Mandated Writing Center Utilization among 1st Year English Students in Japan

Abstract

This paper examines the effects of three different types of support for Japanese students studying English writing. Students were required to make weekly visits to either the Writing Center or a student tutor or were given cards with simple reminder checklists that they were to review before and after completing each stage of writing an essay (pre-writing, first draft, and final draft). Due to the small sample size, we cannot address how these support structures affected improvement of students’ writing; however, we did see an impact on students’ awareness of support services. Students generally believed that the help they received was worth the effort. Instructor-mandated visits, to a limited degree, are likely to nudge the students to make the important first visit to the writing center or tutors. It is still not clear why utilization of the Writing Center decreases in the second semester.