Writing Assessment and Writing Center Assessment: Collision, Collusion, Conversation
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Date
2010
Authors
Picciotto, Madeleine
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Description
The benefits and risks of evaluating how writing centers effect
students' performance on exit exams.
Sophia makes her first visit to the writing center
in a state of desperation[1]. Although she’s
earning adequate grades in the Basic Writing class
she’s currently taking (for the third time), she has
twice failed the institutionally-mandated exit
exam that will enable her to enter a college
composition course focusing on academic
argumentation. If she doesn’t pass the exam on
her third try, she’ll be dismissed from the
university. During the exam she’ll have two hours
to read a short passage she’s never seen before
and craft a response, supporting her position with
appropriate examples. She has only a few weeks
before the exam date — just enough time for a
handful of individual consultations with a peer tutor and participation in a group
workshop for Basic Writing students.