UNIVERSITY WRITING CENTER

ANNUAL REPORT
Fall 2022 - summer 2023
 UNIVERSITY WRITING CENTER

ANNUAL REPORT
Fall 2022 - summer 2023
EDITOR
Florence Davies ‘09, Assistant Director

DATA COLLECTION
Thadeus Bowerman, Assistant Director

LAYOUT & DESIGN

Melanie Gonzalez ‘23
Grace Griffith

PHOTOGRAPHY
James Blevins ’22
Adnan Yusuf

ADDITIONAL UWC STAFF

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Nancy Vazquez

SENIOR ADMINISTRATIVE COORDINATOR II

Donna Pantel

WRITING CONSULTANT II
Tiffany Tigges ‘18

WRITING CONSULTANT II
Daniel Mueller ‘18

WRITING CONSULTANT I
Macy Dunklin

ADMINISTRATIVE ASSOCIATE III

Chelsea Oldham

Our unit is under the guidance of Dr. Timothy Scott, Vice Provost for Academic Affairs.
 From the Executive Director

T
his past year the University Writing Center (UWC) saw the retirement of our founder and long-time
executive director, Dr. Valerie Balester, who spent 32 years at Texas A&M. Dr. Balester’s
professional accomplishments were extensive, but the one that stands out to me is her leadership
in developing the W course requirement (and later, C course) in response to a call for improved
communication skills for Aggies. These courses remain a key component of undergraduate education
at Texas A&M to this day.

At the time of her departure, Dr. Balester served as the Undergraduate Ombuds, as well as the
executive director of both the UWC and the Academic Success Center. She was also a full professor in
the department of English, an assistant provost for Undergraduate Studies, and chair of the W & C
Course Committee. No one was surprised, therefore, when it took five people to fill her place; I feel
fortunate to have been named Executive Director of the UWC, an organization I have worked for since
2002.

“the UWC remains The W & C Course Committee is now chaired by Dr. Matt McKinney,
assistant professor in the Department of English, who has been named the
committed to Interim Director of the Writing in the Disciplines Program. My thanks to Matt
for taking on that role and to the UWC’s Senior Administrative Coordinator
helping Aggies II, Donna Pantel, for handling so much of the administrative work of the W
become better & C courses.

communicators.” In the midst of these and other changes, the UWC remains committed to
helping Aggies become better communicators. We do this work by offering
individual consultations with peer writing consultants and through workshops, events, and a wealth of
online materials. At the heart of all we do are our peer consultants—a group of remarkable undergrads
and graduate students who undergo training to earn certification from the College Reading and
Learning Association. Their dedication to helping their fellow students is a constant source of
inspiration.

I want to mention one important event this year not documented elsewhere in this report: In January
of 2023, the UWC received a generous gift from the Association of Former Students, money we used
to defray the cost of student wages for 12 of our student workers. The funds benefitted both the
student workers themselves and the many Aggies they helped through our services. We thank the
Association for their support and commitment to promoting student success.

We hope this report of our activities gives you a sense of the scope of work being done by the
University Writing Center and suggests the ways in which we can continue to expand and build upon
the center founded by Dr. Balester.
Nancy Vazquez
Exexcutive Director, University Writing Center

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 About consultations
The mission of the University Writing Center is to help Aggies become more confident and
capable communicators, and consultations remain our core service. Our trained peer
consultants, who stem from a variety of disciplines, provide support for Aggies working on any
kind of writing or speaking assignment, at any stage in the creative process.

We offer three types of peer consulting options for undergraduate and graduate students. Our
in-person consultations take place at one of our two physical locations—our main location in
Evans Library and our satellite drop-in center at the Business Library and Collaboration
Commons (BLCC). We also provide online synchronous consultations where students meet via
Zoom and asynchronous online consultations where students upload a document via email.
We also offer support for students for whom English is not their primary language and
assistance for students working collaboratively in groups.

“I believe my consultant
did a very great job
giving me tips on how
to write my arguments
more concisely and
create a more
informative tone for my
essay. They were very
nice and friendly,
“My consultant brought which made me feel
mega sticky notes and less anxious.”
colored markers to our
meetings, so what’s not
to love?”

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 2022 - 2023 Consultation Highlights

consultations
FALL ‘22 643 1,462 1,816
3,961 ASYNCHRONOUS ONLINE
GROUP
SPRING ‘23 746 1,454 1,902 4,141 ONLINE VIDEO SUBMISSION
SOLO
SUMMER ‘23 358 153 474
986 SYNCHRONOUS ONLINE

We count our consultations both by unique users of our services (students who have at least
one appointment) and by total consultations. Since some students will have multiple
consultations, we present the per-consultation data to show students as percentages of our
total consultations.
4663 unique student visits
3069 in-person consultations 9,088 total consultations for the year
4193 asynchronous online (email) consultations
1746 synchronous consultations via Zoom 3,909 Unique Undergraduate students

75 group appointments
35-minute average duration for consultations
740 Unique graduate students

1,501 STUDENTS WHO HAD MULTIPLE SESSIONS

753 STUDENTS for whom ENGLISH is NOT

THEIR PRIMARY LANGUAGE
12.47% of STUDENTS LEFT SURVEY REVIEWS

Students are invited to leave reviews of their consultations. During this academic year, we
received 1133 survey responses for 9088 consultations. Our average Likert score for
consultation satisfaction was 4.75 out of 5. (A score of 4 means ‘satisfied’ while a score of 5
means ‘very ‘satisfied.’) We hope to encourage future feedback by including signage asking for
reviews in our consultation areas.

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 What students say aBout their consultations

My session with my
consultant was so fruitful!
We kept it super informal
and casual, which I think
“I got a hundred helped me in my thinking
on my paper! I process. She was also the
worked with two perfect sounding board
consultants, one as she made such great
in training, but points and asked such
they were both great questions to my
amazing!” comments which helped
me a lot!”

“My appointment was extremely

helpful, and my consultant
allowed me to express my ideas in
the best way possible. I would
recommend that any student with
a writing assignment go through
the Writing Center. ”

“My consultant gave me very detailed comments

and helpful tips on where to go next in my
writing! It was the friendly and constructive
criticism I needed. I got my first post grad job
interview with the resume she reviewed!”

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 Who we Serve
Consultations are open to both undergraduate and graduate students. For the
2022-2023 academic year, the writing center had 3,909 unique undergraduate clients
and 740 unique graduate clients. The writing center also sees students from every
college.

Seniors (1971) were overwhelmingly the largest users of our service

The largest number of students came from the College of Arts & Sciences
(1630) and the College of Engineering (1002)

Clients
CLIENTS BY CLASSIFICATION

First Year Undergraduates (U1) 535 Professional-level Graduates (G6) 4

Second Year Undergraduates (U2) 715 Master-level Graduates (G7) 396
Third Year Undergraduates (U3) 734 Doctoral-level Graduates (G8) 338
Fourth Year Undergraduates (U4) 1971 Health Science Center 18
Fifth Year Undergraduates (U5) 19

CLIENTS BY COLLEGE

Agriculture & Life Sciences 523 Mays Business School 323

Architecture School 121 Medicine School 12
Arts & Sciences 1630 Nursing School 40
Bush School of Gov & Pub Serv 194 Perf, Visual & Fine Arts 38
Dentistry 30 Public Health 401
Education & Human Development 327 Veterinary Med & Bio Sciences 19
Engineering 1002

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 Who we Serve
UNIQUE CLIENTELE DEMOGRAPHICS
First generation students made up nearly a quarter of all unique UWC undergraduate students
(Figure 1).

FIRST GEN PERCENTAGES AMONG UNIQUE UNDERGRADUATE CLIENTS

NOT FIRST GENERATION 73.32%

FIRST GENERATION 23.40%

UNKNOWN 3.28%

0.00% 10.00% 20.00% 30.00% 40.00% 50.00% 60.00% 70.00% 80.00%

Figure 1

Figure 2 indicates the percentage distribution of ethnic origin per undergraduate consultation.

PERCENTAGES OF ALL AY 22-23 UNDERGRADUATE UWC CONSULTATIONS BY ETHNIC ORIGIN OF CLIENTS

WHITE ONLY 48.93%

HISPANIC OR LATINO OF ANY RACE 27.76%
ASIAN ONLY 14.44%
BLACK ONLY OR MULTI-RACIAL WITH BLACK 4.20%
MULTI-RACIAL EXCLUDING BLACK 2.54%
INTERNATIONAL 1.55%
UNKNOWN OR NOT REPORTED 0.32 %
AMERICAN INDIAN ONLY 0.24%
NATIVE HAWAIIN OR PACIFIC ISLANDER ONLY 0.02%

0.00% 10.00% 20.00% 30.00% 40.00% 50.00% 60.00%

Figure 2

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 Who we Serve
Figure 3 indicates the percentage distribution of ethnic origin per graduate consultation.

PERCENTAGES OF ALL AY 22-23 GRADUATE UWC CONSULTATIONS BY ETHNIC ORIGIN OF CLIENTS

INTERNATIONAL 46.68%
WHITE ONLY 23.78%
HISPANIC OR LATINO OF ANY RACE 14.48%
ASIAN ONLY 6.02%
BLACK ONLY OR MULTI-RACIAL WITH BLACK 4.60%
UNKNOWN OR NOT REPORTED 3.06%
MULTI-RACIAL EXCLUDING BLACK 1.06%
NATIVE HAWAIIAN OR PACIFIC ISLANDER ONLY 0.33%

0.00% 10.00% 20.00% 30.00% 40.00% 50.00% 60.00%

Figure 3

Service Highlights
Students wrote their goals on the UWC’s
graffiti wall at Library Open House

23.40% of Undergraduate clients self-identified

as first-generation

46.68% of graduate consultations were with

international students

753 students indicated that english was not

their primary language

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 Programs
We support both undergraduate and graduate students through consultations, as well as
through a variety of additional programs. These programs include writing retreats for
undergraduates and graduates, online writing accountability groups, and a specialized
consultation program for students working on longer documents such as theses or
dissertations.
Final Paper Countdown is an undergraduate writing retreat where students work on final
projects and papers in a quiet, productive environment, with opportunities to receive
coaching from consultants while they write.
Dissertation, Article, and Thesis Assistance (DATA) assigns a specific consultant to work with
an undergraduate or graduate student for up to 10 sessions while focusing on goal setting
and accountability.
Thesis and Dissertation Retreats allow graduates to work on their writing for four full days
while receiving daily coaching from consultants and staff. These retreats were conducted
online though Zoom.
Write Line is a virtual graduate student writing group via Zoom. Write Line provides a
productive virtual writing space so students can stay accountable to their writing goals.
Multiple groups meet at various days and times during the semester.
Graduate Student Workshops address graduate-specific topics such a preparing a literature
review, writing grant proposals, and giving conference presentations. These workshops are
offered as part of the GRAD Aggies Professional development program.

2022-2023 Program numbers

101 Final Paper Countdown student clients (spring only)
104 DATA student clients
71 Thesis and Dissertation Retreat participants
76 Write Line participants
257 Graduate Student Workshop participants

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 What Students say about our programs

“Write Line was incredibly useful for

accountability. I struggle with
stepping away from the lab and
keeping time set aside for myself.
The tips and tricks covered in the first
couple of weeks (like writing breaks
and keeping a writing log) are great
tools. I also found it very helpful
hearing about the struggles others
face with writing and knowing I am
not alone in those.”

“Had an amazing experience!

had it not been for the DATA
program, it is very unlikely
that I would be ready to
defend my dissertation in
June. I feel like this program
really taught me a lot about
writing as I have not had very
much mentorship in writing
before. I am really thankful
The dissertation writing retreat was a wonderful
this program exists.”
opportunity for me to accelerate my dissertation
writing. I got so much more writing done in those four
days than I had on the other days when I wrote by
myself. This experience is invaluable for students
working on dissertation/thesis writing.”

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 Support for courses
Beyond supporting students through consultations and programs, we provide support for
communication instruction, including W (Writing) and C (Communication) courses through our
classroom workshop program and our support of the Texas A&M Writing & Communication
Course (W & C) Committee. Additional resources for faculty teaching writing or speaking are
provided on our website.
CLASSROOM WORKSHOPS “The presenter was
Instructors can request classroom workshops on writing, speaking, outstanding. She was
and research topics for both graduate and undergraduate courses, informative, entertaining,
which are conducted by peer consultants and staff. We offer 12
and engaging. My students
workshop topics that instructors can customize.
got a lot out of the
179 workshops were conducted for 5910 students
36 requests were for Overview of UWC Services presentation, and told me
33 requests were for Writing Clearly & Concisely so after.”
WRITING AND COMMUNICATION (W & C) COURSES
W & C courses are designed and administered within departments and approved for a period
of four years by the W & C Course Advisory Committee and the Faculty Senate. All TAMU
students must pass two W courses or one W and one C course in their major that fulfill the
graduation requirement.
Students in W & C courses who had one (or more) writing center consultations scored,
on average, a 0.2 higher GPA for that W or C course than those students from the same
course who did not have a UWC consultation (Fig. 4)

COMPARISON OF W & C COURSE STUDENTS WITH OR WITHOUT UWC CONSULTATION

GPA: 3.4 N=1,298

SUMMER 2023 GPA: 3.6 N=129

GPA: 3.5 N=14,895

SPRING 2023 GPA: 3.7 N=1,297

GPA: 3.5 N=15,728

FALL 2022 GPA: 3.7 N=1,199

0.0 0.4 0.8 1.2 1.6 2.0 2.4 2.8 3.2 3.6 4.0

AVG. GRADE POINTS

NO UWC CONSULTATION Figure 4
WITH UWC CONSULTATION

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 Our Staff

PEER CONSULTANTS
Our writing and speaking consultants are undergraduate and graduate students from a variety
of majors and disciplines. We typically employ 45-50 writing consultants each year. During our
hiring season in March, we usually hire between 20-25 consultants depending on how many
consultants are returning.
To develop their tutoring skills, our consultants participate in regular training throughout the
fall and spring semester through observations, as well as weekly staff or team meetings on
various training topics. Newly hired consultants also go through a period of observations and
conduct co-sessions with their more experienced peers.

Our consultants also receive additional training and professional certification from the College
Reading and Learning Association (CRLA), with the opportunity to receive up to three levels of
tutor certification: beginning, advanced, and master. Only the first level is required for all
consultants, while the second and third levels are optional and tied to pay raises.

Fast Facts
33 new consultants (8 graduate and 25 undergraduate students) were hired
20 consultants returned from the previous cohort
31 consultants were certified as CRLA Level 1 beginning tutors
16 consultants were certified as CRLA Level 2 advanced tutors
8 consultants were certified as CRLA Level 3 master tutors
Undergraduate consultants Annemarie Hoffzimmer and Bex Wilson were invited to
submit a chapter, “Moving Forward in Writing Center Spaces: The Benefits of
Movement Consultations,” for a forthcoming writing center publication

Consultants on Working at the UWC

I appreciate all the skills I’ve

learned here. I feel so lucky that
I can say I’ve worked here.
Consultants and staff at
the NCPTW Conference
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 Our Staff
PROFESSIONAL STAFF
The writing center professional staff consists of full-time writing consultants (Level I through
III), assistant directors, and an executive director managing the operations of the center
including leading teams of peer consultants. The staff also includes a Senior Administrative
Coordinator II and Administrative Associate III, who oversee office operations.

Fast Facts
Macy Dunklin joined the full-time staff as a
Writing Consultant I in December 2022
Chelsea Oldham joined the full-time staff as
an Administrative Associate III in March 2023
In April, Assistant Director Florence Davies
was selected as 2023 President’s Meritorious
Service Award recipient
In June, Nancy Vazquez was promoted from
Director to Executive Director, due to Dr.
Valerie Balester’s retirement
In October, 4 consultants and staff presented
at the National Conference on Peer Tutoring
and Writing (NCPTW) hosted by the University
Dr. Balester offers words of
of Nebraska Omaha
wisdom to the staff
In November, 14 consultants and staff
presented at the International Writing Center
Association Conference in Vancouver, Canada

Consultants and staff at IWCA 12

 Outreach

We employ two student media interns who are supervised by Assistant Director Florence
Davies. They create entertaining content for the UWC’s social media accounts and educational
content for the UWC’s robust, long-standing YouTube channel.

YOUTUBE HIGHLIGHTS
The UWC’s YouTube channel, which hosts several curated playlists of writing and speaking
videos, had 22,300 subscribers total in AY 22-23.

#4 YouTube channel at Texas A&M University (after #1 Texas A&M Athletics, #2 TAMU
Physics, and #3 the main Texas A&M channel)
436,056 video views for 2022-2023
1.6K new followers in AY 22-23

TOP 5 YOUTUBE VIDEOS FOR AY 22-23

1. Ethos, Pathos & Logos — 210,093 views
2. Active and Passive Voice — 35,812 views
3. Toulmin Method — 30,128 views
4. Semicolons and Colons — 25,933 views
5. Get Lit: The Literature Review — 25,432 views

Events UWC hosts its annual Valentine’s Day card-making table

In addition to our classroom workshop program, we receive requests to deliver topical

presentations to organizations and student groups outside of class time. We also conduct
outreach events like our annual Valentine's Day card-making table to raise awareness about
the writing center.

In AY 22-23, we conducted 72 events and reached 3,334 people. Other outreach events
include collaborative presentations with our Undergraduate Studies campus partners, which
included the Academic Success Center, Math Learning Center, Office of Student Success, and
the Routh First Generation Center. “Your Aggie Toolkit” was a college success strategy
presentation that reached an audience of over 3,385 parents and incoming Aggies at New
Student Conferences.
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