LD20 Exploring Learning Development: Practices, Pedagogies, Puzzles and Research.

Wri$ng	  Center	  Challenges:	  A	  Case	  Study	  Maho Sano and Ritsuko Rita
Acquiring English academic writing skills is challenging for many learners. A self-access writing
center was established at a private university in Tokyo and offers one-on-one sessions wherelearners can consult more proficient tutors, discuss their writing issues and gain advice. TheWriting Center has helped many learners improve their writing skills such as coherence andcohesion as well as linguistic issues, functioning as a valuable place where students can learn how
to improve their writing skills outside class. However, some operational issues have arisen. Afteroutlining some logistical challenges, this paper introduces some measures that the Writing Centerhas taken in order to ensure that quality sessions are provided to learners.
学術的なライティングスキル習得は多くの学習者にとって努力を要するものである。
京の私 立大学にある東京の私立大学にあるライティングセンターでは、高い語学力を持つ学生 チューター高い英語力をもつ学生チューターに相談し、ライティングの問題点を話しあいア ドバイスを得ることのできる1対1のセッションを提供している。このライティングセンター は言語的な課題にとどまらず、文の整合性等、学術文章スキルの向上において多くの学習者 の手助けをし、授業外において学習者イティングスキルを磨く価値的な場として機能してき た。しかしながら、センターの運営においてはいくつかの問題も生じている。本稿では、運 営面での問題点の概要に触れ、当センターがセッションの質の確保のために実施してきた対 策を紹介する。

Introduction
Acquiring the skills of English academic writing is a challenging task for many learners. In order to overcome
some of their difficulties, university students can consult more experienced tutors in a dedicated writing center(Cassidy, Gillespie, Glasgow, Kobayashi and Roloff-Rothman, 2011). In recent years, writing centers havebecome places where writing issues are discussed and advice is provided, in contrast to traditional ones that
focused on error correction (McKinley, 2010). This paper will discuss some of the common challenges
experienced at a self-access writing center at a private university in Tokyo. In the Writing Center, there is afocus (heavy emphasis) on cohesion and coherence as part of academic writing conventions in general because
these are both common areas which challenge university learners. The Writing Center was established to help

Special Issue of Learning Learning, Volume 22, Issue 2 October 201532

LD20 Exploring Learning Development: Practices, Pedagogies, Puzzles and Research.
university EFL learners to write academically. However, there are several operational challenges that theWriting Center needs to overcome in order to provide quality sessions for learners. After briefly introducing theuniversity’s Writing Center, this paper will outline several operational challenges that the Writing Center isfacing and what measures have been taken to address those logistical problems.

About the Writing Center
The Writing Center at our university was established in 1999 as a part of the university’s self-access programswith the purpose of helping learners improve their academic writing skills. Japanese EFL learners of elementary
to intermediate proficiency levels mainly visit the Writing Center. Learners often come to the sessions toimprove their paragraphs or essays that are assigned as homework in their English classes. Many of the learners
coming to the Writing Center have linguistic problems in their writing such as mistakes in certain aspects ofgrammar and the use of informal language in their academic writing. Although those linguistic challenges aredealt with in the Writing Center sessions, the Writing Center focuses more on the conventions of English
academic writing. For example, the correct usage, in writing, of cohesion and coherence is challenging formany Japanese EFL learners. The Writing Center is an internally funded self-access program holding sessions
from Monday to Friday, and each session runs for a duration of 30 minutes. The Writing Center tutors are paid
undergraduate students, graduate students, and international students who work two to three shifts a week. Inorder to have a session, students make a reservation online. When students come to the Writing Center sessions,they bring their writing and get feedback on it. The language of instruction in the Writing Center sessions iseither Japanese or English depending on the tutors. Thus the Writing Center functions as a place where learners
can improve their academic writing skills outside class. However, in terms of the operation of the Writing
Center, there are several challenges that need to be overcome if the Writing Center is to better help learners be
more successful in their English academic writing.

Special Issue of Learning Learning, Volume 22, Issue 2 October 201533

LD20 Exploring Learning Development: Practices, Pedagogies, Puzzles and Research.

The Writing Center’s Operational Challenges
The first challenge is the recruitment of new Writing Center tutors. Currently, half of the tutors are Japanese
students and the other half are international students. Ideally, it would be better if the Writing Center could hire
Japanese tutors with high English proficiency and a background of formal academic writing instruction, orinternational students who have received formal instruction in academic writing and have a good command ofJapanese. In reality, however, sometimes the Writing Center has no choice other than to employ all applicants
when the number of positions available and the number of applicants are equal. In this situation, the Writing
Center cannot choose based on the experience and education of the applicants.
The most compelling issue at the Writing Center is the inconsistent quality of the sessions conducted bydifferent tutors. First, the sessions conducted by Japanese tutors and international tutors vary considerably. Oneof the primary problems is that learners often do not understand the feedback provided in English. Currently,
half of the staff are international students, including native English speakers and those who speak English as
their second or third language. Most international students are in the process of learning Japanese, and their
Japanese proficiency is not necessarily high. Therefore, many conduct sessions in English or mix English andJapanese. However, even if they mix languages, it is often difficult to provide explanations and comments in acomprehensible way because tutors need to be familiar with certain vocabulary or expressions used in
discussing writing and grammar. Some students have difficulty expressing where they need help because of
their low English proficiency.
Another cause of inconsistency between Japanese tutors and international tutors stems from whether or not they
have experience of writing in a second language themselves For those who have no experience of second
language writing, it is often difficult to understand the difficulties that students are facing. Indeed, the Writing
Center coordinator also is of the opinion that those tutors who have received English writing instruction seem tobe able to offer more effective feedback on learners’ writing.

Special Issue of Learning Learning, Volume 22, Issue 2 October 201534

LD20 Exploring Learning Development: Practices, Pedagogies, Puzzles and Research.
A second area of inconsistency is that some tutors only focus on grammar and vocabulary issues whereas some
focus on the organization and structure of learners’ writing. In the university academic English writing courses,
the focus of instruction is to help students understand the organization and structure of academic writing.
Therefore, tutors are expected to help students with these higher level issues. However, despite the Writing
Center mission to help learners to be autonomous, some tutors just check grammar and vocabulary during thesessions. This inconsistency between classroom instruction and Writing Center sessions affects the trust
between instructors and students. Indeed, the Writing Center has received some complaints regarding this issue
from both teachers and students. For example, there was a case where a student came back from a Writing
Center session with their grammar mistakes fixed but not the organizational or structural issues which shouldhave been the focus of the Writing Center session. Because many students bring their course assignments to theWriting Center, this issue can affect students’ academic grades.
The third inconsistency is the difference in motivational level among tutors, a problem which the Writing
Center coordinator himself recognizes. Some tutors are very keen, motivated, and serious about the sessions.
However, some tutors seem to consider themselves as just ‘part-timers.’ Their level of dedication to the work is
not as high as expected. This results in inconsistent quality of feedback. Such motivational and attitudinaldifferences can influence the quality of the sessions.
Another inconsistency among sessions is time management. In the Writing Center, each session is 30 minuteslong, and there are four sessions back to back each day. The last five minutes are usually used for signing theWriting Center log sheets that students bring, sending students off, recording session logs for Writing Center
administration purposes, and calling the next student in. As a result, there is only 25 minutes to work on thestudent’s writing. Within this 25 minutes, the tutors ask students what their assignments are and what theywould like to improve upon, read the student’s writing, make comments and suggestions, and have time forquestions and answers. Completing these tasks within 25 minutes is very challenging, and tutors are required towork efficiently. Some tutors, especially novice tutors, sometimes go over time or cannot check students’Special Issue of Learning Learning, Volume 22, Issue 2 October 201535

LD20 Exploring Learning Development: Practices, Pedagogies, Puzzles and Research.
writing entirely. The Writing Center coordinator explains that if tutors only check a part of students’ writing,many students feel dissatisfied and worry about their writing.
The last operational challenge that the Writing Center is facing is that some students reserve Writing Centersessions, but then they do not show up. This means that students who really want to attend the Writing Centersometimes lose a chance to have a Writing Center session. In the current system, students make a reservation
online in advance. Since the Writing Center offers one-on-one sessions, if a student reserves a session online,
other students cannot make a reservation. There are a number of students who come to the Writing Center as apart of their English course requirements. As proof of their visit to the Writing Center, students can get one
stamp per session on their Writing Center attendance log. However, since students sometimes skip theirsessions without canceling their reservation online, other students who need to have Writing Center sessions
cannot make a reservation. Therefore, the Writing Center receives complaints regarding its session availability.

Addressing the Challenges
To solve the issues related to the inconsistency of session quality, the Writing Center holds training sessions
several times throughout a semester. The purpose of the training sessions is to standardize tutoring sessions asmuch as possible so that there is consistency in terms of the quality of sessions. In the training sessions, tutors
have opportunities to share difficulties they face during the tutoring sessions, suggest solutions, and discuss
time management techniques. In addition, tutors have an opportunity to provide feedback on sample writing
and compare what kind of feedback they have given on the sample written work. Then, with the Writing Center
coordinator, tutors check what should be focused on in giving feedback. The training sessions can positively
affect the issue of feedback inconsistency among tutors and moderately influence time-management issues.
However, issues related to motivation and language proficiency are hard to directly address during the training
sessions because those issues depend on personal factors rather than on their skills.
As a way to address the issue of students’ no-shows that negatively affect other learners who really need toattend the Writing Center, it has been requested that the Writing Center should increase the number of sessions
Special Issue of Learning Learning, Volume 22, Issue 2 October 201536

LD20 Exploring Learning Development: Practices, Pedagogies, Puzzles and Research.
so that the center can better accommodate learners. However, student no-shows affect what percentage of theWriting Center shifts are actually used. Since the Writing Center staff are paid part-time workers, increasing thenumber of sessions offered necessitates an increase in the budget for the Writing Center. Consequently, theWriting Center has faced a dilemma. The Writing Center wishes to offer more sessions, but if the session’sutility rate is lowered due to student no-shows the Writing Center cannot increase the number of sessions. To
solve this problem, the online reservation system has changed: if a student does not show up, the student will belocked out for 2 weeks and will be unable to use the center.

Conclusion
The Writing Center has been facing several operational challenges. The biggest challenge is the inconsistency
in feedback quality arising from various factors such as tutors’ linguistic and writing- related educational
background, and time-management. Training sessions have been held as a means of assuring greater
consistency in feedback quality. Other minor issues such as the varying experience and education of Writing
Center tutors and students’ no-shows have been pointed out. Nevertheless, the benefits for students far
outweigh these operational challenges because the Writing Center offers students vital opportunities for them toimprove their academic writing skills outside class. Therefore, although the Writing Center is currently facingthese challenges, it will continue developing its sessions in order to better support learners in their English
academic writing.

References
Cassidy, P., Gillespie, S., Glasgow, G., Roloff-Rothman, J. & Kobayashi, Y. (2011). Creating a Writing
Center: Autonomy, Interdependence, and Identity. In K.Irie, K. and A.Stewart (Eds.). Realizing
Autonomy: Practice and Reflection in Language Education Contexts (pp. 141-153). London: Palgrave
Macmillan.
McKinley, J.(2010). English language writing centers in Japanese universities: What do students really need?
SiSAL Journal 1(1), 17-31.

Special Issue of Learning Learning, Volume 22, Issue 2 October 201537