Learning, Writing, and Repetition, with Carlos Norcia Morais

This school year (2022/2023), besides working as a TA, I also have the fortune to be working with Maureen Medved and Linda Svendsen as the Graduate Student Assistant for the Major Awards (which includes SSHRC, the Aboriginal Graduate Fellowship, the Affiliated Fellowship, and a couple of other awards).

Performing that role while I’m TAing made me think a lot about how the obvious only becomes obvious – to us – when we repeat it to ourselves enough times to memorize it. I came to that conclusion because of one of the methods that I decided to apply to carry out my work as the Assistant for the Major Awards. One of the main responsibilities I had this term was answering – or trying to find the answer to – doubts and questions that people applying for awards eventually encountered as they worked on their applications. Knowing that I’d have this responsibility, I decided to approach it in a similar way that I approach giving students feedback for their assignments when I’m marking.

Shared Vocabulary

There’s a logic behind why TAs are encouraged to think of rubrics as the main reference when they’re writing their feedback for student assignments; there’s also a reason why TAs are told to use as much as possible the same language and terms that are in the rubrics. These practices remind TAs that they’re marking specific aspects in the students’ work and not simply using personal taste to judge the students’ assignments.

If you have the habit of reading about the craft of writing, and especially if you had the chance to take some writing classes, then you’re probably already familiarized with certain terms whose names keep showing up even when their definitions are being argued about, terms like Character, Point of View, Narrator, Setting, Worldbuilding, etc. But what happens when a student isn’t yet familiarized with these concepts and terms? Unless the instructor takes the time to explain or have a conversation about each of the foundations of their classes, that student who isn’t familiar with these fundamental concepts will have a much harder time taking the course. Having conversations about the basic concepts behind the craft of writing also helps students who are familiar with these concepts to revisit and even reconsider what they already know, and to further their understanding.

As writers, we all know that there’s a huge difference between knowing about a certain concept and learning how use it in a way that’s personal to us – that makes our voices shine on the page. Therefore, it’s important for all of us to get feedback that’s designed around terms we’re familiar with. This way, we know how to take that feedback and turn it into effective tools to make our work better.

There are also many classes where instructors and students come up with in-class terms for specific things. Sometimes those terms come from the instructor, but sometimes they’re born from conversations between students and the teacher. For instance, let’s say that a student is talking about the difficulties they had finishing their first draft for a story, and that it was so hard they started seeing it as “the dragon.” Let’s also imagine that the instructor takes that moment as an opportunity to talk to the class about how first drafts are difficult for everyone, and how every writer has to “defeat the dragon.” From then on, it’s possible that everyone in that class will start calling their first drafts “dragons” and will also say things like “defeating the dragon” to symbolize they’re struggling to finish a first draft – but they will make it, and that term has a shared meaning and some energy in it that will probably help in their writing.

In a case like this, it would also be fruitful for TAs to keep the term “defeating the dragon” in their minds when they’re writing feedback for the students’ assignments, and to use the term whenever it’s helpful.

Back in 2020, in my first year in the program which was when I applied for the Affiliated Fellowship Award, I was still living in Brazil and wasn’t working as a TA. By then, because I was spending most of my time speaking in Portuguese with everyone around me in Brazil, it was a little bit harder than it is right now for me to translate some of the things that I usually talk about – or even think about – in Portuguese. Because of that, the fact that we had a shared vocabulary in the classes I was taking helped me a lot. One word or term eventually led to another, and that magical mix of intention working side by side with association helped me get used to code switching a lot faster than I used to be able to.

The proposal that I sent as my application for the Affiliated – which is also my thesis project – first started as a novel that I began writing in Portuguese. If it hadn’t been for all the help that Linda, Maureen, and Shaelyn Johnston (the brilliant writer who held the same Major Awards position that I have this year) provided for us who were applying for awards, I probably wouldn’t have been able to write my application. The Guides that they’d prepared for the applicants were also fundamental for me then.

We Need Repetition

Once I started working as the Assistant for the Major Awards, I inherited these Guides from Shaelyn as the main tool to fulfill my responsibilities in that position, and they were just a bit updated for 2022. They’re the same Guides that applicants are meant to do a close reading of – much like students are supposed to read the Course Syllabus and the Guidelines (and Rubrics) for each Assignment.

Let’s be honest, even when the Syllabus and Guidelines are well written and thorough, with clear language that employs the same vocabulary of the course, sometimes it’s hard to be able to figure out or to memorize all the important information we need just from reading it. Most of us need some repetition to make sense of things that are explained in the Syllabus, and a lot of us need some repetition outside of the Syllabus too – through reminders, in-class discussions, feedback, etc.

It’s the same thing when it comes to all the important information that applicants need to be able to apply for the Major Awards that MFA students can apply as graduate students at the School of Creative Writing. Especially because the language that applicants are meant to use in their proposals leans a bit more towards academic writing than creative writing, and most of us aren’t as used to that type of text.

So, I decided that whenever someone had a question for me to help them with, I’d find different ways to explain the same information that was already in the Guides, yet also acknowledge the importance of bringing up those doubts. People are busy and worried about a bunch of things, and maybe my answer could be the moment when that piece of repeated information would finally click for them – giving them a better chance to write something good that fits the purpose of their efforts in that moment. You can’t expect anyone to memorize a piece of info the first time they scan over it.

The realization that some repetition is necessary for everyone is kind of humbling. For me, it’s a reminder that nobody has everything figured out and that practical knowledge – much like writing – requires revision. It’s also important to consider how to use a basic, shared vocabulary in a way that’s constantly fresh, so you’re not repeating the same sentences that are already in a Syllabus or in a Guideline. This balance of newness and repetition is a balance every teacher or student support worker strives to find.

The previous explanation the student had—the first time they were told something, but didn’t absorb or fully understand it—probably didn’t work for quite a few people in the class. When a student reaches out to a TA seeking clarification, whether it’s a doubt about something from the course or from the feedback they got about their assignments, it’s a good thing. It’s probably happening because that student is truly paying attention to the course and to the feedback that we’re giving them.

Conclusion

Have you ever had a moment when someone rephrases a piece of information that you’ve already read or heard about somewhere, but you weren’t able to fully get it – until that person who described it from a different perspective helped you finally understand it? I’m willing to bet that your favorite teachers were responsible for some of those moments in your life, and probably some of your favorite writers too.

As TAs, we’re not entirely responsible for the role of trying to make sure that students experience these eureka moments. But with tools like repetition and re-framing, we can certainly help pave the way for the students to be able to achieve these moments of understanding and recognition, which will probably help them become better writers, and bit more fulfilled as people too.