by Whit Weinmann
Back in Fall of 2019, I took the class that I am now a Writing TA for. This class, the senior year capstone course, challenged me quite a bit! Then as now, it blends advanced statistical topics, communication skills, and team-based-real-world-project work into one neat package. To be honest, it’s a bit surreal to be now an authority figure within the class. Yet, perhaps because the course pushed me so much then, I have the chance now to pay the dividends of my efforts forward, compounded by my graduate school work, to my students. As senior statistics majors, they bring an enthusiasm to the class that comes through the masks they wear because of COVID-19. As a writing coach, I see my job as mainly providing a sort of infrastructure for their energy. The main professors do this, too—in a much larger way, of course—but I don’t discount how my own efforts toward the students can impact their growth. The feedback I provide on writing can or cannot let them know that I read their work with any eye on their growth. The writing activities I draw up can or cannot be efficient with their time. Being a teacher, even an assistant, feels like a big responsibility sometimes.
I know that if I apply what we’ve been talking about in WIPP 7001 (WIP’s required pedagogy seminar), I can actually lessen the burden on myself and on the students, as well. Just recently, the students submitted their first homework assignment, so of course they will need to be read and graded. In terms of writing feedback, I want to give key nuggets of feedback, rather than a bevy of ineffectual edits.
Moving forward, the class will be doing much more writing, especially as they begin a semester and a half capstone project. They will already have opportunities to scaffold their writing without my intervention, but I know that I can still support them in other ways. That said, I know saying it (or writing it in this case) is easier than doing it, or at least, doing it well right off the bat. Obviously, my students would prefer that I was an expert at helping them, but based on my interactions with them so far, I think they understand that I’m a person too who is trying their best in a given moment. I know I’ll have “rough edge” moments where something I say or do isn’t quite right (or perhaps even blatantly wrong!). What’s that they call this in the writing process? Drafting and revision. What’s that they call it in life? Practicing and growing.
“I believe that I can guide my students away from sentence-level perfectionism, through my own behavior, feedback, and care for them as students of statistics.”
To be honest, I still struggle with the practicing aspect of writing myself. It’s so tempting to try and complete a written assignment all at once. It saves time, right? Perhaps in certain limited situations, but for the complexity that my students will deal with it likely interferes with the quality of their work, even if their sentences appear polished. I believe that I can guide my students away from this kind of sentence-level perfectionism, through my own behavior, feedback, and care for them as students of statistics. I want them to come away from written assignments knowing that a person has read what they have to say. 40+ written reports, here we go!
Whit Weinmann is supporting STAT 5010 and STAT 5020 this year as a WIP TA. He studies statistics and works to make it more accessible.