"Perspectives on the Writing Center and Writing Across the Curriculum: A Dialogue Between the Sciences and Humanities"

The Wilkes University Writing Center

The Wilkes University Writing Center works hard to serve all students who bring their writing there, and as the popularity of the Writing Center grows, so too must the thinking and discussions about how to make a visit to the Writing Center as valuable as possible.  As writing assignments evolve, and more students seek out the help of the Writing Center, the Center must continually explore ways to help everyone.  According to “A Writing Center Overview March 2009,” composed by the Wilkes University Writing Center Director Dr. William Chad Stanley, the Wilkes University Writing Center strives to offer “peer-based academic support for student writers at both the undergraduate and graduate levels” (Stanley). 

The Wilkes University Writing Center is situated within the English department, and typically employs about 30 undergraduate and a handful of graduate students from various majors.  Statistically speaking, the Wilkes University Writing Center is a popular campus institution, considering that Wilkes University is a small liberal arts university of approximately 2,300 full-time undergraduate students (Wilkes University).  In the 2006-2007 academic year, 596 gross visits were recorded.  In the 2007-2008 academic year, 911 gross visits were recorded.  These numbers represent a 165% increase in the number of recorded visits between the two academic years (Stanley).  Some unrecorded consultations also occur via e-mail, and outside of the physical space of the Writing Center; therefore, the actual number of visits for the 2007-2008 academic year is probably significantly higher (Stanley).  Dr. Stanley reported that during the years of 2004-2008, “student visits to the Wilkes Writing Center have increased by well over 200%,” and as survey responses from student writers indicate, they “perceive their writing consultation sessions as being highly-effective, and judge our Peer Consultants to be highly-skilled” (Stanley), all of which causes the Writing Center to continue to grow in popularity.  Such an increase in interest in the Writing Center leads to important questions:  how do students view the Writing Center, and how can those working in the Writing Center best serve student writers from across the disciplines?  Such notions of interdisciplinarity are especially important given the University’s adoption of the WAC model of writing.