by Anna Conti

Since I was a triple major in Latin, Classics, and Greek as an undergraduate, writing had always been a part of my college experience, and I seldom had a class that didn’t include at least one paper at some point in the process. However, writing had always been a source of stress for me at the time, mostly because I felt that my papers would be evaluated differently for each class with new focal points of critique. When I signed up for a writing-intensive class in my second year, I felt a sense of dread; having no prior experience with the program, I feared that the class would involve similarly unpredictable assessments of my writing, except the work would be intensive. I was pleasantly surprised with my first introduction to staged writing. A lot of the pressure was lifted when I realized that I would receive comments on my papers at various points in the process to help guide me towards successful writing.

As I entered graduate school, it did not cross my mind that I would be assuming the role of the coach that I used to visit so frequently. I was intimidated when I first learned about my assignment, but through my work as the TA for Greek Culture 1000, I have become more experienced in offering help and suggestions to students. Our weekly WIP classes have also been very helpful. I was unsure about the idea of grading and commenting on papers, and I felt that I would have to know every grammar rule and find every mistake while somehow solving other central issues of the paper. This class has also brought to my attention successful methods for promoting learning and transfer while highlighting techniques that do not produce effective results in student writing.

As I intend to teach high school Latin one day, I am sure that my instruction in the WIP program will transfer and be useful in that context as well. I think it is important to include instruction on the culture of the language you are teaching, and Roman culture is certainly a fascinating and important topic to cover. Various low-stakes and high-stakes writing assignments will be imperative in the process, and I am fully convinced these opportunities will be both fun and beneficial for the students.

One of the principals that I have learned in the WIP class and intend to uphold involves the comment-making process. I am always quick to make comments before I have finished reading. I have now been making a point to stop every time I am tempted to comment, finish reading, and then decide whether or not the note is still relevant. I also agree that writing comments all over student papers is not helpful. As a student, I have received many projects back from professors covered in red writing and always found it very disheartening and almost insulting (not to mention hard to read!). It does seem far more effective to prioritize the comments and address the issues in a more coherent way.

I am excited about my future opportunities to grow as a writing coach and learn more effective ways of teaching writing.