Presenting and Making Relevant: A Semantic Frame Analysis of Teaching Assistant Perceptions of Writing in Statistics

Statistics and Data Science is increasingly attentive to the role of writing in its disciplinary work, and leading voices in the field argue for its inclusion in conceptions of statistical competence. While research has demonstrated that some STEM faculty link writing to professionalism, and others understand it to be integral to the work of the field, there is little research on teaching assistants (TAs) and their perception of writing. Such research is important, given the responsibilities for writing assessment shouldered by TAs in classes taught at scale. This study takes initial steps to respond to this gap by interviewing TAs for an introductory Statistics course at Carnegie Mellon University about writing in their discipline and their perspectives on student writing assessment. Semantic frame analysis identified two salient themes: writing as presentation and contextualization, the latter of which manages to empower audiences with discretionary judgment. Implications for student writing assessment are discussed, before suggesting avenues for future research.