Suggestions for Instructors
Materials for instructors include a series of podcasts that offer advice on how to teach writing about numbers. Podcast 0.1 provides a brief overview of the supplemental materials that accompany The Chicago Guide to Writing about Numbers, 2nd Edition, describing the podcasts, slide sets, appendixes, and data sets that are available online, along with ideas for their use. Podcast 0.2 describes the content and materials in the book and the associated web site, and how they can be adopted and adapted for in-class activities, homework, or exam questions. Podcast 0.3 discusses courses and other settings in which writing about numbers can be taught; an accompanying text appendix (Appendix 0.1) gives background information and additional discussion about the points made in the podcast. Podcast 0.4 describes and illustrates instructional techniques used throughout the book and podcasts that may be helpful in classroom instruction on writing about numbers as well as other topics and skills. These techniques include color coding, the “poor/better/best” teaching device, an introduction to the “Vanna White” technique for presenting an exhibit during a live presentation, and use of checklists at the end of each chapter of Writing about Numbers. Podcast 12.3 provides a more detailed demonstration of the “Vanna White” technique, which instructors may find useful for improving the effectiveness with which they present tables, charts, or other diagrams during their own lectures, or when teaching how to give oral presentations.
Other materials for instructors include text appendixes related to two hands-on exercises that provide practice applying concepts and skills from chapters 4 and 10 of The Chicago Guide to Writing about Numbers, 2nd Edition, to students’ own topics and data. The first exercise is designed to help students become familiar with important attributes of their data sets and variables (Appendix 4_10.1), while the second exercise is intended to help students learn how plan to create new variables needed for their analysis (Appendix 10.2). Both are valuable exercises for students who are conducting long-term projects involving data preparation and analysis, such as course papers, independent study projects, honors theses, or dissertations. For each of those assignments there are two documents: one with homework instructions and templates in a document that users can download and edit to fill in information on their own projects, the other with in-depth background information and detailed guidance for instructors on how to integrate those exercises into courses.
Material on teaching how to write about numbers
| Topic | Podcast | Homework assignment instructions | Background reading for instructors |
| A brief guide to the supplemental online materials | PC0.1 | ||
| Teaching how to write about numbers: content and materials | PC0.2 | ||
| Teaching how to write about numbers: courses and other settings | PC0.3 | APP0.1 | |
| Teaching how to write about numbers: instructional techniques | PC0.4 | ||
| Presenting an exhibit “live”—the Vanna White technique | PC19.3 | ||
| Getting to know your variables | PC4_10.1 | APP4_10.1 | APP4_10.1B |
| Planning how to create the variables you need from the variables you have | PC10.2 | APP10.2 | APP10.2B |
