A Comparison of the Relationship Between Campus Writing Centers and Developmental Writing Programs at Two- and Four-Year Institutions

Author

Kiley Truex, University of Nebraska at KearneyFollow

Date of Award

Spring 4-24-2025

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

English

First Advisor

Dr. Amanda Sladek

Committee Members

Dr. Seth Long

Dr. Janet Graham

Dr. Rachel Azima

Keywords

Basic writing, Writing centers, Four-year college, Two-year college, Composition, First-Year Writing

Abstract/Description

Throughout the history of American composition instruction in higher education, the question of how best to support students who struggle with or come into college unprepared for academic writing has been a debated one. Two of the most commonplace models for additional student writing support are basic writing courses and writing centers, and institutions often have both. Furthermore, there is also a distinction between writing education at the four-year college level and writing education at the two-year college level, and this distinction comes into particularly sharp focus when it comes to examining both basic writing pedagogies and well as the structure and philosophy of campus writing centers. These separate but interrelated phenomena formed the basis of this study, which seeks to examine the use and perception of writing centers by developmental or basic writing students at a two-year college versus a four-year college.

To investigate this question, I studied two institutions: Northeast Community College and the University of Nebraska at Kearney. I devised a student survey, interviewed basic writing and writing center faculty/staff, and gathered writing center visit data for each institution to attempt to piece together a picture of basic writers’ relationship with the writing center at each school. The primary finding of this study was that basic writing students tend not to use the writing center in significant numbers at either institution. This provides a crucial starting point for investigations into how to encourage students to use the writing center and how basic writers are defined within institutions of higher education.

Recommended Citation

Truex, Kiley, "A Comparison of the Relationship Between Campus Writing Centers and Developmental Writing Programs at Two- and Four-Year Institutions" (2025). English Theses, Dissertations, and Student Creative Activity. 18.
https://openspaces.unk.edu/eng-etd/18