Carina Duffy
SED 445
Professor Collins
24 March 2014
Memo
#2
I have been able to track down several scholarly articles
for my I-search topic. I am interested in learning how writing centers in
secondary schools can help improve the writing of students who utilize the
center. I want to explore the ways writing centers help to positively assist,
motivate and influence a school’s community. In order to find information on
this topic, I explored Rhode Island College’s library databases. I used the
database Education Full Text and was able to find several helpful scholarly
articles. Specifically, I found articles that offer research findings that show
a correlation between writing centers and improvement in students writing. I
was excited to see that there a sources available that report the findings I
was hoping to discover. One article in particular, listed several findings from
a study conducted surveying students who use a high school writing center. Some
of these findings included, significant improvement in GPA’s, improvement in
performance, advancements in grammar skills, and improved test scores with
students who utilized the writing center.
Another source I found examined the benefits of students who used the
writing center, along with the benefits of peer tutors. The article also
outlined how secondary schools writing centers
can lead to college success, and expose students to a peer led learning
experience, which can be rare. I was happy to see that every source I found
reported the benefits of peer led writing centers. I did not find any negative
comments about writing centers, but instead only positive results. Being a
tutor at RIC’s Writing Center, I was intrigued by these results. Until the RIWP Conference I attended March 8th, I had never thought of implementing a writing center at a secondary level. Using these articles as scholarly sources and the student volunteers and clients at local high school
writing centers, will help me come to discover the overall academic gains that
are linked to writing centers. I look forward to finding more sources and
concrete evidence that proves the value of writing centers and why they are
vital in secondary schools.
