Researching the Writing Center; Towards an Evidence-Based Practice

Researching the Writing Center is the first book-length treatment of the research base for academic writing tutoring. The book reviews the current state of writing center scholarship, arguing that although they continue to value anecdotal and experiential evidence, practitioner-researchers must also appreciate empirical evidence as mediating theory and practice. Readers of this book will discover an evidence-based orientation to research and be able to evaluate the current scholarship on recommended writing center practice. Chapters examine the research base for current theory and practice involving the contexts of tutoring, tutoring activities, and the tutoring of different populations. Readers will investigate the sample research question, What is a 'successful' writing consultation? The book concludes with an agenda for future questions about writing center practice that can be researched empirically. Researching the Writing Center is intended for writing center professionals, researchers, graduate students in English, composition studies, and education, and peer tutors in training.
«In the context of accountability demands, Babcock and Thonus offer an incredibly timely, paradigm shifting, professionally necessary book. Researching the Writing Center inspires confidence with its compelling account of what's already been accomplished in dissertation research on writing centers, and motivates by calling attention to how much we still don't know.
This book challenges the field to produce data-driven evidence to mediate between theory and practice. It provides exemplars of evidence-based practice in related fields that value social relations; it amasses findings of dissertation studies of writing center practice; it introduces research basics, and it suggests research methods and questions. Researching the Writing Center represents the next big step for writing centers - the creation of a research-based discipline. Brimming with methods and questions and examples and urgency, Babcock's and Thonus' book provides an invaluable resource just in time to respond to increased demands for accountability.» (Nancy Grimm, Professor, Director of the Multiliteracies Center, Michigan Technological University)