RAD Collaboration in the Writing Center: An Impact Study of Course-Embedded Writing Center Support on Student Writing in a Criminological Theory Course
Given numerous calls within the writing center community for
replicable, aggregable, and data-driven (RAD) research, this article
presents findings from a study of course-embedded writing center
impact on student writing in a writing-intensive criminological
theory course. The research team analyzed papers from two
semesters of the same course: one where students were given extra
credit for self-selecting to work with the writing center and one
where course-embedded writing center support was implemented.
A total of 162 papers were analyzed using two taxonomies in order
to study writing center impact on (a) grammatical correctness
(mechanics, relationships between words, clauses, and the whole
paper), as well as (b) student engagement with and comprehension
of course content. Findings show that students in the semester with
course-embedded writing center support had fewer grammatical
errors in three out of the four subcategories analyzed, but also
showed that GPA was the strongest predictor of grammatical
correctness. Findings also indicate that course-embedded writing
center support was the strongest predictor of students’ engagement
with and comprehension of course content for the first of two
theories in each of their papers, but that the student’s GPA coming
into the course was a stronger predictor of student’s engagement
and comprehension of a second theory in each of their papers.University Writing Cente