Supporting online doctoral student socialization through talk about writing: A case study of the short life of a graduate writing center

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2021-12

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Abstract

This dissertation project was a qualitative case study of one writing center for online graduate students, the Graduate Writing Center at Concordia University–Portland. This study focused on synchronous interactions between peer writing consultants and online doctoral students to determine if the synchronous writing support sessions were a space where online doctoral students experienced affective support and socialization experiences. In this research, I analyzed four document sets: seven transcripts of synchronous sessions conducted via Zoom, interviews with three writing consultants and six online doctoral students, anonymous responses to appointment feedback surveys, and my fieldnotes. My analysis showed that talk about writing occurred in synchronous writing support sessions and provided affective support and socialization for online doctoral students. Session transcripts demonstrated the use of motivational scaffolding strategies along with talk about writing through collaborative talk and decoding academic jargon. And in their interviews, students and consultants alike discussed their experiences engaging in talk around and about the texts they were working on. The findings of this study point to practices graduate writing centers should employ to promote the socialization needs of online doctoral students, including the use of synchronous web conferencing software for sessions. Graduate writing centers should be viewed not as spaces to fix writers but as spaces for online doctoral students to socialize into the program and later the field through talk about their writing and themselves as students and writers. Students and consultants in this case study felt sessions were more successful if they connected on both personal and professional levels, so consultants should be trained to allow for relationship development and to provide emotional support.

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Keywords

Doctoral Students, Writing Centers, Socialization, Affective Support

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