2022-2023
MU WRITING CENTER Annual Report
May you never write alone.
TABLE OF CONTENTS 04-05
Our Mission Providing support for any writer at MU, at any point in their process, on any writing task.
OUR YEAR IN BRIEF As long-time readers of this document may know, brief isn’t usually a word that describes our Annual Report. We’re committing to concision, though (and exclamations)!
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Our Year From August 1, 2022 to July 30, 2023, our tutors and staff completed 12, 156 hours of work.
• • •
• • •
Overall student usage at the Writing Center totaled 11,399 contacts! Face-to-face contact numbers continued to grow, as did non-WI contacts! Continued collaborations with the MedOpp Advising Office, Office of Global and National Fellowships, and Ellis Library led to even more visibility and student support opportunities! Our Writing Fellows participated in our GRAdmin program pilot! We convened our inaugural Writing Center Advisory Board! We doubled our physical space in the Student Success Center!
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Our People 48 Undergraduate Tutors, 10 Writing Fellows, 16 Graduate Writing Support tutors, and 2 full-time staff.
For more information visit us at writin gcenter.missouri.edu 2
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MU WRITING CENTER
ANNUAL REPORT
BRIEF WORDS FROM OUR DIRECTORS This year saw us continuing to learn from our return to campus and gave us the opportunity to focus our efforts on reaching new students earlier in their college careers. Institutionally, the WC’s initial restructuring took place the prior January, but ‘22-’23 was our first full academic year as a stand-alone unit with two full-time staff members (that’s us in the photos). Our overarching goals were to thoughtfully replicate the successes from the prior year and more thoughtfully expand our programming and services to the Mizzou community. Although our overall tutoring numbers did decline from Fall ‘21 - Fall ‘22, some areas increased as a result of our particular programming choices. In the fall semester, our tutoring contacts from English 1000 increased from the previous fall by 64% and in the spring, increased by 120% compared to Spring ‘22. In total, we saw over 1,500 tutoring contacts from English 1000 in ‘22-’23, which is a 90% increase from the previous year.
Dr. Aaron Harms Director
Dr. Bailey Boyd Assistant Director
In addition to those focused gains with first-year students, 3 Ph.D. students from different departments on campus joined the Writing Center as Graduate Administrative Fellows – which we internally titled “GRAdmins” – and filled out our administrative team of 2 to 5. In addition to providing Writing Intensive tutoring hours, Audrey Florey, Kacey Kennedy, and Blake Willoughby also acted as Teaching Assistants for our undergraduate course in the Fall of ’22 and assisted with the daily administration duties of the WC across the full year. In the Spring of ‘23, they also helped to coordinate our Outreach Team, performed observations of our tutors both online and in-person, and worked with us to facilitate tutor trainings.
Formalizing our GRAdmin program was one of the outcomes from convening our inaugural Advisory Board. This year, eleven faculty members from across campus provided the Writing Center with both expert advice and ongoing support as we prepared for our first External Review as a stand-alone unit, currently slated for spring of ’24. In brief, writing to you from the end of Fall ‘23, we can say that the ‘22-’23 year has provided us with a sturdy foundation to continue to the Writing Center’s mission. Please read on or visit us online for more information. May you never write alone!
OUR
MISSION As writing tutors, we should have not only an expert command of the craft of writing, but also an ability to use both the compass and the razor. That may sound like a strange metaphor to use in tutoring writing, but it means that effective tutors must be able to see a paper from both the writer’s and the reader’s perspective. Our job is not to “fix” student essays according to our own sense of what constitutes good writing, but to help the writers determine what they want to say and recognize the array of writing choices available to them. The critical razor is the editor’s tool, but the best tutors know how to survey others’ writing with the compass oriented toward the student’s own north and south. And so, we approach each student draft as if it was a foreign country or town they have never visited. What sort of place is this? Who lives here? Which ways are their north and south, their mountains and rivers, their post office and town commons? What are their languages? Their customs? Their values? We explore, and orient ourselves like mapmakers—applying the compass. Only then, when we feel we know something about the place from the inside, do we consider sitting down to discuss ideas for further landscaping. Translated into practical terms, in a writing tutorial, this comes down to a humble and genuine respect on the tutor’s part for even the least accomplished draft. Every piece of writing has its own topography, its own values, which the tutor needs to understand before undertaking to help the writer fix it. That doesn’t mean, of course, that we advocate for completely abandoning the razor. But we use it alongside the compass. Indeed, none of us can hope to be really useful to the writers we work with if we limit ourselves to one or the other. The razor is forged from our practical skill in the craft—a crucial part of our credentials; we need its mental sharpness when we think about another writer’s work. But every good tutor values the compass just as highly, knowing that successful tutorials demand a good deal more than technical expertise. At the MU Writing Center, the razor and the compass are part of what we mean when we insist that all of the people we work with are writers as truly as we are ourselves: like us, they are worthy of both.
Adopted from former Online Writery Director Dr. Greg Foster’s “The Razor & The Compass”Director
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CONTACT HOURS Our total contact hours include both training and outreach presentations. As such, this is essentially every hour our tutors did anything for the WC between August 1, 2022 and July 29, 2023.
TOTAL CONTACTS
12,156
TUTORING CONTACTS
11,399
OUTREACH CONTACTS
158
TRAINING CONTACTS
599
Our primary work will always be (usually) one-on-one writing tutoring services to MU students, staff, and faculty, we present these services through various modes of tutoring to various academic levels. The graphs below capture our delivery for the 2022-23 academic year.
‘22-23 Writing Center Tutoring
Undergraduate Contacts
Face-to-Face
The primary difference in overall usage for this year comes with the discontinuing of a collaboration that began in
8411
3529
fall ‘21. In the prior fall, we agreed to pilot required Writing Center visits for Management 3000W, a large-lecture, upper-level business writing course.
2988
Graduate and Professional Contacts
6
7870
Online Writery
Tutoring Contacts by Type of Writing
This past year, we met with the faculty and while we all
6,481
agreed there were successes, both burgeoning enrollments
Non-Writing Intensive
and administrative concerns led us to recommend, rather
2,547
than require those visits. While that decision led to about 500 fewer visits in our WI and overall numbers, we saw
Writing Intensive
overall gains in both Non-WI usage (+5%) and Application
2,371
Materials (+.5%).
Application Materials
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WRITING SUPPORT 24/7/365
5,140
Total Contacts
Usage on Breaks
In the Fall semester we successfully balanced several burgeoning partnerships: • Tutoring in our Ellis Library location, which allows for both Sunday and evening availability and proximity to the library’s resources. • Outreach and support for Writing Intensive and English 1000 courses. • Continued services in the Mark Twain residence hall, supported by the Honors College We ended the semester with over 2,000 individual users, almost half of which had more than one contact with WC services!
As everyone reads on our webpages, The Online Writery (TONY) is open 24/7/365. The tutors who monitor for and respond to submissions during breaks and holidays provide asynchronous support to all Mizzou tigers, even when classes aren’t in session. This past year, our team completed over 250 contacts during the Fall and Winter break.
TUTORING CONTACTS BY ACADEMIC LEVEL
FIND OUR FALL SEMESTER RECAP HERE
Freshmen
1,286
SUMMER 2023 This Summer we provided both tutoring and administrative support from the Ellis Library location as our Advising colleagues utilized the Student Success Center for Summer Welcome. We provided over 700 hours of writing support via a combination of library-based appointments and online responses during the months of June and July, before spending August preparing for the next year. 8 8
1,631
773
Total Contacts
1,693 1,355 1,135
Doctoral
FIND OUR SPRING SEMESTER RECAP HERE
3,480
Masters
Total Contacts
Juniors
5,488
Spring to spring usage showed progression in multiple areas as well: • Support for application materials in collaboration with MedOpp Advising for pre-med students • Working with the Offices of Global and National Fellowships and Undergraduate Research for prestigious fellowship applications and research presentations • First-year composition support up 120%, and the aforementioned Ellis Library satellite location up 34%
Part of our work is helping students with their work at hand—meeting them wherever they are--but our mission goes beyond that to making sure they know that they’re welcome any time. For many students, hearing about us during their first years means that they come back throughout their academic journey. In fact, we see our highest usage among seniors. That usually includes an extremely high amount of application materials as well.
Sophomores
SPRING 2023
Seniors
FALL 2022
Professional Program, Post-Bacc and non-enrolled faculty: 819 9
GRADUATE WRITING SUPPORT Our Graduate Writing Support program supports all postbaccalaureate writers at the University, including graduate students, staff, faculty, and alumni, both on-campus and through distanced modalities. To ensure consistent support throughout the semesters, as well as during breaks and holidays, we maintain a team of graduate and professional tutors from various academic departments.
College of Art and Science (616)
WRITING CENTER OUTREACH
Education & Human Dev (599)
During the 22-23 Academic Year, we developed a dedicated Outreach Team trained
Graduate Programs:
to present to groups of writers on campus. During the semester, they then visit classes
Other Post-Bacc (312)
and organizations in the Mizzou community to talk about the work that our tutors do and what writers can expect when working with us. This year, our administrators
College of Health Sciences (304)
were also invited to specific organizations to run workshops on teaching statements
Graduate School (254)
and personal statements. And on October 20, 2022, the Writing Center joined the Composition Program and the Campus Writing Program to celebrate the National
School of Nursing (205) School of Journalism (178) Ag., Food & Nat Resources (146)
Total Graduate Tutoring Contacts
School of Medicine (95)
2,988
College of Business (78)
Course-based Writing
College of Engineering (99)
College of Veterinary Med. (51) School of Law (51)
Our continued collaborations with the Graduate School, the College of Education and Human Development, and the Masters in Public Health program help support our thriving Graduate Writing Support program.
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Day on Writing, hearing “Why I Write” from the Mizzou community.
Resource Involvement Fair
McNair Outreach Presentation
GSE Presentation
National Day on Writing
1,741 Application Materials
788 General Writing
459
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OVERALL STUDENT FEEDBACK As part of our ongoing self-evaluation process, every student who interacts with the Writing Center has the opportunity to respond (anonymously if desired) to a set of likertscale questions followed by open-ended ones.
Would you recommend the Writing Center to a friend? I would definitely recommend the Writing Center. Sometimes I am unsure as to whether what I have written is any good. It’s great to get feedback from someone who has knowledge in the area that I am writing about and feel some reassurance that I am on the path to writing a good paper.
90%
Believe the feedback they received was helpful. [Strongly Agree or Agree]
Please describe one aspect of your tutoring session that was especially helpful: I really appreciate how my tutor provided a “Reverse Outline” of my paper to summarize her understanding of each paragraph. It really helped me understand how readers interpret my writing. My tutor was very helpful and friendly. She took notes on paper which I can refer back to when I am making changes to my application questions. I found it very helpful and I liked the way the tutor made me think more with my responses. Just the brainstorming process. I usually know what I want to talk about
Absolutely! I am a Writing Center evangelist. The feedback is always valuable and setting a date early enough to submit it/ discuss it with a tutor helps me work at a healthy pace. I would 1000% recommend it. The tutor was awesome and gave me concise constructive feedback, to the point advice that I could remember and apply. Not only did she give me writing advice but she also pointed out ways to help me deal with the reading load, that I’ve never been told before. Yes, of course. She organized all the paragraphs with the main points and pointed out the logic of my essay. Also, she suggested better expressions to make my argument clear. It’s so helpful. I’m sure my essay looks much better now. Yes! It was super helpful and super fast. I feel so much more confident about my paper, and my tutor was absolutely amazing. Really nice and supportive. Not only did she give me constructive feedback, she picked out some things I did well as
91%
Were satisfied with their Writing Center experience. [Strongly Agree or Agree]
91%
Had a tutor with a helpful and supportive attitude. [Strongly Agree or Agree]
I just struggle to put it into words. By brainstorming and talking it out I was able to find a way to put my thoughts into words. The comments provided were both very encouraging and helpful in guiding me towards a better paper. I was unsure if what I was writing made any sense. My tutor was reassuring and provided great insight into how I could edit and improve my paper. Fast, encouraging, and detailed suggestions easy to understand.
Any additional thanks to a particular tutor?: I was a little nervous to submit my essay because it had some sensitive material in it, but the person that looked at my paper wrote such sweet things about it, and gave the nicest constructive criticism I’ve ever seen. I feel like my paper will be a lot better once I use the advice, and I feel a lot more confident about turning it in now.
well. Absolutely! I love that even if the tutor thinks everything is going well in my writing, they still offer thoughtful suggestions that enhance it! I would undoubtedly recommend the Writing Center to a friend! It is an excellent resource and I wish I would have utilized it earlier on in my undergraduate career! I had no idea that my tutor would provide such extensive and helpful advice. I will
90%
Will use the Writing Center’s services again. [Strongly Agree or Agree]
I really want to thank you for your support and help. We all know how much time you spend on our papers. Each time I can see how many big suggestions you make to our papers which helps me submit very qualified papers. I appreciate it. Good luck to you!!! THANK YOU SO MUCH! Seriously, I really appreciated your timely and thoughtful feedback. This is exactly the type of feedback I was looking for and have not been able to find elsewhere. Your comments will really help me improve these essays and feel good about submitting them.
certainly use this resource more in the future!
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TUTOR ACHIEVEMENTS
Elaine Hocks
This annual report’s primary focus is to publicize the work that our tutors do for and with students each year. However, we also want to take the opportunity to put our amazing student staff in the spotlight for their own personal and academic successes.
Given to currently enrolled MU students who are also tutors at the Writing Center. Awardees are chosen based on the ways those tutors represent three particular facets of the overall work of writing tutoring: Synchronous tutoring, Online tutoring, Public Relations and Outreach.
Memorial Endowed Scholarships
Abigail Klapatauskas
Synchronous Elaine Hocks Memorial Scholarship Recipient “I felt grateful and humbled to receive the Elaine Hocks scholarship. With the Hocks’ family’s generosity, I invested in creative editing software to elevate my strategic communications projects, and I also purchased new textbooks. I’m thrilled Dr. Hocks’ legacy continues to empower the lives of students and tutors who use the Online Writery today!”
Elizabeth Busch
Online Tutoring Elaine Hocks Memorial Scholarship Recipient
While this isn’t nearly all of our tutors’ accomplishments, it’s a wide sample of the awesome work that our tutors do when they’re not changing lives at the Writing Center.
Three Mizzou ‘39 Recipients Summa Cum Laude Graduates Elected to Leadership Positions Across Campus 14 14
From study trips in Barcelona and Rome to presenting scholarly presentations at international conferences in London and Chicago, the WC went worldwide. Others conquered the academic realm, graduating with honors, completing theses, and even securing spots in prestigious graduate programs. Whether they were conquering marathons or slaying dragons in D&D campaigns, our tutors found celebrations in their f ree time. These triumphs, from publishing articles and solo performances to securing internships, reflect their dedication to both personal and professional victories. Cheers to a year filled with memorable milestones and continued success!
“My tutoring experience at the MU Writing Center helped me both develop key interpersonal skills and recognize my interest in supporting others’ academic journeys in an individualized setting. I loved connecting with students over their writing and creating a positive impact in a concrete way. This type of student connection and support is something I continue to pursue in my current work at the Honors College and beyond.”
Lily Williams
Public Relations Elaine Hocks Memorial Scholarship Recipient “I am honored to have played a role in the Writing Center’s PR and marketing efforts. The Writing Center being my home on campus inspired me to give back beyond tutoring. Creating these materials allowed me to capture Professor Hocks’ mission and highlight the ongoing impact Dr. Harms and Dr. Boyd make. The Hocks family’s generosity has afforded me the opportunity to advance my education and refine professional skills through my master’s thesis at MU.”
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Bonnie Zelenak
Rachel Harper
Given to two graduating tutors who have been distinguished by their “enthusiasm for teaching and outstanding commitment to helping students succeed.”
Given to two graduating tutors “with a flexible mind, an engaged spirit and a true passion for working with writers at every stage of the writing process.”
Excellence in Tutoring Award
Izzy Sullivan
Distinguished Tutor Awards
Colton Hicks Working at the Writing Center was one of my favorite parts of my undergraduate career! I got to
The Writing Center had a great impact on my problem-solving and communication skills. My experience working as a tutor taught me how to be adaptable, empathetic, and communicate in a productive way. The WC community was also just fantastic!
Jillian Marino
help my peers become better writers, while also improving my own writing, and I had the chance to meet and talk to so many different students. The WC is a great place doing some important work, and I am honored to have received the award!
Claire Wunder Working at the Writing Center was instrumental in my journey towards becoming an English
Being at the Writing Center for three years was an opportunity to work with different students from all corners of campus. It has made me a more successful teacher and a more open-minded learner as I’ve stepped outside of Mizzou and into my career.
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teacher, but it also had a profound impact on my personal life, as I connected with and learned so much from tutees, peer tutors, and my bosses. I am so grateful to all that I learned from working as a writing tutor; it is a job that shaped me into a better writer, teacher, and listener.
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STAYING IN TOUCH This year it got a little easier to stay in touch, and provided us more opportunities to celebrate our tutors. With the support of the Vice Provost for Undergraduate Studies, we relaunched the Student Employee Appreciation Celebration at the
TRAINING
close of the fall semester.
GEN HON 2015HW While our undergraduate course (General Honors/English 2015HW) prepares students to start tutoring, everyone who tutors for us gets very comfortable with continuous feedback on their work. During the course, students first observe our tutors, reflecting on how course information plays out in real time. By the last weeks of the semester, they’re working with
We invited all the student employees from the
a mentor and taking over a session with their
Student Success Center’s offices to homemade
mentor as “parachute.”
grilled cheeses, soups, desserts, and hot drinks. At
Mentor Program
the close of the spring semester, our Senior SendOff saw us alternately grilling peanut butter and assorted jellies and tearing up as our graduating tutors told us where they were headed next.
That parachute system returns at the start of each semester when new tutors tutor for the first time and our mentors support the on boarding process. Throughout the semesters, everyone gets observed and receives feedback at least once. This
year,
observations
in
addition
and
to
feedback
one-on-one from
our
GRAdmins, our full staff benefited from a very chicken-nugget-themed personal statement workshop from the Offices of MedOpp Advising and Global and National Fellowships as well as a small-group “Leveling Up Your TONY Game” workshop. 18
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HOW TO EXIT THE WC
efficient as an academic writer, which is cool. I’m the type
and maybe get a cool job afterward. However, the
of person who can become interested in something just
space Aaron and Bailey created in the class was more
because someone else is interested in something, so I’ve
welcoming than any I’d encountered at Mizzou, and I
loved learning about tons and tons of different things
knew from their genuine care that after the class, I’d be
from every subject under the MU umbrella in essays.
entering a more special role than I’d previously thought.
From a skills standpoint, working here has also helped
There are few things more rewarding than hearing back
me in my other employment, where I’m a journalistic
from a student you’ve tutored that they got into the
editor tasked with helping student journalists develop
program, got the scholarship, or feel more confident in
while making their copy publishable. It felt like a
their writing than they did before. Aaron thanked me for
seamless entry into that role after a few semesters at the
changing lives after my first shift, and I thought it was
Writing Center, which preaches the perfect approach
a joke. Every day I spend at the Writing Center makes
for helping writers develop both their own skills and
his words feel a little more true. Lives are changed here,
their written product. (And yes, I realize it’s probably
mine included.
lot (like, a lot, so much) writing, so being able to improve
quickly becoming evident who I am.)
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me, but most importantly, it’s modeled to me what
my ability while also being exposed to a wide variety of
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This job taught me so much about communication.
the best bosses would be like (I’m genuinely not trying
writing is something I’ll always be grateful for.
I have benefited from working at the Writing Center in
I already had the writing aspect down when I began.
to schmooze, I had just never been treated well by an
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so many different ways... Professionally, I have gained
While the Writing Center did put me around writing,
employer before and had my boss show care for me
Working in the Writing Center has benefited me both
several crucial skills for guiding students through
therefore strengthening my skills in that area, more
and my mental health). It’s also made it clear to me
personally and professionally in a few different ways.
the writing process. I have become better at quickly
than anything it gave me the chance to perfect my
what things I can improve on (time management is a
On a professional level, the Writing Center gave me
identifying which areas of a paper need to be addressed
interpersonal skills. I learned how to adapt my method of
big one), and it’s refined my ability to collaborate with
the opportunity to look at writing from a different
for revision, and how to ~lovingly~ make tutees aware of
communication from person-to-person in order to best
others without being overly authoritative. I’ve noticed
perspective, which in turn, has made me a better writer.
those areas as well. As an upcoming HS English teacher,
get the message across to a wide variety of individuals.
over my college career that I’ve become progressively
While becoming a better writer is an obvious benefit,
these skills are invaluable to writing instruction in my
That wasn’t something I had a lot of experience with
more okay taking a “back seat” to others who show
it’s especially important to me because writing is so
classroom and guiding my students through the writing
before this, now I consider it one of my greatest skills.
initiative in group projects, and I realize now that
important in my future profession. Also, getting to work
process while teaching them to be excellent writers.
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it’s likely because I was forced to not take too much
with the Writing Center’s amazing tutors and faculty
Personally, my own writing has improved, I have learned
I gained the ability to quickly develop rapport with a
initiative when tutoring for the WC; I don’t think my ego
has greatly improved my interpersonal skills, which
more management skills, but most importantly, I have
stranger in one-on-one settings, additionally, it aided
in collaborative settings would be quite as “in-check” as
will benefit me professionally and personally. Overall, it
learned what it feels like to work in a space where each
me in my skillsets as an instructor for the College of
it is now.
was just so rewarding to be able to work with so many
employee is valued, heard, and supported. There is such
Education & Human Development in the Department
students and build relationships with them. Working in
a family feel at the WC that extends from brand new
of Learning, Teaching, & Curriculum. I was able to give
Ultimately, it’s made me more cognizant of what I need
the Writing Center might be really different from my
tutors to the directors.
better instructor notes on assignments and grade in
from others in a work setting, and what I can improve on
future career, but I credit a lot of the skills I’ve gained
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a more justifiable way on students’ quality of writing
to make myself more tolerable (? can’t think of a better
or improved over the last two years to my time at the
My own writing has benefited significantly from working
and meeting standards. All of these activities allowed
word atm) in the workplace, and truly, has made me a
Writing Center.
in the writing center. Both the didactic trainings and
me to grow as a future administrator, understand how
more patient person, which is something I’ve struggled
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being exposed to so much writing generally helped me
the best support undergraduate students in a work
with my whole life.
A job like this is a blessing and a curse: On one hand,
become a better writer. Also, students would often ask
environment beyond just an instructor environment,
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you have an incredible team around you, especially the
me questions related to writing rules/conventions, and
and learned administrative work qualities necessary to
Personally, I have absolutely wonderful bosses (Hi Dr.
bosses -- on the other hand, it spoils you for potential
if I didn’t know the answer it was an opportunity for me
create a healthy-supportive work culture. Thanks to Dr.
Harms, Hi Dr. Boyd) who have mentored me at the
future jobs. There is nothing like being treated with the
to do my own research to discover the answer. Being
Harms & Dr. Boyd, having this new assistantship format
Writing Center and beyond. Dr. Harms has seen me
respect and dignity you deserve, and the team does just
exposed to student writings also helped me in my other
allowed me to grow in these administrative areas that
through my lows and highs, and Bailey has always been
that. It makes working much better when you have this
roles as a graduate student, such as being a TA where
I am now beginning a full-time job as a Director of
my support through random, last-minute changes in my
support system.
I am grading writing assignments. Finally, the quality,
Education at a non-profit. In my interviews, the CEO of
crazy schedule. I know what traits I want to see, such as
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compassion, and generally down-to-earthness of the
the organization commented that the experiences and
patience and flexibility, in future research mentors and
Oh, man... in so many ways! For one, it’s changed the
directors and other staff was an immense help on my
activities that I did with the Writing Center as a graduate
PIs because of these two. As for professionally, I have so
way I look at academic writing. By seeing so many ways
general wellbeing as a graduate student.
admin fellow is what made most of the supervisors at
much more experience with writing that is immensely
of doing things (both good and bad), I’ve modified some
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the organization more comfortable hiring a graduate
of my practices and have become more confident and
When I signed up for the tutoring class, I thought I’d
student straight from schooling with no corporate
knock out an Honors and WI credit simultaneously
managerial experience.
When tutors graduate and/or run out of time in their day to continue working for us, we ask them fairly serious questions about their experiences here. That question, and their responses, are below:
How have you personally or professionally benefited from working in the WC? How has this job #changedyourlife? I think working for the WC has done a few things for
beneficial for my future ambitions. Research involves a
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MU Writing Center
SEE YOU NEXT YEAR.