Students’ Perspectives on the Services Offered by a Writing Center to Improve English Language Writing among Students in Saudi Arabia

Abstract

The study aims to encourage universities in Saudi Arabia to develop their existing writing centers or establish a new writing center through understanding the English language writing needs of Saudi pharmaceutical university students. The study is conducted by involving a group of pharmaceutical students in a survey to highlight what they do to improve their English writing without having a writing center, which English linguistics writing issues they have, what benefits they will obtain if their English writing improves, and their expectations of writing centers. The study was administered through a survey that was distributed to male students in the second semester of the academic year 2023/2024. The survey included 23 closed ended questions, distributed to 71 participants in the survey. The results of this study show that owing to the dearth of writing centers, students find it difficult to find appropriate sources to help them with their writing. The study recommends that the writing center should be the appropriate place to accommodate the challenges the students encounter in their writing, and it emphasizes the importance of involving students in deciding upon the type of writing center consultation services that they expect to receive from a trained writing tutor who understands their specific major’s requirements. The study also shows that when using a writing center services, the participants can feel more confident to continue studying their academic major and achieve their goals due to the improvement in their English writing.