Week 12: planning out your article review
Here is your reading grid (posted last week; placed here for your convenience.)
Documents have beginnings, middles, and ends. For this work, think LEMON-shaped (lemons reflect the cognitive wedge!). Here is a good way to arrange your analysis: 
Beginning: 1-3 paragraphs that prepare the reader to understand and trust the center portion of your analysis (three or four body paragraphs). Use a cognitive wedge strategy aka "lemon nipple." Think:
- Opening (see the seven strategies -- you can combine them.)
- Ethos of lead author
- Definitions/descriptions or backgrounds, which is largely common knowledge.
Middle: 3-4 body paragraphs. Start with one paragraph per point BUT you may need to divide complex material into two shorter but connected (by transition) paragraph. These are your larger paragraphs. You MAY need to nest small definitions -- use the appositive technique -- near the material.
End: Taper off, with some useful information or thoughts for closing. For example, brief critique (this is hard and will NOT count against your work grade-wise), applications, further line of inquiry, implications for society.
New links for class discussion today:
Academic language phrase bank (really useful for analysis and writing). Spend some time here AND save the link. Thank you to the fine folks at Manchester University, UK.
Opening moves for technical documents (short google doc, with seven ways!). Also, these strategies can
- be combined (two or three but with concision+craft)
- inspire your endings (slide down to a conclusion).
Citation/ethos/introduce your lead researcher: in class, we will talk about the conventions of citation in a close read of an article. Basically, the steps are:
- first mention, full name (in the ethos paragraph that also introduces the article).
- (author, date)
- last name throughout
- Example: Marybeth Shea is a professor of technical writing at the University of Maryland. She studies stasis theory in environmental policymaking. Her research article appears in the Journal of Conservation Biology and is the subject of this review (Shea, 2014). Then, in rest of document, refer to the work using the last name:
- Shea's approach...
- Her findings...
- What Shea's inference fails to account for...
Marybeth Shea
Good morning. Still looking for items in three Eli Review spaces. For triage, I would suggest this order of tasks for those still not on the playing field.
- Enter SOMETHING in this Eii Review Writing task for Assignment 3 so you can give and receive feedback.
- DOING no. 1 means that you can now enter the collaborative Eli Review space. Help others and yourselves by reflecting on the grid work underway now.
- THEN, go back to the Eli Review Writing task for final version of Memo 2. Get that out of the way.
Now: let's do a deep dive into the power of three. Aristotle believed in the power of three (logos, pathos, ethos). Ancient and medieval rhetoric focused on teaching the oration of the three-point argument. Where do you think your FIVE-PARA (extended constructed response)essay came from? And, the sandwich pattern of bread slices open and close the three layers of fillings. Also, what about the compliment sandwich of three layers? Here is a little history, with sources. I recommend reading them (skim-style):
Bell Labs reached out to Harvard professor George Miller who published a classic paper (1956) “The Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two.”
-
Open access NIH hosted 2015 “celebration commentary” on Miller’s magical seven
-
Read the abstract of this Stephen Pinker piece that offers a bio of Miller
New research says that FOUR might be most magical. This Science Daily research summary is a quick and worthy read (see? Summaries are valuable documents).
We have considered counting out. Counting out (rememeber Jennifer Lopez?) works well with the power of three/binning knowledge. To this end, here are sample sentence portions for you to adapt:
Before we look closely at three essential findings from Perez, let's review two concepts from neuroscience....
A first take-away from Pham concerns their method.....
Next, Pham use bootstrapping routines to refine her sample.....
Finally, I want to linger on the findings from Pham concerning differences in treatment group seven and nine. This is my third take-away in this close reading of Pham's work on biogenic di-lithium crystals in long covid therapy.
Let's loop back to another writing craft you are familiar with: punting and your definitions paragraph:
Readers unfamiliar with quasars may appreciated this definition......For more detail -- incluiding visualizations -- see NASA's helpful web exhibit (curate a link).
What is long covid? Just now, many insurance companies do not have a DRG -- diagnostic related group -- to code for this post covid infection. New guidance from NIH defines long covid as
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Donec nisl justo, feugiat at libero sit amet, lacinia ultricies felis. Donec hendrerit velit nisi, ac accumsan nisi lacinia sit amet. Etiam in dictum dolor, et placerat metus. Phasellus et turpis est. Aenean euismod lacinia vulputate. Phasellus vitae quam eget lectus dapibus facilisis. Aenean rutrum tincidunt convallis. Sed rutrum in ex sed rutrum. Ut purus lacus, feugiat pretium venenatis sed, tincidunt ut risus. Integer vitae eleifend dolor. Integer consequat est nec condimentum placerat. Pellentesque habitant morbi tristique senectus et netus et malesuada fames ac turpis egestas. Nunc tristique consectetur lectus nec malesuada. Integer dui leo, euismod in augue at, semper dictum nulla. Nulla turpis tellus, egestas a semper nec, rhoncus eget neque. Vivamus quis vulputate orci.
See more at this NIH webpage (link); you can also listen to an short NPR April '22 piece here. (curate link)
More generally, you can use bullet items for definitions, too.
Marybeth Shea
Same Google Meet link.
Hey, is your article egg shaped? Intermediate between lemon (symmetrical) and pear (weighted to the end/bottom)?
Click to see: From Wikimedia Commons with restriction on resizing. 
I will be in Google Meet today at 9:50, 10:50, 11:50.
You have an Eli Review assignment! Reposting from both the ELMS Calendar and your ELMS email:
Reposted from ELMS Calendar function; I hope this helps those who use mobile app)
My best wishes to all on this Friday (Ramadan continues, passover is upon us, and the Easter observance-- Roman version -- begins today at noon).
Post where you are in the Assignment Three within this Eli Review prompt:
https://app.elireview.com/unit/student/assignment/module_id/14019/assignment_id/95036/deliverable_id/95194 (Links to an external site.)
Do this when and as you can, taking care that all of us need to rowing in our boat together as best we can. I hope your weekend includes rest, food, family, and sunshine.
Take care, dear students of science writing.
And, Thing One and Thing Two (let's see how long this lasts)
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