Research
The Academic Center for Tutoring (ACT) regularly conducts theoretical and empirical research to improve tutoring for all clients and for unique client groups. This page includes information on current and past research related to the ACT.
Current Research
"Student Veterans' Academic Learning and Writing Experience"
Currently, the director of the Academic Center for Tutoring, Eliot Rendleman, is conducting a study on student army veterans, entitled "Student Veterans' Academic Learning and Writing Experience." The study has been approved by the Institutional Review Board (IRB) of Columbus State, IRB # 18-012 (pc 17-013). The purpose of the study is to investigate the learning and writing experience of student veterans to inform the development of effective tutor training and instructor training that specifically addresses or accommodates student veteran needs. The study replicates work in the discipline of writing studies, expanding the group type of participants.
To Participate in This Research
The principal investigator, Eliot Rendleman, is seeking participants for the study "Student Veterans' Academic Learning and Writing Experience." To participate and contribute to this important study, participants must meet the following criteria:
- The participant must have served as an enlisted, active duty service member in the US Army.
- The participant must have served an enlistment period of no less than four years.
- The participant's ETS should have been no earlier than January 1, 2008.
- The participant must be a currently enrolled undergraduate in or a recent graduate of (within the last year) CSU.
- The participant must have taken an undergraduate composition course.
If you meet the above criteria, please read the Informed Consent of the study to discover the details of your participation. The only risk is your level of comfort with the questions. Questions generally ask what you did in the military, what your learning and writing experience was before and during the military, and what your academic experience is like now at CSU. The results of this study should help teachers and tutors better serve you and your fellow soldiers.
Link to participant Sign-up Form for "Student Veterans' Academic Learning and Writing Experience"
Past Research
The following chapter and article developed out of work in the University Writing Center at Columbus State University, which is now a part of the larger tutorial services unit, the Academic Center for Tutoring.
"The Dynamics of Collaboration and Hierarchy: Developing, Assessing, and Revising a First-Year Composition—Writing Center Partnership"
Rendleman, Eliot, and Judith Livingston. "The Dynamics of Collaboration and Hierarchy: Developing, Assessing, and Revising a First-Year Composition—Writing Center Partnership." Writing Program and Writing Center Collaborations: Transcending Boundaries, edited by Alice J. Myatt and Lyneé Lewis Gaillet. Macmillan, 2017, pp. 67-94. ISBN: 978-1-137-59931-5, doi: 10.1057/978-1-137-59932-2, URL: www.palgrave.com/us/book/9781137599315. Accessed 25 Oct. 2016.
Abstract: Collaboration represents one of the catchphrases of composition studies. Compositionists promote collaboration among their students, and they expect it among their faculty and program administrators. But collaboration inevitably involves risk and the very real possibility of failure. In this chapter, the authors interrogate best practices of collaboration to help readers better develop, assess, and sustain their own successful partnerships. Synthesizing the elements and processes of successful collaborations from existing WPA scholarship, the authors present two administrative models that account for shifting circumstances and fluctuating power dynamics related to postsecondary writing programs. These models offer readers workable frameworks to view the dynamic relationships between elements and processes of collaboration and within collaborative hierarchies and to nurture the sustainability of their partnerships.
"Lexicography: Self-Analysis and Defining the Keywords of Our Missions"
"Lexicography: Self-Analysis and Defining the Keywords of Our Missions." The Writing Lab Newsletter, vol. 37, no. 1-2, 2012, pp. 1-5. Reprinted in The Best of the Independent Rhetoric and Composition Journals 2013, edited by Steve Parks, Morris Young, and Elisabeth Miller. Parlor Press, 2015.
Abstract: This article encourages colleagues to reflect formally on most, if not all, of the key terms found in their own mission statements, online descriptions, assessments, training material, marketing documents, and, even, boilerplate speeches. The article also shares a method for such a reflection, and offers a narrative that illustrates the study of the open compound word "independent writer." In the conclusion, the author shares how this type of reflection can be used for consultant training.