I will be studying the reason of why students come to the writing center and if there are difference between their grade level and their writing problems. I have had mostly ESL students which make my research alot more difficult, but it seems that even english speaking students have the same problems as ESL, ie: grammer, sentence structure, understanding the assignment, knowing how a formal paper is written.
review of the literature:
occurding to several books, freshman are most interested in looking at the structure and understanding the assignment, while upperclassman want to focus on the grammar and sentence structure.
methods:
i always asked the student first about their day, the class, the teacher, the subject, if they have any other work that the professor graded. i also ask them if they have an assignment, and if they even read the material, and if they understood it. i then quickly go over the assignment with the student, taking notes for myself to structure the paper. i ask the student if they have any questions, and what they want to go over with their paper. most students just shrug and nonchalantly say "everything, i really don't know what im doing", some are more assertive and will say " i need help with ....", making my job a lot easier. i usually ask the student to read the first paragraph, or first sentence, asking if they see any problems, and of course, they ALWAYS say no, until i point out a punctuation mistake, or that a word doesn't belong. By making the student read outloud, they can almost always pick out mistakes, most of the time, the student reads what he means to say, but doesnt write it correctly. By going over a few mistakes, students are able to realize problems throughout their paper. ive had 6 sessions with 5 undergraduate students, at least one student per grade level in the past month.
Data analysis:
My ESL students always came to me about grammatical problems. Surprisingly, my only english native speaker had the same problems. I mistakenly asked her if english was her first language, and she got very offended. As a junior, her writing was equal to or worse than an ESL. I still have to look over my notes, but it seemed like all my students have grammatical concerns, and most need to learn how to write a strong sentence.
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