Accommodating Students with Autism Spectrum Disorder in the Writing Center

This thesis explores how collegiate writing centers could better serve the needs of students with autism. As there is so little research that involves writing centers and college students with autism, scholarship was pulled from traditional writing center pedagogy, research concerning adults with autism, and the information that was available about teaching students with autism in the college composition classroom. A mixed methods approach was used to conduct my own research: my study involved surveys, interviews, visits, and website analysis. It became clear that not only are writing centers not ready to accommodate students with autism, but some writing center professionals believe they do not need to make changes to their practices to serve the needs of students with autism. Then accessibility is examined from three different angles: websites, physical environment, and tutor training. The last chapter is a list of my recommendations meant to improve accessibility in those three different areas of writing center praxis

Accommodating Students with Autism Spectrum Disorder in the Writing Center

This thesis explores how collegiate writing centers could better serve the needs of students with autism. As there is so little research that involves writing centers and college students with autism, scholarship was pulled from traditional writing center pedagogy, research concerning adults with autism, and the information that was available about teaching students with autism in the college composition classroom. A mixed methods approach was used to conduct my own research: my study involved surveys, interviews, visits, and website analysis. It became clear that not only are writing centers not ready to accommodate students with autism, but some writing center professionals believe they do not need to make changes to their practices to serve the needs of students with autism. Then accessibility is examined from three different angles: websites, physical environment, and tutor training. The last chapter is a list of my recommendations meant to improve accessibility in those three different areas of writing center praxis

Female Tutor’s Perceptions of Having Free Acccess to Menstruation Products in a Writing Center

Most writing centers at U.S. four-year institutions hire undergraduates as peer tutors and many of them are female. Women have received strong cultural messages about their bodies, including sexually objectification, and that their physical functions, such as menstruation, should be concealed. Female tutors’ damaged self-recognition from the outside can lead to internalized selfidentification and further impact their perceptions of their knowledge and consultations in writing centers. The acceptance and accessibility of feminine products would boost work ethic among female tutors and hopefully break down the taboo associated with the female menstrual cycle. We conducted a mixed methods case study to explore female tutors’ perceptions about themselves, their professionalism and tutoring morale, as well as their experiences, with and without having free access to feminine products for emergency use at their writing center. We collected data via a set of pre and post surveys and individual interviews of 15 participants in a writing center. Copyrigh

Forum: the case for reflexive writing practices in management communication and organization studies

Following criticism about the quality of writing in management communication and organization studies, this Forum presents arguments for change in how scholarly knowledge is communicated. The expectation today seems to be that, to get published, academic writing requires monologic and complex ways of expression. However, using formulaic and reader-exclusive language in publications limits their accessibility to a wider readership, including not only more diverse members of the disciplinary community—such as non-Anglophone scholars and junior researchers—but also those we study and write about. In our respective contributions, we argue for more meaningful communication between writers and readers achieved through writers adopting reflexive practices when crafting their texts for publication. Specifically, we suggest considering reflexivity through the following concepts: conformity and individuality, socialization, tenderness, and respect. These, we argue, help make our academic writing more accessible and meaningful

The Readability of Historical and Modern Writing

This research explores the difference in readability of historical and modern writing. The goal of this project is to determine if modern academic rhetoric is easier to comprehend than a historical primary source about the same topic. This has been done using a variety of quantitative methods widely used to analyze the accessibility of writings to compare sections of “The Confederate Reader” by Richard B. Harwell. Upon examination, it can be seen that despite the widely perceived convenience in comprehending modern writing that in fact, a primary Civil War period source is more readable than its current day academic counterpart

Preparation of assessment, learning and teaching materials for dyslexic students that benefit all students: presentation of results from an empirical study

The purpose of this paper is to present results from empirical research with dyslexic students in Higher Education that focuses on the impact of dyslexia on the study of computing. HESA (Higher Education Statistics Agency) statistics suggest that Computer Science is one of the subjects to which dyslexic students are attracted. This study was motivated by the question as to whether there might be anything particular about the discipline of computer programming that makes it either beneficial or problematic for dyslexic students. In addition, we were also interested in dyslexic students' general experience of assessment, learning and teaching, as well as their views of proposed accessibility guidelines. The Greek word 'dyslexia' means 'difficulty with words'. The British Dyslexia Association (2007) describes dyslexia as “a combination of abilities and difficulties that affect the learning process in one or more of reading, spelling and writing”. Dyslexic students are a substantial and growing proportion of the overall student population, for whom learning materials should be made accessible. It is argued that good practice in approaches in assessment learning and teaching for disabled students is generally good practice for all students (Brown, Adams, 2006). Many of the adjustments, such as well prepared handouts, instructions given in writing as well as verbally, notes put on-line, and variety and flexibility in forms of assessment, are simply good teaching and learning practices from which all students can benefit