The Role of a Community College Writing Center in Preparing an Educated Workforce: A Case Study of the Itawamba Community College Writing Center

Good writing skills are an essential component of a well-educated workforce. The competitive nature of business and industry demands a diversified and educated workforce. This study investigated the intersections of a community college writing center and the writing demands of business and industry in North Mississippi. The research was qualitative and employed observations, interviews, documents, and other artifacts that were relative to the study. The Itawamba Community College (ICC) Writing Center was purposively selected for the case study. Participants for the study included current and former ICC students, writing center directors, faculty, ICC peer tutors, and business and industry leaders from North Mississippi. This study discovered the following: (a) the ICC Writing Center helped students with their writing needs which directly assisted them in passing their college courses (this ultimately helped students to remain in college and created a more educated workforce for North Mississippi); (b) former ICC students who used the ICC Writing Center agreed that the writing center did help them to complete their college education at ICC; (c) business and industry listed their writing demands for employees and concurred with former ICC students that the ICC Writing Center has helped to create a more educated workforce