College writing centers underutilized

By Choi Bo-ryung

While students in Korea enjoy ample opportunities during their education to read, learn grammar rules, and memorize vocabulary, they don’t write nearly enough to develop their skills and become competent writers.

In America, writing is considered a basic ability in which students of all disciplines should achieve proficiency. Many Korean universities require their students to take at least one course in basic writing before they graduate. But is that enough?

Universities should not fail to help their students become competent in skills that are vital to their academic careers. For that purpose, nearly all American universities have writing centers, which are considered crucial to improving students’ writing skills.

The majority of universities in Korea, however, do not have writing centers. This lack is a problem which should be resolved. Korean universities, too, can gain much from making writing centers available on campus for their students’ use.

A typical writing center in America is a university facility where tutors meet with students to provide free assistance on papers, projects, reports and other assignments.

Writing centers are essential for students who want to become good writers because developing writing skills depends on practice and feedback more than anything else. Class assignments provide ample opportunities for practice, and practice is most effective when it is guided by a capable hand.

Tutors are undergraduate or graduate students who have been trained and are qualified to assist their peers in writing.

Writing centers provide services for students of all levels and for all fields of study. Like other on-campus facilities, they are readily available to students for whom a writing center is a source of guidance that can be accessed whenever they need it.

The key objective of writing centers is not to fix students’ papers so as to help them get good grades, but to develop them into better writers.

This objective has the benefit of being a holistic one. Writing centers can be considered a part of the holistic education movement that is gaining momentum around the world today, as stated in New Renaissance Magazine.

In holistic education, developing a student’s whole self is the central focus. Developing the “self” includes nurturing vital skills such as reading, writing and critical thinking, and extends more broadly to the development of social skills, good work habits, and a goal-oriented and positive outlook on life.

All of these can be part of the process at a writing center, where engaging in a discourse community helps students develop not only as writers, but also as thinkers, learners and community members.

An authority on writing centers from the University of Illinois, Urbana Champaign describes the most important feature of writing centers as being peer tutoring; one-on-one interaction between tutors and writers.

As peers, not professors, writing center tutors provide a comfortable environment for students to develop their writing. This environment is highly beneficial for students’ development.

Tutors are not authorities or evaluators to the student. Rather, they are collaborators and interested readers. Notably, the student makes the final decision in regards to the most important aspects of the paper. A study published in the academic journal Higher Education noted that students’ relationship with tutors considerably decreased their stress during the writing process.

Surprisingly, despite the many benefits that writing centers can afford students, there is very little awareness of writing centers among Korean university students and policymakers, and almost all Korean universities lack writing centers.

My research has shown only six of the more than 400 universities in Korea currently have writing centers.

Writing centers began to be established widely in the United States in the 1970s in response to many university attendees’ under-preparedness to write at a collegiate level. Many Korean university students, too, are unprepared to write at the level expected of them by professors.

The lack of writing centers in nearly all Korean universities is unfortunate. Students struggling with writing should have a place that they can turn to for help, and it is the responsibility of universities to provide that source of guidance. Otherwise, students’ writing ability will stagnate, not grow.

Writing centers have been successful in America for two reasons: Emphasis placed on writing in education and a general awareness of writing centers. Recreating these conditions in Korea can result in similar success.

Writing centers are a highly beneficial institution that can reap many benefits for Korean students and educators. They can contribute to higher standards in Korean education, and even raise the overall communicative competence of this society.

For higher education institutes that want to produce good writers, the value of writing centers cannot be exaggerated. Korean universities would benefit immeasurably from the more widespread establishment of writing centers.

Choi Bo-ryung is a student majoring in English linguistics and literature at the Hankuk University of Foreign Studies.