Incorporating Writing Into An Introductory Business And Economics Statistics Course: A Practical Approach

Abstract

Writing across the curriculum (WAC) has become a guiding principle at many institutions of higher education. Unfortunately for many students of economics and business the standard vehicles of WAC do not adequately prepare them for the type of writing appropriate for the audience they are expected to address upon graduation. We describe a method of implementing writing into the introductory statistics courses that are required by many programs in economics and business. This method addresses the shortcomings of the standard vehicles of WAC while at the same time providing instructors with a feasible solution to do so in light of the multiple constraints faced by many instructors of this type of course. (JEL A22)

Writing Assignments to Assess Statistical Thinking

“…The structure helped students to include essential pieces of an argument that they may have forgotten to include otherwise, and reminded them to avoid using information that was not relevant to an argument they were trying to make (Keys 1994). These assignments gave students the chance to demonstrate they understood the concepts and that they were not just repeating steps in a formula (Shibli 1992;Goenner and Snaith 2003).…”

“…Statistics educators still use writing as a form of assessment in their courses and it is highly encouraged to do so by the statistics education community (Jolliffe 2007; American Statistical Association 2016). Today's educators have expanded on possible writing assignments that may be used (Holcomb and Ruffer 2000), while others have found ways to incorporate statistical writing beyond the introductory statistics course, such as in business statistics (Goenner and Snaith 2003), psychology statistics (Drabick et al 2007), and graduate-level research statistics (Parke 2008). More information about the types of assignments currently in use is discussed below.…”

“…For example, written work may help our students better to understand and demonstrate statistical concepts. Writing removes the temptation to just memorize formulas (Shibli 1992), and it helps students focus on the concepts in statistics (Goenner and Snaith 2003). This could help students to understand the reasoning behind statistical models, one of the elements of statistical thinking identified by Wild and Pfannkuch (1999).…”

“…With practice, the goal of these types of assessments is for our students to come to understand the language of statistics (Chance 1997) and use it to demonstrate what they know about statistical topics. It gives students an opportunity to "take a complex idea and explain it with clarity" (Cline 2008, p. 401) so that they may communicate their understanding of statistics to a general audience (Goenner and Snaith 2003;Johnson 2016). We are providing students with a type of assessment that affords them a different approach to demonstrate statistical thinking in creative ways (Radke-Sharpe 1991).…”

“…Because of the limited space to write, students are ensured to give shorter answers to the questions. Similarly, having their business and economic students write memos, Goenner and Snaith (2003) ensured that students wrote coherent but concise reports. This method also had the added benefit that students were practicing with a medium they would potentially use in their careers.…”