Writing is considered a threshold skill used in recruitment and selection for hiring and promotion according to members of the Business Roundtable who participated in a survey sponsored by the College Board (2004). A blog hosted by the web page, BestCollegesOnLine.com, boldly claims there is a writing crisis in America, citing studies which illustrate difficulties with the K-12 system, and asserts 26% of college students and 28% of employees who graduated from college produce writing that is deficient. Writing Centers exist on every college campus to address deficiencies in the academic writing skills of undergraduates. These centers serve a need that is increasing and becoming more complex for several reasons such as entering first year students lacking basic writing and problem solving skills, second language learners struggling with the English language, and teachers who believe writing instruction is not everyone's responsibility but only the purview of specialists in the English Department. Some of thesewriting centers are expanding to serve graduate students. Unfortunately from what we've seen they use the same techniques with graduate students that they used with undergraduate students. For some graduate students in some programs, this strategy is not adequate.
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