Week 7: problem solution pattern!
Reflect on the many lessons grafted onto the rain garden work. A chief one is that of audience analysis. Here is a short Google doc handout (4 pgs.) to consider again how audience analysis is useful to you. Think triangle: audience, context, purpose. Here is a fifteen-slide set that you can review about this triangle (Google presentation).
Back to our boss: Jane wants a coffee cup policy for the office that is "green." Here is rough working arrangement (paragraphs), that our office uses for problem-solution exploratory memos/short reports when we have two options and the evidence supports "both". We are focusing on an arrangement that will help us recommend when we are not able to lead with a strong evidence-based recommendation. One idea we use is a frame and reductive model. More on that in class. This outline begins by assuming that each capitalized item is roughly a paragraph.
POLITE OPENING, with your recommendation that previews your final policy paragraph
CONJECTURE PARAGRAPH Problem description (our office situation, with quantifiers), with reference to national. international size of the problem
CONTEXT PARA(s) Environmental problems (energy efficiency ->climate change or persistence of plastic in ocean -> food chain disruption)
YOUR WEIGHTED PROBLEM SOLVING METHOD (revealing your pre-analytical frame or bias)
DEFINITION-->CAUSE/EFFECT information
Coffee cup types (how many? Can we do this in one paragraph or do we need one per coffee cup type? Use counting technique of two or three)
PIVOT PARA from background to ANALYSIS PARAS
Decision criteria (HINT: Life cycle analysis, and define this; use an EPA source) HERE, this definition helps us move to the VALUE paragraphs, making the paragraph a PIVOT!
CAUSE/EFFECT continued (system) -->VALUE (Harm or benefit)
Martin Hocking's work on life cycle analysis of paper v. Styrofoam
Charles Moore's work on size of ocean garbage patches
POLICY/ RECOMMENDATION (restate your recommendation, with qualifiers, as one does in science land)
Science/Research support (remind about evidence discussed above in VALUING PARAGRAPHS)
Qualification (concede reasonableness of the other position)
Concrete examples (2)
Sentences that can help you as topic sentences or transitions sentences between paragraphs
Any analysis of coffee cup choice requires use of life cycle analysis.
Life cycle analysis -- also known as cradle-to-grave -- helps capture the entire environmental effect from origin and inputs through use and, importantly, to disposal.
In my analysis, I weight [name environmental problem] more heavily than [the other problem].
Life cycle analysis can help us understand this difficult question about coffee cup sustainability
We have two choices in coffee cups: paper or plastic (Styrofoam).
Martin Hocking conducted the first -- and to date only -- peer-reviewed analysis of the energy embodied in coffee cup choices.
Charles Moore is among the first to alert us to the huge problem of persistent ocean plastic.
We will work through the above next week, using stasis theory. For Friday, we have an Eli Review task based on this pattern.
You need to learn these ideas:
- life cycle analysis aka life cycle assessment (try EPA for good working definition)
- Charles Moore's analysis/advocacy on ocean plastic
- Martin Hocking's peer reviewed work on the energy embodied in both paper and Styrofoam coffee cups. Here, you need to use library data bases. This work is from the early-to-mid 90s. Use environmental technology and environmental management as key words.
Here is a summary of the difference (Google doc, 2 pgs.)between description and analysis (and argument). And, a TERP hero you should know about, Herman Daly. This short video will help explain our frame details about depletion of resources and pollution (yielding uneconomic growth, due to ilth creation.
Marybeth Shea
Jane wants a coffee cup policy for the office that is "green." This means, your first stasis or conjecture question is
What is better for the environment: the paper coffee cup or the Styrofoam coffee cup?
(repasting for your convenience) From Week Six, good background:
- 2019 Science Daily research summary on polystyrene, sunlight, and persistence as a pollutant. Note: Science Daily is a really good science journalism site that you can use as an open access referral link for many writing contexts.
- 2017 Anthropocene magazine "Science Short" on coffee cups and their environmental impact.
- 2021 Atlantic magazine analysis of the limits of recycling.
Jane wants you to use available science (see the readings linked on Monday PLUS your brief round-up of Hocking and Moore's peer-reviewed pieces). She already knows that the reusable coffee cup is better; be real, though, as people use disposables and she wants an analysis for company decision making. Remember that the Governor asked about this technical problem.
Here is an arrangement for your memo/recommendation report. Roughly, P = paragraph. HINT: open this large image in new tab in your browser to see where we are going with this pattern.
A few items for today:
- Critical thinking about web sources in several ways;
- as reasonable proxies for peer reviewed work
- as "spinning" or greenwashing or trustwashing acts
- respecting corporate/industrial contributions but also caveat emptor applies
- situating culturally and geographically (we are not Canada, even, let alone Europe!)
- Frames and decision criteria help limit the huge invention in which you research and think
- Excluded: two attributes, namely cost and health effects in manufactoring and use
- Included: the frame you select, either
- climate change problem+broad solution=energy efficiency-->TEAM FOAM
- aquatic plastic fate problem+prefer degredating materials v. persistent materials-->TEAM PAPER
Preview: using curated referral links to punt on larger definitional material.
- IPCC most recent summary about climate change's exigence
- Charles Moore Algalita Foundation on aquatic plastic (founder ethos)
Aid and comfort to you:
- At the end of the memo/short recommendation report, you can identify additional approaches
- You might close with a brief commentary on how oil/petroleum feedstock is common to both problems and that might be the place for rational, technical action (whoa on the politics but still, we proceed with truth as we can know and describe.
Marybeth Shea
Good morning. Google link here for (-9:50; 10-10:50; 11-11:50).
Here is a lesson on paragraphs and FREE PARAGRAPH text to work with. You do not need to include this stuff in your Eli Review work but the knowledge is here now and we will begin with this example on Monday.
Lesson on paragraphs, here for early in your memo, in the definition/description move where we also need to address context. Skill?: Coherence in a paragraph (sample content but the paragraphs might not be complete for the purposes of your coffee cup paper). Coherence is what we achieve when we order for cognitive flow (think transitions).
"Meh" paragraph
Plastic and paper cups pose problems for recycling. Ceramic cups are very energy intensive to produce. Recycling seems environmentally-sound. Paper does not degrade deep within most landfills and the plastic coating is also difficult. Not all plastic can be recycled. You need to check the bottom of the container. Landfills are increasingly full. There is a huge "patch" of garbage in the Pacific Ocean.
Note: can you see the compare/contrast move here, even in this meh or necessary draft version?
Better paragraph
Paper and plastic both pose disposal problems. First, not all plastic can be recycled. Check the bottom of the plastic container. "No. 1" and "No. 2" types can be recycled by most facilities. Second, paper does not degrade deep within most landfills because of low oxygen conditions. The plastic coating also interferes with decay. Landfills are increasingly full. There is a huge "patch" of garbage in the Pacific Ocean.
Note: do you see a place for a referral citation, using the first background pieces posted earlier? Some students find that using a referral link helps them feel more comfortable. But, truly this knowledge is common UNLESS YOU CITE A SPECIFIC DETAIL LIKE VOLUME. However, many of us do NOT know this, so is courtesy to reader to instruct with a referral link. Ongoing theme: citation helps readers. Think about the positive aspect of citation, including that you are experienced by the reader as helpful.
Even better paragraph (can you see the re-thinking of content as well as sentence-level revision)
Paper and plastic both pose disposal problems. First, not all plastic can be recycled. Check the bottom of the plastic container. "No. 1" and "No. 2" types can be recycled by most facilities. Second, paper does not degrade deep within most landfills because of low oxygen conditions. The plastic coating also interferes with decay. Landfills are increasingly full, with paper and plastic part of the waste stream. Not all plastic is recycled or landfilled. According to the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) a huge "patch" of garbage in the Pacific Ocean is further evidence of the environmental harm posed by plastic.
Note: do you see a place for a referral citation? Caution, that NRDC piece has been taken down. Keep in mind that even good stuff on the internet goes away. You can use the Charles Moore foundation pages as a referral citation.
More sentences/phrases to use next week. ==== (pivoting away from definition/desorption to analysis; reveal your decision criteria!) Here, we are at the LCA (Life cycle analysis or assessment) definition paragraph content items:
use a sourcing sentence (signal phrase) like "According to ........Life cycle analysis (LCA) assesses......
Life cycle analysis is the primary decision criteria used in this memo to evaluate our coffee cup choice."
Note that Martin Hocking's work uses LCA to assess the energy intensivity of paper, styrofoam, and ceramic cups. Especially good for TEAM STYRO.
Charles Moore's work on the fate of ocean plastic focuses on the disposal step of life cycle analysis. Especially good for TEAM PAPER.
(These last two sentences serve as transitions to the summary paragraphs where you focus on the science of Hocking OR the science of Moore, depending on your recommendation. This is the heart of your memo, the EVALUATION PARA that uses evidence for your claim on which cup is better, given your problem frame)