MbShea@PWP@English@UMCP

What shape is your document now?

Documents  have beginnings, middles, and ends.  For this work, think LEMON-shaped or PEAR shaped.  

Beginning: 1-3ish 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 (some sample language below),
• Definitions/descriptions or backgrounds, which is largely common knowledge. You can use
  • bullet strategy
  • consider an audience-friendly referral sentence or two (use your words; not a link, as we need to imagine this as a presentation setting and not a hyper linked document).

Middle: 3-4ish 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: In the LEMON-shape, you taper off, with some useful information or thoughts for closing.  For example, brief critique about stats (this is hard and will NOT count against your work grade-wise), applications, further line of inquiry, implications for society. In the PEAR-shape closure, you use several small paragraphs to describe implications of this research.

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Friday's Eli Review task would be a place to:

Audition beginning elements like your 

• 1+1 opening hook, aka two strategies of the seven opening moves
• ABT statement, which can be part of the first paragraph or stand alone as a transition to the body paragraphs
• What terms will you define and how (bullets can be an option) and
  • might you use a punting referral link
• the first author ethos paragraph

 List your three to five possible take aways and poll reader interest (fat middle portion of the fruit!)

Tentatively identify the stats note work

Identify the study type

Note the stats used

AND, borrow what the authors say about these tests against bias

Reveal your behind/end (I crack myself up) and tell the shape of your ending, with a possible take away

Application?

Next step

Controversy

Critique 

ETHOS para detail: 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:

1. first mention, full name (in the ethos paragraph that also introduces the article).
   • (author, date)
2. last name throughout
3. 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...
4. WILD CARD: what if you cannot find the author.  TBD
5. What supports the ethos is the underlying process of peer review publication. Can you examine the journal's ethos?

Finally, phrases that you can use throughout the document to propel your analysis to the end.

Before we look at Patel's work on food additives, let's review a few key definitions.

You can read more about polyphenols and oxidative stress at the open pages of the Nutrician Society of the US.

Let's turn now to Suarez's use of bioplastics in 3-D printing applications for oyster restoration. First, Suarez describes....

A second key take-away from Cummings' analysis of ankle joint morphology concerns wear and tear on patellar (kneecap) interior surfaces.

The first two points from Mozafari's cardiac perfusion study strongly support her conclusion concerning injectable medications administered in the field, while enroute by ambulance.

Most bioretention specialists will appreciate the specific findings about nitrogen uptake by hedgerows. This knowledge is important for farmers seeking mixed benefits from using plants as flexible "green tech": windbreaks, shade for energy conservation, screening from neighbors, and for sinking nitrogen into the soil, out of the airshed.