MbShea@PWP@English@UMCP

outlined today in class.  

1. Two-article review
2. final project (can expand on two article review but other options)
3. resume and cover letter, in response to a particular job opportunity

Let's talk about a scenario for your two-article review. We are still at Leaf it to Us. Instead of staff meetings, we use the journal club approach to share knowledge. Your audience is technical BUT not necessarily in your field. You can also imagine that this review is a companion to your powerpoint slides (we are not making these, but this is a way for you to learn how to write a document that lends itself to revision into slides or a poster.

Here is a detailed guide on what the beginning, middle, and ends of the document can look like. Note the focus on paragraphs.

I suggest writing two/three paragraphs every other day.  Peer review copy due on Friday ,April 1.  Final copy due for a grad on Monday, April 4.

What about document openings?  We have a number of options; look at these seven strategies for opening.

This week: focus on paragraphs and citation style.  You should have your center-of-the-lemon paragraphs and the opening done by Friday. We will also think about counter arguments and how to end the document. For this work, you need to think about the three ways that these documents "fit":

1. both articles support each other and this is the bottom line (BLUF para?) of your review
2. the articles do not support each other and this is the bottom line
3. the articles need additional research or work to connect them better (hard to do)

You can also decide how to weight the information, in a compare/contrast pattern for the center section of your document:

1. review one article primarily, using the other article for either 
   1. support or 
   2. counter argument
2. review the articles equally, making, say, two points from each article. 

ROUGH arrangement here:

Let's think now about the review you are writing.  For this assignment, we will use the basic structure of the five-paragraph essay, for the idea of beginning, middle, and end.  However, we need to go beyond this structure.  The article review will use this paragraph structure:

Into (exigence and interest)

Author expertise/bio (two paragraphs; one per article, with position optional)

Identification of article type (in phrase or sentence)

Definitions/background (depends on your field -- two to three is typical)

point 1

point 2

point 3

OPTIONAL PT. 4

Analysis and counter argument (one, two, or three short paragraphs)

Comment on style/organization/readability

Comment on limitations or problems with work

Comment on experiment design and size of sample?

integrate with other article or more knowledge from field

Conclusion

You will need tight or strong transitions in these paragraphs.  The point paragraphs -- in italics -- do not need the same tight transitions.  You can use the "counting technique" to bind these paragraphs.

First point, next idea, third point, final information, an additional finding, etc.

LAST, but not least, you will deploy your Olson AND/THEREFORE/BUT sentence patterns in your document. Typically, this is a way to introduce your two articles.  Here is my set of sentences from my chicken shit-ology project:

Chesapeake Bay water regulations at the state and federal level focus on nutrients including nitrogen, AND  nitrogen seepage into Eastern Shore watersheds is primarily focused on soil born deposition of nitrogen.  BUT,  airborne nitrogen from poultry house fans is a pre-cursur step to soil-motile nitrogen that can be intercepted by both phytoremediation and exhaust fan capture.  THEREFORE, this project develops best practices for poultry producers in using Vegetated Emissions Buffers (VEBS) and exhaust fan acid-precipitate scrubber technology.