Greeting Styles and the Establishment of Rapport in a University Writing Center

Abstract

The present study examined whether the nature of the greeting between a writing assistant and a student influenced the subsequent rapport that developed over the course of the writing center session. Eighteen Oregon State University undergraduate and graduate students were greeted in one of three ways by two confederates: with a handshake and verbal introduction, with a verbal introduction only, or with a quick greeting without the handshake or verbal introduction. It was observed that handshaking resulted in marginally higher reported rapport compared to the introduction only and no introduction conditions. Finally, the overall impression of the writing assistant as a person increased significantly from pre-session reports to post-session reports, and was unaffected by greeting condition.