Center for Academic Writing

Exit Feedback Questionnaires

For the AY 2004-2005, we conducted an exit survey to assess how useful students found the services of the Center for Academic Writing retrospectively. The key findings are presented below.

Writing Courses - Very relevant to departmental needs

Of 306 respondents who received academic writing courses from the Center, (51%) said they found the writing courses they received from the Writing Center very relevant to their needs and helpful in preparing them for their departmental work. A further 46% said that the writing course usually matched their needs. Only 9 students (3%) felt the course did not meet their departmental writing needs.

Students attribute improvement in writing skills to help from the Center

95% students felt their writing skills had improved to some extent during their time at CEU. However, 60% of those who used consultation services felt their writing abilities had improved 'significantly', while among non-users, only 40% ticked this category. 26% of users felt improvement was largely due to working with the Writing Center.

The Center plays a key role is supporting content courses

When asked how they saw the role of the Writing center, 44% said they believe it plays a key role in supporting content courses and training valuable transferable skills that are of use after leaving CEU. A further 51% felt the Center plays a useful role in supporting content courses. Only 4% felt the work of the Center is peripheral to the real business of study at CEU.

Students come to the Center to address higher order concerns

We asked students to indicate which had been the most useful aspects of consultations during this year. (They could tick more than one category.)

82% - Improving the structure of my papers
46% - Becoming more aware of suitable academic style
46% - Correcting my grammar
42% - Improving my logic and argumentation
41% - Clarifying my ideas
33% - Learning about differences between writing in English and my own language
30% - Learning to use sources better
29% - Learning how to think critically
25% - Learning how to express myself effectively
24% - Improving my vocabulary
21% - Improving my punctuation

These results show clearly that students come to the Center for help with higher order concerns such as organisation and structuring of their papers, clarity and logical argumentation, and only in second place to address language concerns such as grammar or vocabulary.

Why do students avoid the Writing Center?

Not enough time, not enough writing.

We also asked students who did not use consultation services to say why they did not take advantage of this free service. Out of 144 respondents, the following were the most common reasons given.

31% - I didn't feel that I needed help with my writing
29% - I had sufficient help with my writing from faculty
29% - I had no time to come in for consultations
22% - I didn't do any significant writing this year

It is of concern that 29% were unable to manage their time well enough to make use of consultations. While time management is a common student problem, we hope to tackle this better in future.

Of equal concern, in a graduate university of humanities and social sciences, are those 31 students who claimed not to have done any significant writing this year. In this regard, we encourage faculty to set more written assignments where this is possible and appropriate, so as to train valuable writing skills that students will need after graduation.

For details of individual departmental figures, or to see the original data, please contact the Writing Center Coordinator by e-mail or telephone ext. 3817.

Last revised: 29 September, 2005