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Ball State University Department of Journalism

Journalism Writing Center

Annual Report 2011-2012

Submitted to: Professor Mark Massé, JWC Director

Submitted by: Jonathan Batuello and Matthew Hawkins, JWC Coaches

Date: April 30, 2012

Journalism Writing Center (JWC) Operations

In the 2011-2012 academic year, the JWC provided coaching services to 187students, representing 267 appointments (257 undergraduate and 10 graduate). Of the 264 appointments, 15 were with international students.These statistics indicate a 15 percent increase in appointments (231 to 264) compared with the 2010-2011 academic year. Twenty-eightmore students were coached in 2011-2012, a 17 percent increase from 2010-2011. Coaching services included AP style, inverted pyramid/news judgment, lead and nut paragraph writing, reference citations, sentence structure, word usage, use of quoted material, transitions, active and passive voice, research, cover letter writing, story organization, adding detail, and redundancy. Grammar and punctuation were often the focus of coaching for the Language Usage Proficiency Exam (LUPE).

Fall 2011

In fall 2011, the JWC coaches tutored 87 students and recorded 105 appointments (87 undergraduate and nine graduate). Of the 105 appointments, nine were with international students.

Spring 2012

In spring 2011, the JWC coaches tutored 100 students and recorded 162 appointments(161undergraduate and one graduate). Of the 150 appointments, six were with international students.

Language Usage Proficiency Exam (LUPE) Analysis

In the fall and spring terms, students from seven journalism department sequences and telecommunications department “News” track students who were enrolled in J101, plus a selected number of students from other courses, took the mandatory Language Usage Proficiency Exam, a 100-question grammar and language skills test. Achieving a passing score of 70 was required for these journalism and telecommunications students to successfully advance in their departmental studies.

Students were encouraged to visit the Journalism Writing Center (JWC) before the test to receive coaching and to enhance their performance; however, many students did not take advantage of available resources at the outset. Typically their low test scores reflected insufficient preparation. These students were considered at-risk of not advancing in their departmental coursework.

During the fall 2011 and spring 2012 terms, students were allowed up to five opportunities to pass the Language Usage Proficiency Exam, and the test format included two different versions based on the order of questions. The content of the questions was unchanged. The first opportunity was a mandatory (hard copy) group test administered by JWC coaches. Subsequent opportunities were offered once a week online via InQsit.

In fall 2011 and spring 2012, 178 and 119 students, respectively, took the Language Usage Proficiency Exam during theinitialgroup testing period, as noted on the accompanying charts. An analysis of their performance reveals a mean score of 71for fall 2011 and 70 for spring 2012. The fall and spring term pass rates for the initial test (i.e., first-time pass rates) were 55 percent and 50 percent, respectively. The first-time pass rates indicated a significant number of students who were at risk and in need of coaching services at the JWC.

Language Usage Proficiency Exam Analysis

Term: Fall 2011

Skill TestedProficiency

Agreement74%

Case (who/whom)61%

Grammar and Language Skills64%

News Judgment 86%

Parallel Structure and Clarity52%

Punctuation80%

Spelling64%

Word Use80%

Average Proficiency70%

Summary

Students who took initial test178

Students who passed 97

Pass rate for initial test55%

Mean score for initial test71

Term: Spring 2012

Skill Tested / Proficiency
Agreement / 81%
Case (who/whom) / 63%
Grammar and language skills / 64%
News Judgment / 81%
Parallel Structure and Clarity / 53%
Punctuation / 78%
Spelling / 65%
Word Use / 78%
Average Proficiency / 70%
Summary
Students who took initial test / 119
Students who passed / 59
Pass rate for initial test / 50%
Mean score for initial test / 70

Coaching At-Risk Students

An at-risk student is one who has failed the initial Language Usage Proficiency Exam (receiving a score lower than 70 percent). If the student does not pass the test during subsequent retake opportunities, then the student will not be able to proceed with his or her departmental coursework.

Those students who fail the Language Usage Proficiency Exam on their first attempt are referred to the JWC for remedial coaching before attempting a retake. In the coaching sessions, a JWC tutor provides feedback on areas of testing weakness, assists students with practice interactive quizzes, and offers PowerPoint instruction and other resources.

For fall 2011, 44 students came to the JWC for coaching either prior to taking the test or after failing it on their first attempt. Some students came for more than one session, with JWC coaches completing 52 LUPE-related sessions. Nineteen of 25 students who received coaching prior to taking the initial group test passed the exam, with four of the six who failed the exam scoring a 69 students raised their final scores, in direct comparison to their initial scores, by an average of 13 points. Forty of the 44 students subsequently passed the exam after attending a coaching session(s), but only one of the four attempted the exam the maximum number of times allowed (five attempts = maximum)

For spring 2012, of those 78 students who failed the LUPE on their first attempt (60 failed the mandatory group initial test; 18 failed their first attempts on subsequent dates), 41 students came to the JWC for coaching. Those 41 students raised their final scores, in direct comparison to their initial test scores, by an average of 11points. Thirty-four of the 41 students subsequently passed the LUPE on their next attempt after attending a coaching session(s). Five of the 34 students improved their subsequent LUPE scores by at least 20 points after receiving coaching. Seven of the 41 students required additional testing attempts before passing the LUPE.

Student Survey Analysis

After each coaching session, JWC tutors asked students to complete an online survey evaluating the coaching services on the four criteria below. A total of 228* surveys were completed. (*Three students did not complete surveys.)

  1. This session.
  2. The coaching.
  3. I would return to the Journalism Writing Center.
  4. I would recommend the Journalism Writing Center to others.

1. This session:

Was not very helpful. / Was somewhat helpful but could have been better. / No opinion. / Was helpful. / Was very helpful and better than I expected.
3 / 5 / 0 / 125 / 132

***Two students did not respond

2.The coaching:

Did not provide
what I needed. / Was OK but could have been better. / No opinion. / Met some of my needsbut not all of them. / Met all of my needs.
1 / 9 / 2 / 41 / 212

***Two students did not respond

3. I would return to the JWC:

Definitely not again. / Probably not again. / No opinion. / Probably. / Definitely.
2 / 3 / 5 / 69 / 185

***Three students did not respond

4. I would recommend the JWC to others:

Definitely not. / Probably not. / No opinion. / Yes, probably. / Definitely yes.
1 / 1 / 1 / 70 / 191

***Three students did not respond

In addition to the standardized survey responses, students provided supplemental written comments about their satisfaction with coaching services at the JWC. Selected comments included:

  • Thanks!
  • Very friendly and went into detail about ways to improve.
  • They walked me through my mistakes. Awesome resource!
  • Session went well and I feel like I have a better grasp on what will be asked on the LUPE test. The coach was very helpful and explained things clearly making it easier to understand.
  • Everything was great.
  • It went great and Matt was very helpful!
  • Quick, but very effective. Answered everything I needed to know!
  • Thank you for all the help!!!
  • Glad I came or I probably would for sure fail the first LUPE test I take tomorrow if I didn’t come.
  • Great people. Great help provided.
  • I thought the session was very helpful and I feel more prepared to take the LUPE test.
  • This session was very helpful, and it was nice getting a different opinion on my writing.
  • Gave me a good look at what I didn’t know and what I needed to work more on. This will help me be more prepared for the (LUPE) exam.
  • More people should take advantage of this resource.
  • Jonathan was very, very helpful! He did an awesome job and went over each question and answered any questions I had very thoroughly.
  • The coach knew exactly what he was doing and was very helpful.
  • This was more helpful than I thought it would be and I am grateful to have this service around.
  • Very helpful and made concepts easier to understand.
  • Very helpful to have, one on one interaction. Studying one your own does not give immediate feed back or correction.
  • Thank you for all the help this semester!
  • I needed some one on one coaching for the LUPE test and this really did the job.
  • I definitely helped me figure out what I wasn't getting right on the LUPE test.
  • VERY HELPFUL AND NICE!
  • Great job!
  • It’s all based on opinion, which is what makes writing so difficult, but while I thought my paper was good as it was, and my professor decided otherwise, these guys really showed me how I could have actually made my paper better.
  • Thank you very much! I will “unfortunately” be back all the time 
  • I will definitely be returning for additional feedback in order to improve the quality of my stories.
  • He was very kind and helpful. I would recommend him to other classmates.
  • Jonathan was really nice and very helpful. He even took the time to look up things he was not sure about.
  • MATT IS THE BEST!
  • JWC Student Appointment Analysis

Professor/Instructor/Organization / Number of Student Appointments
Bremen / 1
Davis / 1
Ginter / 15
Hammock / 11
Holbrook (English) / 1
Jonason / 3
Kuban / 2
Lanosga / 2
LUPE / 135
Masse' / 1
McDonald / 4
Metzger / 13
Newton / 3
Shoemaker / 2
Spillman, Mary / 3
Steffen / 9
Strauss / 58
Swingley / 1
Taylor / 1
Zhuk (History) / 1