Sara Stoudt (Bucknell University)
Abstract
“Full stack” connotes a breadth of *technical* skills that are performed in a role that *spans* a data-intensive workflow. How can we reframe our teaching of communicating with and about data to earn this term?
We as educators, statisticians, and data scientists are also writers; we use communication skills ourselves and are likely already teaching these skills implicitly. However, we may not be explicitly telling the story of communication’s role, importance, and value in the context of data-related work.
I am not proposing to add yet another item to the already growing list of important topics to cover in our courses. Instead, I suggest that we help students realize that communication happens throughout the lifecycle of a data project, not just at the end. We can also demonstrate that communication encompasses a wide variety of actions including reading, organizing, drafting, coding, visualizing, revising, and speaking, and that it involves relationship-building with a variety of audiences.
Bio Sketch:
Sara Stoudt is an applied statistician with research interests in ecology and the communication of statistics. Stoudt received her doctorate in statistics from the University of California, Berkeley, and she is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Mathematics at Bucknell University. Follow her on Twitter (@sastoudt) and check out her recent book with Deborah Nolan, Communicating with Data: The Art of Writing for Data Science.