English speaking peers. Over half of the students
who visit the writing center only make one
appointment per year. By contrast, over 75% of ELL
students made more than one appointment per year,
and some visited the writing center weekly or
biweekly, with a total of more than 20 visits during
the course of a year. Using frequency of visits as a
measure, ELL students are the best users of writing
center services, taking advantage of our assistance
during all stages of the writing process and for all
types of writing assignments.
Although ELL students frequently use the
writing center as clients, they rarely apply for
employment in the writing center. As a result, the
staff of the writing center, historically and currently,
has not been ethnically or linguistically diverse.
Where we have had some success with diversifying
is with academic rank and discipline. The writing
center is staffed by writing consultants at all
academic ranks, and from different academic
disciplines across the university. Of the 29
consultants currently employed by the writing
center, 14 are undergraduate students, 9 are graduate
students, 4 are composition faculty, and 2 are
professional consultants. About half of the
consultants have a background in English studies,
and the others come from different disciplines,
including business, communications, education,
psychology, anthropology, history, music, and
foreign languages. This disciplinary diversity is not
matched by linguistic and ethnic diversity: Only 3
consultants are multilingual, able to speak and write
fluently in a language other than English, and only 2
consultants are non-white. In other words,
consultants may be diverse in their disciplinary
identifications and levels of expertise, but
consultants are not (yet) very diverse in terms of
their ethnic, racial, or linguistic backgrounds.
4.2 Toward A (Diverse) Writing Culture
Changes to Appalachian’s writing curriculum have
begun to change the culture of writing on our
campus, and these changes point toward some
promising opportunities for cultivating a more
diverse writing culture at the institution. In 2009,
Appalachian revised its general education
requirements to include a vertical writing
component. Every student in the university, in every
major, now takes a dedicated writing course in each
year of their undergraduate study. The first two
courses are taught by writing faculty in the rhetoric
and composition program, and the junior and senior
level courses are taught by faculty in the disciplines.
As students move through the writing curriculum,
they are expected to transfer writing knowledge to
new academic genres and contexts, culminating in a
senior capstone course, which demonstrates
students’ readiness to participate successfully in
their chosen academic and professional discourse
communities.
Developed by Dr. Georgia Rhoades,
Appalachian’s Writing Across the Curriculum
Director, the general education writing curriculum
presents challenges to students and teachers. Two
programs on campus support students and teachers
as they confront these challenges: the University
Writing Center, which assists students with their
writing, and the Writing Across the Curriculum
program, which supports faculty teaching the writing
courses. Together, these programs support the
vertical writing curriculum by giving teachers,
consultants, and students the resources they need to
succeed in teaching and learning in the writing
courses. These resources aim to demystify academic
discourses for all students, including those whose
home language is not standard English.
Before the changes in the writing curriculum,
students took two writing courses, both in the
English department. At that time, the University
Writing Center was also located in the English
department and primarily served students in English
composition courses. The revised general education
curriculum moved writing into all disciplines in the
university, and, around the same time, the University
Writing Center moved out of the English department
building and into a new library in the center of
campus. Moving writing out of English and into the
university enabled students to see writing as a
multidisciplinary tool, not a resource only for
English. This move toward recognizing and
supporting disciplinary differences in writing began
a culture change on our campus. This culture shift,
which has centered on engaging disciplinary
diversity in writing, promises also to point the way
toward greater recognition and support for linguistic
and cultural diversity as well.
Moving writing administratively and
physically out of the English department and into the
university library sent the message that writing is not
owned by any other single discipline. Moreover,
and of central importance for ELL students, as the
leaving the English department sent the message that
writing in the university isn’t owned by English.
This separation of English from writing opens new
possibilities of valuing and supporting linguistic and
cultural differences, much along with the
disciplinary differences in writing we now accept as