Meet Dr. Susan Thomas

Former Associate Professor of Musicology and Women’s Studies at the University of Georgia

When Susan Thomas joined the music faculty at UGA, she was surprised to learn of her department’s involvement with the Writing Intensive Program and delighted to have an opportunity to teach a WIP class her first year here. It came as even more of a surprise to work with a teaching assistant who would mentor students with their writing rather than teach content or serve as a grader. Since then Susan has repeatedly taught both halves of a two-sequence writing-intensive course offered in the School of Music, an experience she describes as “honey-coated.”

Susan says that although she has always incorporated writing into her classes, she finds that the Writing Intensive Program normalizes that for her and helps her better understand her teaching assistants, who work for the students, she says, and not for her. Because the program gives her greater resources to work with, her students are able to do more extensive revision and peer review, which is reflected in the steadily improved level of writing she sees throughout her department. As for the benefits to students, she explains that writing is a skill competency that few music students get around to developing fully until their junior year. Up until then, they focus almost exclusively on building competency as musical performers and acquiring extensive factual knowledge about the field. Susan describes students in a WIP course as apprentices learning the craft of writing as a complement to their performance skills. More importantly, writing helps students to “know what they know.” They learn to teach themselves through writing and in the process figure out what’s important, to discern “macro- from micro-level facts,” a valuable but difficult thing to achieve in an era of standardized testing.

When asked what makes for a successful writing-intensive class, Susan says it couldn’t happen without the specially trained teaching assistants provided by the WIP. The music department is fortunate to have had WIP teaching assistants for many years. The job requires both extensive knowledge of the subject area and a great deal of individualized attention to student writing.

Susan makes a point of establishing a partnership with her assistants and communicating with them well before the semester begins. Teaching assistants help plan the course, design assignments, and are part of the process throughout the term. Students are unaccustomed to working so closely and differently with teaching assistants in WIP classes, she says,  and as a result they sometimes undergo “culture shock.” Susan avoids this scenario by making the TA’s role clear to students from the start and by meeting with her assistants on a regular basis. Her advice to other writing-intensive faculty: don’t plan the course, then bring in the teaching assistant.

Wish List

A three-hour class with a one-hour lab dedicated to writing. This arrangement would formalize the after-hours writing labs that WIP TAs have offered for students and make writing a more seamless part of the course.