Current MALS Student Nida Zehra Hadi shares her Writing 2-3 TA experience

First year MALS Student Nida Zehra Hadi worked as a Writing 2-3 Teaching Assistant from Fall Term 2022 to the end of Winter Term 2023. While reflecting upon this experience, she writes:

"One of the highlights of my time as a MALS student at Dartmouth College was my Teaching Assistantship at the Institute for Writing and Rhetoric for the freshman course Writing 2-3 which spans two terms, and introduces first-year students to academic writing and research.

With two training sessions before the beginning of the fall term, I was both thrilled and anxious to be starting my role as a teacher for the very first time.

My own undergraduate training in critical reading and communication aided me in helping students come up with thoughtful responses to the texts. My major tasks as a TA included working on the students' thinking processes before they got down to writing their weekly essays, helping them plan their research papers, drafting outlines, and going over revisions.

Fifteen students - all with unique strengths, weaknesses, and each with a distinct personality and background - worked with me to develop their arguments and perform critical analyses of the readings. Over the course of twenty weeks together, I witnessed them evolve into thoughtful, engaged and confident writers. At the end of the course, they became more like friends to me, curious to know about me, and me about them. It was a wonderful exchange of knowledge that I was so happy to have received in a country different from my own. This, and learning about successful teaching from my fellow Writing 2-3 TAs during our weekly Wednesday meetings was an experience like no other.

In doing so, I reflected on my own journey as a writer, and researcher, and now as a teacher. I learned the art of pedagogy, articulation, and communication, patiently listened to my students, adapted to their learning styles, and allowed them room to make mistakes so that they left their TA sessions having learned something new about writing.

I am truly grateful for this experience, to have found friends in my students, and a mentor in my Writing 2-3 professor who was there to help me at every point, and to have found a family of writers in my TA circle. Special thanks to Professor Brian O'Connor for all your support and guidance. This has been an amazing journey!"

If you are interested in learning more about this position, or would like to apply, visit the Employment section of our website, or, check out the position description on the Institute of Writing and Rhetoric's website.