Gooch & Ortega 1

Carly Gooch & Jorge Ortega

ENGL 1810
Prof. Clint Gardner
December 6, 2018
Final Report
ENGL 900 & 990 Writing Workshops

Original intent of the project

The purpose of this signature assignment project was to conduct writing workshops for ENGL
900 & 990 students. The idea was to address specific needs of such students by providing group
discussions in combination with one-on-one coaching for their respective class’s major
assignments. We wanted to make sure the workshops were centered around what students most
needed, so we sent out various emails to professors and students and attended classes in an
attempt to find information about students’ needs, availability and information of major papers to
build the workshop accordingly.

What we did

Once the proposal was submitted, the intention was to get started with the workshops
immediately. Professor Ben Fillmore was one of the first professors we reached out to. We
explained to him our desire to meet with his students and build trust through positive interaction.
We explained to the students about our intentions, workshop schedules, and goals for the project.
Unfortunately, after a few weeks of constant reminders via email neither the students nor
Professor Fillmore responded to any of our emails, so we took the initiative to contact Professor
Jerri Harwell who is also an ENGL 900 and 990 faculty member. We had a few meetings with
her to inform her about our project; however, because of schedule conflicts we were unable to
fully conduct group tutorials as intended.

Our initial impression for this lack of response from students in our first attempt was because of
amotivation to join our workshops. According to The Power of Common Interest for Motivating
Writers: A Case Study written by Natalie DeCheck, she contends that amotivation is the lack of
motivation to perform a specific task (qtd. in Fitzgerald and Ianetta 338). Though we were
interested in running these workshops to provide a more personalized assistance to groups, we
received greater requests for consultations from ENGL 990 and 900 students via one-on-one
sessions. When working with them, we discovered that one of the reasons why we were having
trouble gathering students to hold up group workshops was time conflict contrary to amotivation.
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Learning experience

What we learned from this experience is that we must develop tutoring strategies that would
encourage writers to come to the writing center and stay motivated throughout their academic
journey. DeCheck suggests that some sort of motivation, either intrinsic or extrinsic, should exist
in people to motivate them to accomplish goals. We also learned that building long-term
relationships, especially with international students, is of sum importance in our practice as well.
This service-learning project has helped us develop a greater understanding of students’ needs.
We have become more patient and understanding individuals toward their needs and built a
stronger sense of multiculturalism that enriches the writing center space.

A particular aspect we learned from this service-learning project was that international students
are concerned about writing formats such as APA or MLA, and the lack of confidence in their
writing skills. According to Writing Across Borders, a video documentary from Oregon State
University, writers from other countries may have difficulties writing in English, not because
they don’t know how to write their composition in English per se, but because of their lack of
knowledge of American rhetorical and writing conventions.

A situation we encountered in one of our sessions was with a student from Vietnam. He asked
Jorge why he has to follow “these guidelines” referring to APA (he was working for a Biology
paper). Jorge told him that APA is the preferred format that teachers require when it comes to
writing science-based papers. Though this does not hold true in all cases, APA style is yet widely
used for such purposes based on our experience. The writer had an “a-ha moment” and told us
that he now felt he had a purpose for following these guidelines. Not only did he learn purpose,
but he felt with confidence to “question the purpose of the formats” The writer became very
engaged in finishing up his paper as a result. This experience showed us that most international
students are alone in college. Therefore, in order to assist international student-writers more
appropriately continued guidance, building rapport and writing support through one-on-one
consultations are paramount.

In American culture, we usually tend to follow guidelines or policies—in anything we do in

life— without questioning the whys we must follow them. This service-learning experience has
enlightened us that we must never take things for granted and pay closer attention to concerns,
even the smallest ones, from international students. We must walk with them when it comes to
assisting them, for instance, with APA and MLA formats as well as to find ways to help spark
their confidence and motivate them throughout their writing process.

What the outcomes were

We found that the number of ENGL 900 and 990 students did significantly increase from last
year. A combination of video promotional and our participation in this project was instrumental
for ENGL 900 and 990 students to increase their participation in our writing center. For this
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academic 2018 fall semester, there was an increase of ENGL 900 students that went from 135 in
Spring 2018 to 297 in Fall 2018. For ENGL 990, there was an increase from 143 in Spring 2018
to 212 in Fall 2018 (Tutorial Session Report). One thing we learned and now fully understand is
just how busy students can be. When we realized that we were unlikely to be able to put together
a fully functional group workshop, we still tried to adapt our project to help impact students in a
different way that was more centered around their individual schedule and needs.

What we learned

While the professors and their classes seemed eager to have us, the follow-up was not what we’d
hoped for. Professor Fillmore was very inviting when we stopped by to speak to the class.
Students provided their emails and we reached out to them that same evening. Despite our best
efforts, students did not respond or show up to our scheduled writing workshops. Our initial
assumptions were that students did not have the motivation to participate. We suggested
professors’ incentives to encourage students to join our meetings. We provided super flexible
meeting schedules, but they did not work out. Professor Harwell mentioned that some students
may just come to school for class and not be around campus for the rest of the day. However, as
we were working on our one-on-one tutorials students from those classes started to show up
more often. It turned out that time conflict was likely one of the main problems. It seemed that
one-on-one tutorials is what works best for students based on their time limitations and their
needs based on their language abilities. A wide open, flexible writing center hour would be an
excellent idea for students to pop by either early in the morning or later in the evening, after
these students get off of work. These students had a tendency of meeting with a particular tutor
most of the times. This is because they like to work with writing consultants whom they feel
comfortable to work with. That’s where, once again, the importance of building long-term
relationships lies on.
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Works Cited
Burton, Vicky, Lisa Ede. “Writing Across Borders.” Dwayne Robertson, Director. Oregon State

University, 2006. https://media.oregonstate.edu/media/t/0_v4s6xtpp Accessed Nov 30

2018

Iannetta, Melissa, and Laura Fitzgerald. The Oxford Guide for Writing Tutors. Oxford University

Press, 2016.

Tutorial Session Report, SLCC Student Writing and Reading Center.