Capping Off the Semester: Writing Center Statistics
By Arwen Tyler

The weeks just before finals may be the writing center’s busiest time of the year. At this time, it might be a good idea to take stock of how we’ve been doing over the course of the semester.

The writing center has had 905 total appointments in the last thirteen weeks. Of those, 384 (approximately 42.4%) were with first timers, while 521 (approximately 57.5%) were with repeat students. The remaining 0.1% is unknown. This data demonstrates that we have a large number of new students as well as repeat students in the writing center.

By far, the most people who come into the writing center are first years, probably because first year composition classes take advantage of the orientations that the writing center offers most frequently. Almost half of our sessions this semester have been with freshmen. But well over a hundred each of seniors, juniors, and sophomores also made appointments with the writing center this semester, and most of them are repeats, having tried it out their freshmen year. We’ve also had 81 graduate student appointments, and even an EIU staff member was helped.

International and students in the Gateway program also frequently visit the writing center. International students find us very helpful for assisting with grammar and usage, and gateway students are encouraged to find additional help outside of the classroom. As of the week after Thanksgiving Break, we had had 81 tutoring sessions with international students and a full 170 sessions with Gateway students.

We’ve assisted a wide range of majors. Education and communication majors are the most frequent visitors, but we’ve also had people majoring in anything from English to nursing to engineering. Students majoring in the sciences frequently come by for help with APA citation and writing style, and students in the humanities frequently find they can use another set of eyes as well.

It goes without saying that the frequency of sessions ebbs and flows – around finals and midterms, the center is at its busiest, and we sometimes find ourselves turning away students. But we are busy throughout the semester, which is how it ought to be; a resource like the writing center shouldn’t be wasted.