by Jordan T. Long

Public administrators must be comfortable living in the eye of the storm. Conflicting expectations swirl around us in our jobs: responsibility v. accountability, politics v. management, complying with rules v. flexing our own discretion, equity v. efficiency, speed v. accuracy, etc. We are expected to satisfy all of these requirements and more in order to perform meaningful action(s) for citizens. It’s why we are hired.

The classroom public administrator faces the same set of challenges. Whether course instructor or teaching assistant, our objective is to navigate the fray and deliver knowledge to a select set of recipients. That is our action. It’s why we are hired. What I didn’t anticipate was just how much my perspective on knowledge delivery in the classroom would change over time.

I have always been a teacher who uses different methods to deliver course content: student dialogue, lecture, debate, guest speaker Q&As, answering prompts, games, etc. I maintain a schedule, but in my opinion, learning can and should include elements of fun. Enter writing: the fun killer. I don’t think I have ever met a student who was initially happy to complete the writing assignment(s) due in the semester, even if for my class that was a short memo. Writing was something to complete only, and right away I knew I needed to make it more fun. But how?

Writing was something to complete only, and right away I knew I needed to make it more fun. But how?

What I decided initially was setting aside select days to only go over memo writing, breaking the assignment down into parts and discussing it with the same passion I had for the course content. However, this had the unintended side effect of bifurcating the class: content for the exams v. writing skills for the memo. Without realizing it I had created another seeming public administration dichotomy for students to navigate.

My eureka moment came when I realized that implementing writing into the classroom was the answer to knowledge delivery of course content and writing skills.

For example, the week on public administration theory corresponded with discussion of problem identification, so the class performed written activities to flesh out each other’s proposed memo problem. Strategic planning and decision-making in public management lined up with how to effectively plan for the memo; we listed setbacks and obstacles such as time management and procrastination. Organizational theory and behavior content corresponded with how to analyze the problem and pull out parts (e.g. coordination, control, conflict, change). Discussion of innovation, feasibility, and policy implementation lined up with how to write effective solutions and design an appendix that demonstrates how to carry out the memo solution. Finally, I timed the unit on performance to follow students receiving their memo first draft feedback; we used active reflection to work through the real frustrations of public administration performance reviews together and collaborate on ways everyone could do better (myself included).

One of the best things about the Writing Intensive Program for me has been the opportunity to work with another professor and weave course content and writing together. We redesigned how he teaches all of his lab courses, with course content and experimentation activities taught in unison with how to write corresponding pieces of a scientific writing report (e.g. Introductions, Materials & Methods, Results, etc.). I have already been told that students are benefitting, and the course flows so much better. 

In retrospect, do I wish I had been told of the value of integrating writing and course content together sooner? Yes and no. It would have saved me several grading headaches and meeting with students to answer questions they missed on writing class days. However, writing as a process has considerable value on its own to the individual going through it, and I know that I appreciate teaching more now than I would have if I hadn’t gone through the process of redesigning my own class to unify writing and course content together. 

My students have responded similarly. Probably the best compliment I received was from a student who on the last day of class came up to me and thanked me profusely for helping her learn about herself from doing the writing. I was surprised because she was vocal about her displeasure with the memo all semester, but in retrospect having gone through the writing process could see how much she could improve and did. She revealed that she was going to take both her knowledge about public administration and writing skills into her next venture (an internship) and put them to good use. I asked her to sum up the class in one word if she could – content, writing, learning about herself through reflection, the journey, everything.

Her response: “Fun.”

I’ll take it.