WEEK 3: reviewing sentences+paragraphs->thinking rain gardens
Let's look at examples of topic sentences useful in the rain garden memo:
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.
Now, let's think about sentences (all handhouts are one-page MS Word docs):
And, on to paragraphs (MS Word docs):
Paragraph Definition: think Architectures
More on stasis approaches:
Stasis and research (Owl Purdue, by colleague A.B., now at St. Louis University)
BYU pages on The Forest of Rhetoric (stasis pages are gone! TBD in class)
Stasis and dinosaur debate (download 22-page PDF and skim if you are on Team Dinosaur)
My take on stasis with environmental scientists (you have seen this Google slide exhibit!).
Two questions:
- How do you feel about uncurated links in this class journal post? UPDATED!
- What sources are you using to understand/define what a rain garden is?
Marybeth Shea
Eil Review: SIGN UP at the website, using this course code gamins240wrier to enroll.
I am waiting to confirm courtesy access codes (another situation) for those needing a bit of a break this semester, cash-wise.
Wednesday's class notes, with a focus on how stasis theory can help you think/draft/revise/refine this memo
assignment. First up! What is a memo? Skim these excellent resources at Purdue U's OWL:
Now, we need to think about our
Audience/Context/Purpose
scenario for this written assignment. Below is Jane Austen Powers, our boss. Our small but nimble science consulting firm is called Leaf it to Us. She asked for the memo at the end of our last staff meeting. (We are pretending, here.)
Memos also have a standard format: See the image to the right, above earlier. Also, look at the email heading in your software. This electronic message genre is based on the memo format from hard copy paper days.
Bonus question: what is the difference, traditionally, between a memo and a letter.
Stasis theory and the rain garden memo
The structure and type of paragraphs you will write follow Aristotle's stasis theory (very much a system of analysis and action, scientific method steps):
- Stasis 2a: Simple "preview" Definition (what is a rain garden, briefly, by two functions)
- Stasis 2b: Definition strategy of Classification (what type of technology is this? Hint: low impact development and storm water management)
- Stasis 2c: Elaborate the definition by Description (Hint: let the paragraph be Illustrative; give detail on the layers of soil and the type of plants)
- include two examples; consider campus
- QUESTION! Where is stasis 3? TBD: hint--practical causality is disperse throughout+in question
- Stasis 4: Evaluation (is this technology good or ineffective (we are assessing quality)? Use Dr. Davis' research as you do not have disciplinary authority to evaluate based on your expertise)
ETHOS: I would think you need about one source per these paras: classifying, illustrating, evaluating. Use (author, date) citation from APA guidelines. Include a works cited page also.
Bonus question: what is the difference, traditionally, between a memo and a letter?
Topic Sentences: A list of qualities for you to strive for
- Usually a short direct sentence (think announcement)
- Signals the topic in the paragraph (think preview)
- Hooks the reader by 1) raising a question or 2) provoking thought
- Can be placed anywhere, but early on in the paragraph is the best default strategy for most professional documents; in other words, at the beginning of the paragraph
- Contains an element of transition from the previous paragraph
Sources? Guidance below but we will discuss extensively during the month of this memo assignment.
- To start see the Low Impact Development Center,
- You can also look for the Bioretention Manual from the Prince George's County Department of Environmental Resources. Warning: HUGE PDF.
- We will need something from Allen Davis, for the evaluating paragraph. Hint: we are NOT using a peer reviewed research article but a summary available on line. Part of what we are practicing is critical analysis of web-based resources. We need to be:
- simple
- accessable (no paywall)
- relatively recent
YOU DO NOT NEED TO FIND OTHER SOURCES. You can read the Wikipedia entry as background BUT do not cite this source. Using Wikipedia to dive into the ocean of knowledge is a really good skill.
Marybeth Shea
Reposting this, which appears within your Eli Review prompt. We wil talk about this on Monday, to gauge the relative size of paragraphs. Do you see the cognitive wedge here?
This new guidance placed here will also help you anticipate the size of paragraphs we will work with next week. You can think about putting details in that fit the size of these paragraphs (cognitive wedge!).
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- Dummy text (2 pg. of lorum ipsum in a goggle doc) + cognitive wedge (my metaphor! in 1 page visual explainer)
See you in digital office hours today, if you like: same GoogleMeet code (9-12).
Do not forget your Eli Review task, due tonight by 11:45. You will need to sign up/pay for Eli Review. My class access code for Eli Review is gamins240wrier
How about some Terp ethos+pathos from the art song traditions. This is a clip of renowned soprano and music professor Carmen Balthrop who died last year. So many wonderful people and practioners in TerpLand. Including the future and now YOU.
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