by Riley Thoen, Plant Biology

Of all the skills I have refined in graduate school, writing is, without question, the one that has given me the most trouble. Approximately two years ago, I wrote an E-interview as a member of the editorial board for The Classic Journal. In this interview, I mention I am working on two manuscripts for scientific publication. At that time, I had already worked on each of those manuscripts for two years, and despite having finished the data collection and analyses for each of them, I only managed to submit them in the summer of this year (2024—two years later). Frankly, this writing inefficiency is quite impressive. Despite encouragement from my advisor and other collaborators, my writer’s block was unconquerable. And yet, I overcame it. While the encouragement certainly helped, it was teaching writing that helped me build the confidence I needed to push those manuscripts over the finish line. And, I believe grappling with writing has given me a perspective to better connect with students while teaching writing.

Before I get into the specifics on the writing instruction that motivated me to write, it’s important to understand my history with writing instruction. Early in my graduate career, I took “Pedagogy of Writing in Disciplines,” and learned skills to better instruct writing. Additionally, I was a lab TA for three courses that required students to write final research papers, which I reviewed and graded based on scientific writing criteria. And yet, my personal writing projects were going nowhere. I felt like my grasp on scientific writing was superficial, and I did not have the confidence to write and revise a manuscript for peer review.

It was teaching writing that helped me build the confidence I needed to push those manuscripts over the finish line. And, I believe grappling with writing has given me a perspective to better connect with students while teaching writing.

My perspective on writing completely U-turned in spring 2024. That spring semester, I was tasked with a much more independent TAship for an upper-level science course. Specifically, I not only had to review and grade scientific papers, but I had to write a rubric and define criteria for successful science writing. In other words, I had to step back from grading based on some pre-defined benchmark and describe the standards for an effective scientific paper myself. The result? Some very solid papers from students in my class. Later that spring and summer, I applied my own definition of successful science communication to write and revise my way to finally submit those two manuscripts within a month of one another.

Upon reflection, I largely attribute my manuscript submissions to my teaching experience. First, I had to thoughtfully consider what makes for good scientific writing and understanding what causes writing to be effective made it much easier for me to work towards a coherent final product in my own writing. Next, students in my class did a wonderful job on their research papers, and this assured me that my description of effective science writing can produce good papers. Lastly, these factors combined to instill confidence in myself. If I could instruct solid writing, what was stopping me from doing it myself? Me. With this newfound confidence, I pushed myself to finally surmount my writer’s block, and now I have two papers accepted for publication (see citations below!).

I know I am neither the first nor last person to struggle with writing, but I feel like my journey puts me in a unique position to instruct writing. Earlier this month (September 2024), I hosted a workshop on writing an introduction for scientific papers as a part of my WIP TAship with the Division of Biological Sciences. Many students in attendance are writing their first independent research paper this semester. Having struggled with writing research papers over the past few years, I couldn’t help but relate to the students and share roadblocks I have come across in my writing. I shared that I—their writing TA—have recently struggled with writing, and I hope that students see it as encouragement that they may also overcome their barriers to writing. I enthusiastically await conferencing with students so I can further share my experiences with writing and work with them to become better writers. Hopefully, our talks will inspire students to write papers in four weeks, not four years.

Publications

Thoen, RD, LB Hendricks, GT Bailes, BR Johnson, LE Pfeifer-Meister, PB Reed, BA Roy, and ML DeMarche. In press. Spatiotemporal variation in population dynamics of a narrow endemic, Ranunculus austro-oreganus. American Journal of Botany. 

Thoen, RD, A Southgate, G Kiefer, RG Shaw, and S Wagenius. In revision. The conservation significance of small population remnants: variability in inbreeding depression and heterosis of a perennial herb, the narrow-leaved purple coneflower (Echinacea angustifolia). Journal of Heredity.