Carson Bonner, Campus Carrier news editor

Nathaneal Mooney, Campus Carrier staff writer

For several years, the Writing Center has served as a resource for students to get assistance for writing and projects. Expanding its capabilities, there is now a research associate who will be working alongside the Writing Center consultants to assist students. 

Sophomore Scarlett Biggers was hired as a secondary resource for the Writing Center to help students with large research assignments.

“I am here for help with research papers and to help navigate the many, many research databases that we have,” Biggers said. “I worked at the desk of the library for a while now and Phil, the research assistant, would put out a trivia question every day that I would answer. And I would start talking to Phil about trivia. After we came back this semester, Phil approached me with a new position that the Writing Center would be offering and told me he thought I would be a good fit for the peer research associate position.”

Phil Schaller, Memorial Library’s research librarian, wanted to hire a student to serve as a liaison between the research assistants and the Writing Center and also as a peer who would be able to give assistance to students.

At first, the idea was to have Biggers assisting after hours when Schaller wouldn’t be in the office, but it evolved into having someone at the same level as the students who would be able to guide them.

“It can be helpful just in general to have someone on their own level and not just an old man talking to them about research,” Schaller said. “I talked to Melissa King and she thought it was a great fit. I always have students come in when they need research help who then need help writing their own papers, and I send them to the writing center and [King] said that she had the same thing where she would send students to us also. So it just made sense.”

According to Lecturer of English and Rhetoric and Director of the Writing Center Melissa King, the purpose of the Writing Center has always been a one-stop shop for students seeking help with papers and projects, so having Biggers on board will allow them to be even more effective.

“When we were trying to figure out where to house a peer research associate, I got excited and was like ‘ooh give them to us’ because I thought they would really make a great edition to the Writing Center,” King said. “Very often, we have appointments where people will need writing help but also help with research. It’s very hard to separate content and writing, and both writing and research should be there at all steps of the writing process. So we wanted to make sure we could make research part of the writing center, too, without always having to send students down to Phil.”

According to King, the goal is to have collaboration between the consultants and Biggers to ensure that students receive the full scope of tools from the writing center. 

“We have consultants with strengths in certain areas and others with strengths in other areas,” King said. “And research isn’t something we spend a lot of time on in training just because before we had Phil that we could send students to. But now we can have a student work with Scarlett at the same time or right after they work with a consultant so they can get as much help as we’re able to give them.”

Before Biggers joined the writing center, she already had connections with several consultants, making the collaboration an easy one. Junior Jessica Ford, who has worked at the Writing Center for two years, was one of these consultants.

“I knew Scarlet before she joined because we were on the speech and debate team together,” Ford said. “Dr. Melissa King prioritizes collaboration within the Writing Center and wanted someone who could specifically help with research.” 

Biggers has only had a single session with a student but the consultants expect more students to use their services as midterms approach. King, as well as several other professors, have projects that require the use of research databases, which would allow Biggers to work alongside the consultants. Near the end of the semester, the Writing Center will have had hundreds of appointments with students. As the need increases for her research assistance, the goal would be to add more associates to the Writing Center.  In the coming years, there will ideally be a team of research assistants led by Biggers. 

“The success of the position really remains to be seen,” Schaller said. “We’re hoping it will pick up. I’d love to have more people in there, I’d love to have the same amount of time filled of people in the Writing Center getting help with writing as there are people getting help with research. I guess it just depends on how it works out.”