Writing Centre Development
USING A WRITING CENTRE TO ENHANCE THE WRITING SKILLS OF STUDENTS FOR WHOM ENGLISH IS NOT A FIRST LANGUAGE IN A TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY: A CASE STUDY
Tsaona (Seitsiwe) Mokgwathi
Botswana International University of Science and Technology, Palapye, Botswana
This paper discusses the initiative by the Academic Affairs Centre for Technical Writing to use a Writing Centre to enhance the writing skills of students studying in a technical university. Students had serious writing problems generally, problems with technical writing in particular, and problems following academic writing conventions. Furthermore, English, the language of instruction, is not a first language for almost all the students. The conceptual framework of this paper is informed by Janet Emig (1971)’s the writing process, based on the idea that “students determine the content of the course by exploring the craft of writing using their own interests, language, techniques, voice, and freedom ...”. The Writing Centre is an ideal setup to engage in the writing process since it provides peer tutoring on oneonone basis. The benefit of peer tutoring is that students are assisted by fellow students with better language competency skills. Peer tutoring also values the contribution of both the writer and tutor. The qualitative study involved the analysis of twenty samples of students’ written work by examining them for grammatical correctness, cohesion, coherence and adherence to explicitness which is central in technical writing. The students had used the Writing Centre for three months. A focus group of 10 students was then interviewed to solicit their views about the service rendered. The results showed that a Writing Centre is crucial in enhancement of students’ writing skills. The results of the study will be useful to lecturers teaching a similar course in technical institutions.
References Wulff, A., Henderson, A., Williams, C., Marshall, L., Saravia L., & Aleksa, Vol.1. “to be a peer: an introduction to writing centre theory and practice”. A handbook online. http://www.uic.edu/depts/engl/writing/wc%20handbook2014.pdf Accessed: 24/03/2015.