What a difference a writing centre makes: a small scale study

Abstract

Purpose

Academic writing is often considered to be a weakness in contemporary students, while good reporting and writing skills are highly valued by graduate employers. A number of universities have introduced writing centres aimed at addressing this problem; however, the evaluation of such centres is usually qualitative. The paper seeks to consider the efficacy of a writing centre by looking at the impact of attendance on two “real world” quantitative outcomes – achievement and progression.

Design/methodology/approach

Data mining was used to obtain records of 806 first‐year students, of whom 45 had attended the writing centre and 761 had not.

Findings

A highly significant association between writing centre attendance and achievement was found. Progression to year two was also significantly associated with writing centre attendance.

Originality/value

Further, quantitative evaluation of writing centres is advocated using random allocation to a comparison condition to control for potential confounds such as motivation.

Citation

Yeats, R., Reddy, P., Wheeler, A., Senior, C. and Murray, J. (2010), "What a difference a writing centre makes: a small scale study", Education + Training, Vol. 52 No. 6/7, pp. 499-507. https://doi.org/10.1108/00400911011068450