with burnout since tutors were using their breaks to catch up on work from their asynchronous sessions. I conducted a generative research study to identify clients’ biggest needs and determine where and how to streamline the appointment process.
Summary of Findings
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Clients may be abusing or mis-understanding the purpose of the Writing Center, leading to a reliance that fills up the schedule where self-help resources may be just as effective
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There’s a discrepancy between what clients come into the Writing Center for and what their greatest challenges with writing are, which suggests opportunities to shift the focus of appointments to the benefit of tutors and clients
I recommended making alterations to the promotional materials and appointment forms that better articulate the aims and services of the Writing Center. I also suggested creating educational resources to address common difficulties while saving tutors time on their asynchronous appointments and follow-up summaries.
Methods
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Remote, unmoderated surveys via Google Forms
Tools
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Excel
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CMS used to schedule and keep track of appointments and appointment data
Constraints
I conducted this study early in the spring semester and was limited to data up to that point in the academic year. The CMS had data from past years, but the Writing Center gains a new cohort of tutors each year and it was pertinent to maximize the efficiency for that particular staff.
Process
I first met with the director and assistant director to define the research questions.
Based on their concerns for scope and efficiency, I concluded it would benefit them most to gather data on why clients come into the Writing Center, what clients expect out of their experiences, and why clients either churn or repeatedly return.
I created an open-response survey that I would send to clients who had an in-person or asynchronous appointment over the past couple months. Participants had to be active students, faculty, or staff; ie., they could not have graduated in December. The survey format would allow clients to compose thoughtful and unique responses on their own time. This format was also familiar for them, since most of them were full-time students who provided bi-annual course feedback through evaluative surveys.
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Once the director and assistant director agreed that the survey questions aligned to their learning goals, I solicited participants using the Writing Center email account. All participants were entered into a raffle to win a $10 gift card to a local coffee shop.
Forty participants responded to the survey, which was about 11% of the clients who had made appointments up to that point in the academic year.
Data Analysis & Findings
Survey questions were designed to gauge participants’ motivations for creating initial appointments and follow-ups. I used an inductive coding approach to identify themes within each individual’s survey as well as patterns that were present across the survey more holistically.
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The Writing Center website explicitly states they are “not an editing service.” Yet, “proofreading” was the most common reason that participants brought their work to the Writing Center. They specifically named wanting help with grammar, punctuation, and the “flow” of their writing.
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Participants noted that “getting started” is the most difficult part of the writing process, but general editing and proofreading was the primary request and expectation for WC appointments. Participants also indicated that they tend to make appointments after they have completed at least one draft, as opposed to seeking help at the beginning of their writing process.
These findings suggest clients may not understand the full range of services the Writing Center offers, or have limited conceptions of what sort of activities are considered part of the "writing process." As a result, the appointment slots were filling up with editing requests, taking away from others who may have benefitted more from a more in-depth conversation.
Recommendations
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To reduce the number of clients that rely on the Writing Center for general proofreading and fill up the schedule, I suggested making the aims of the Writing Center more visible on the scheduling interface, and prompting clients to specify what sort of help they needed outside of proofreading.
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To help the Writing Center expand their reach outside of their limited tutoring hours, I recommended creating public-facing resources that would guide clients through various parts of the writing process, from brainstorming exercises to sentence-level editing tips they can implement on their own.
Impact
The Writing Center added a field on their appointment forms that asks clients to describe the assistance they would like to receive outside of general proofreading and editing. For 2 months following this change, more appointments revolved around concerns related to content and organization, and tutors pointed clients to other resources for sentence-level concerns.
The assistant director also created an APA handout that clients can refer to when revising the formatting of their documents. In addition to freeing up appointments for clients with more global concerns, this resource saved tutors time on their asynchronous appointments, as they could attach the resource without reiterating the information for each client or instance. The Writing Center team plans to create additional resources for brainstorming, transitions, and organizational structure.