UWC’s Schaefer sees writing and thinking as linked
Candace Schaefer leads a recent UWC graduate student workshop.
Candace Schaefer, associate director of the University Writing Center, knows first hand the difficulties that writing teachers face. Before becoming an administrator, she spent almost 20 years teaching writing.
“I know that reading and responding to papers is a lot of work,” she says. “There’s no doubt that running 40 Scantrons through a machine is a lot easier.”
Schaefer says the effort is worth it, though, because writing teachers make a huge difference in the lives of their students.
“I remember almost every paper I wrote in college. And I remember none of the Scantron tests I took,” she says simply.
Schaefer also believes writing is crucial to helping students develop as thinkers.
“Teaching students to write lays the ground work for them to mature in their thinking,” she says, noting that, “thinking and writing are inextricably linked.”
“Writing is not like a Paula Deen cooking show,” she says. “It’s not like you throw in a stick of butter and suddenly pull something perfect out of the
oven. If we make the creative process seem easy to our students, we’ve shortchanged them. We should share our struggles as writers.”
That’s why Schaefer has such admiration for W course instructors like Assistant Professor of Economics Ted Turocy who are willing to share their own imperfect first drafts with students. She says students benefit enormously from seeing for themselves how many revisions a professional writer may go through before considering a piece of writing finished.
“When you first start thinking about an idea, you usually can’t articulate it well, but students don’t understand that,” Schaefer says. “They often write their first draft and then turn it in as their final draft. Those of us who are older and wiser know that you need to let an idea simmer and then keep revising. That process is slow but necessary.”
According to UWC Executive Director Valerie Balester, “When Candace came to the UWC in 2006, she had been an academic administrator and had also been a real pioneer in teaching online. But she had started out as an English teacher and that blend of experience makes her a great fit for us. She makes us more professional, while never losing sight of our core mission of improving writing at Texas A&M University.”
That mission is two-fold—helping students improve their writing and helping faculty improve the teaching of writing—but Schaefer doesn’t see the division.
“You can’t support the students without supporting the faculty, and you can’t support the faculty without supporting the students,” she explains. “So, for instance, when we recently acquired a trial version of Waypoint software for instructors to use in responding to student writing, it was a move designed to benefit both groups. Students get rich feedback and teachers get a tool for providing that feedback more efficiently.”
Schaefer has recently lead several workshops introducing Waypoint’s Web-based software to instructors. She also presents workshops on various writing topics for both undergraduate and graduate students and has lead classes on plagiarism, the topic of the dissertation she’s writing.
Schaefer’s other responsibilities at the UWC include hiring, training, and supervising the peer consultants, most of whom are undergraduates. For Schaefer working with the consultants is one of the joys of her job.
“We’re fortunate to have some of the best and brightest students at Texas A&M working in the writing center,” she says.
Schaefer ideally hires students as incoming sophomores, so they’ll be with the UWC for several years. Still, it’s always hard when graduation rolls around and she loses another half-dozen of her best employees. Recently, Schaefer has implemented a program to develop leaders among the consultants. As the consultants gain seniority, they’re being asked to take on projects like improving
the classroom workshops and conducting staff training. Of course, the consultants have already proven themselves over and over in their work with student writers.
“Every day our consultants are challenged to think on their feet,” she says of the work the UWC’s peer tutors do in their sessions. After all, they’re helping students learn to write, something Schaefer, always a teacher at heart, sees as “an awesome responsibility.”
Working at the UWC also offers Schaefer the chance to watch student writers develop over time: “We work with students for more than a semester, which is gratifying. After all, you can’t learn to write in a semester.”
