MbShea@PWP@English@UMCP

on a complex subject.  We will talk about how using stasis approaches, primarily CONJECTURE and DEFINITION, with touches of CAUSE/EFFECT and a bit larger focus on VALUE.  We will not make a policy proposal.

We will also use the Given-New approach, to organize the memo with a cognitive wedge shape.  One source on this is 

Kent, Thomas L. "Paragraph Production and the Given-New Contract." The Journal of Business Communication 21.4 (1984): 45-66. 

Some details to consider (but the richness of today is in class discussion):

• Opening paragraph presents the conjecture problem:  urban storm water run off poses two environmental problems, excess water (flooding, erosion), and pollution carried/deposited in the storm water, with serious watershed and down stream implications. NO SOURCE NEEDED as the is COMMON KNOWLEDGE; then, one sentence definition of rain gardens (bioretention mention) as an environmental management technique that addresses these two linked problems (TRANSITION INTO)
• Rain garden classification paragraph: "locates" rain gardens/bioremediation as a low impact development technique, a kind of sustainable environmental management approach.  Offer some details and history (L.C. and P.G. County).  SOURCE NEEDED! and this is not common knowledge.
• Rain garden illustration paragraph (additional detail about form and function; layers and plants, to remediate linked problems of run off and pollution); NOTE: this is one of your longer paragraphs, which needs a SOURCE.
• Are rain gardens good or bad?  Use Davis's work to evaluate in a summary paragraph.  SOURCE NEEDED.

How about some topic sentences to use in your memo? Note:  topic sentences can be implied in tightly coherent prose (for now, leave this subtle technique to the professionals!)

Rain gardens, or bioretention ponds, are a kind of low impact development.  Low impact development....

Rain gardens have two components:  layers of percolation material and carefully chosen plants.

Rain gardens protect the local environment by absorbing water run-off from impervious surfaces and by sequestering pollutants.

Dr. Allen Davis studies rain garden effectiveness.  Davis, a civil engineering professor, has been studying bioretention for more than twenty years.

Let's also think about sentences generally.  General advice to you?  Write shorter sentences than those you are familiar with in literature and many of your textbooks. 

Note:  the Low Impact Development Center website is an authoritative site, which you can use as cited source.

Preview of Monday:  two local examples to include as links, but curated. Which paragraph would you want to place these two items?  What "fits" but also what about the shape I am asking you to use?  Recall: Cognitive wedge of given-new approach. We want the thin edge to enter the reader's brain first.  Less painful. More effective.

Finally, two lessons on conventions and spelling: a lot v. alot

 I give you Hyperbole and a Half's take on this.

Now, the Oxford Comma.  Use it.  Why?  This punctuation convention fits with the precision and accuracy needs of science communication.  To remember this, consider that Vampire Weekend says (sings): (CAUTION: DIRTY WORD ALERT)