Week 11: Reading and writing the research review article (assignment 3)
TUESDAY AM UPDATE: Here is your OFFICE HOURS in the
SKY/AMA document (open now at 10 AM). I host between 8-9. You can ask before than time. You can look after that time.
Wednesday? I will open the Eli Review one-week parking lot for the Memo 2 for a grade.
Friday? I open a place on Eli Review for you to start thinking and reading about your one-article review. Let's talk about this important prewriting assignment. First, here is a long googe doc (arranged in tables) for you to copy/download to track your reading. Next, let's talk about the shape(s) of this document. Recall the use of the cognitive wedge that can govern a small document but also can guide us on large document sections. We also worked a bit on the cognitive wedge (and the related rhomboid). I will draw a picture in class to remind you. Shape, in a document, relates to arrangement (think flow chart) but also to three essential portions. Recall how important counting is!
Articles have beginnings, middles, and ends. Think Lemon-shaped to start.(A variation is pear; another variation is the bread loaf). Consider for a moment, the power of the beginning. News article openings are good for the lay audience. Why? Several strategies:
- highly visual
- interesting case
- hook with tidbit of interesting information
- topic (timely)
For technical audiences, open with
- review of logos (detail of costs, population size, enormity of problem)
- controversy
- new application or breaking news
Shifting to craft lessons: Let's look at this recent article in PloS One about writing scientific prose (counting strategy!). We should aways keep the reader in mind. What are craft choices for? To support the reader! In Science, two scientists talk about how they read articles. Ruben writes in the Science blog-sphere with a somewhat lighthearted approach while Pain responds to his piece with her approach. Read the comments!
Cautionary note on article choice: research article, literature review, meta-analysis, proof, proof-of-concept, specialized application, method, opinion or memoir (a physician speculates on end-of-life bedside manner).
Craft resource you may want to save: Here is the "bible" of writing (and reading) scientific prose:
Mayfield (OOPS! Commercial publishing gobbles up a resource again). NEW! Here is a link to Mayfield, at MIT, the open access univeristy hero!
Now, let's look/review at the basic parts of the (intro/Method/Results/Analysis/Discussion (IMRAD) article .
As promised for you about this assignment, a flow-diagram designed with two shapes to help you.
Marybeth Shea
Wednesday morning. Later today, UPDATED this evening: I will open the "parking lot" for the Coffee Cup Memo; lot is for a week or more.
By Thursday, I will open up a WRITE-ONLY task for you about your selected article. Due Friday night.
Today, we chat briefly about items from Monday, that help us think about these elements of science communication:
- scientific writing is different from science writing
- humor does have a role in science, often an insider role and a broader communication role
- however, humor is deeply contextual and often results in pretty serious problems when "leaks" out to community (wider audience).
- gallows or dark humor
- parody of music videos is a wonderful science genre, including for medical students
- however, humor is deeply contextual and often results in pretty serious problems when "leaks" out to community (wider audience).
Oxford comma in science, a short mini lesson in a Google doc with comma iinformation links.
Marybeth Shea
Happy Friday and your protected time to manage your work! I am available online today between 9-9:50, 10-10:50 and 11-11:50. Here is your GoogleMeet code (same for all Fridays this semester).
We chatted briefly about humor in science, with a focus on two qualities of humor in communication:
- can be really effective
- is risky and must be designed and deployed carefully.
The whole Twitter fiasco includes a rabid and vicious take-done of parody by some accounts and not others. Listen to scientist Randy Olson -- and filmmaker -- about how logo and humor contrast in the human (audience) response. Listen for head, heart, guts, and sex organs and the irrational-rational gradient.
Food for thought by a marine biologist who communicates to stabilize the planet because upon the earth we live and move and have our being.
Post tonight in Eli Review (can be done as late as Sunday afternoon) for me, this reading grid with some elements about your article. Directions:
- Download or copy my Google doc to your computer or your Google drive.
- Place the APA citation of your selected article in the one-cell table within the header.
- Fill out at least three of the lilac-colored rows in the table.
- Upload to Eli Review.
Be reading to go forward on openings/closing and author ethos next week. We write this assignment in small portions now until the end of the semester.
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Final thought: humor reflects human complexity. Getting humor right uses skills from critical thinking, acting, elocution, public speaking, timing, cultural sensitivity. Humor requires flexes of the head, heart, gut, and often sex organs (See Randy Olson above). I keep thinking about how tthe president of Ukraine began as a stand up commedian. Wow. Talk about applied pathos.
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