Examining Our Lore: A Survey of Students' and Tutors' Satisfaction with Writing Center Conferences

Abstract

"Inspired by previously conducted empirical studies, the survey we report here brings together lore about tutors' roles as collaborators in writing center conferences and assesses the influence of these mandates on tutors' and students' satisfaction. Conducted i nthe Auburn University English Center, the survey analyzed tutors' and students' responses from more than 4,000 conferences conducted during the 1005-06 academic year. Overall the analysis of survey responses contradict lore mandates forbidding tutor directiveness and support empirical research findings showing that tutors are unable to avoid directiveness and that this directiveness is often appreciated by students. . . . The results also contradict the lore that mandates a tutor is more effective when lacking expertise in what a student is writing about and support findings from other empirical research that tutors need expertise in the genres of writing and, most often, in subject matter. . . . "