Week 7: coffee cup work AND selected technical article for Assignment 3
Good morning, fine Terp-Sci Wri students.
DUE TONIGHT! Monday's ER REVIEWING TASK. Help each other out by being on time for each other. Friday's ER WRITING TASK is draft 3 of the memo. Next week? Parking lot opens for my grading of the memo. Then, we move on to the last assignment: One-article close review. Preview by flow chart linked here, in our celery green color now familar to you.
Let's have a lesson on writing craft that is a sub-category: document design. Document design covers a range of sub-sub topics but here, our focus is on formatting the words upon the page into "chunks" that are governed by styles guides, including MLA and APA. Here is block quote (PARA 5, the LCA paragraph) from my dissertation-->
In Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants, ecologist Robin Wall Kimmerer notes:
Even a wounded world is feeding us. Even a wounded world holds us, giving us moments of wonder and joy. I choose joy over despair. Not because I have my head in the sand, but because joy is what the earth gives me daily and I must return the gift. Kimmerer (2015)
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At the end of the document, here is what is my very last citation in my 300+ bibliography-->
Kimmerer, R. W. (2015). Braiding sweetgrass. Milkweed Editions.
Note, this is too short for a hanging indent. Always be learning. Here is what one looks like for a longer paper by RWK. Recall that the hanging indent in a long bibliography helps a reader find a desired citation because the last name sits out in a "panhandle." (I did a screen shot of this reference below, using large font to focus on the "shape" of the hanging indent.)
Now, here is a visual metaphor to remember the look of a hanging indent.
(Think: Oklahoma!).
How to do these indents? In Scribbr, this short article will help you in both MS Word and in Google Docs.
Shall we focus on some additional details within the coffee cup memo?
- Common knowledge is still a topic of uncertainty for many of you. Hint: common knowledge determination is hard and varies by audience/context/purpose. This Scribbr short article will help you.
- PARA 4: At the level of detail in this writing scenario (short recommendation report in memo for work), you do
- NOT have to use formal references for the mention of climate change problem scope (IPCC is your most authoritative reference, not paywalled, and is perfect for the referral link, CURATED, naturally.) OR the mention of the ocean/aquatic plastic problem emerging documentation (Algalita Foundation or Charles Moore Research Institute are authoritative, not paywalled, and are perfect for the referral link.).
- NEED to reference formally the Moore peer reviewed article or the Hocking peer reviewed article in your evaluation paragraph.
- Please note, that referral links give you the opportunity to "cover your behind" (CYA) about plagiarism concerns. So, you should be psychologically comforted by this informal reference technique.
- PARA 4: At the level of detail in this writing scenario (short recommendation report in memo for work), you do
- Acknowledging the other frame/green cup in the recommendation at the end of the memo. You can do this in a number of ways, beginning with the sample sentences I have given you. Another way to manage this is to use referral links to unpaywalled sources about the other problem and the research. For example, you could
- TEAM STYRO: Send the reader to a Moore open access link. Build Moore's reputation by a brief sentence about their ethos. OR
- TEAM PAPER: Send the reader to a Hocking open access link (harder). Build Hocking's reputation by a brief sentence about their ethos.
- OPTION: you could remind about incommensurality, defined in Week 6.
- OPTION: you could note that social behavior is at the heart of this problem because people pretty much know that a re-usuable option (after using many times to outweigh the energy and pollution associated with glass, ceramic, and metal production).
- Confusion about where definition stops and analysis begins: Roughly, PARA 5, the LCA paragraph is the pivot point from description that is necessary to set up the problem resolution.
Now, topical reflection on how logos, pathos, and ethos overlap in a real example (20 second YourTube clis)-->
Marybeth Shea
Wednesday and is chilly. Shifting from hoodie to sweater!
Friday begins our last set of ER for the coffee cup memo--> WRITING TASK (Friday night) and REVIEWING TASK (I read and consider all posts to write a prompt) that I open midday on Saturday, giving you time to think/respond by Monday evening.
Let me gather our current round up resources for this work:
- Check list in Google Sheet
- Dummy text for coffee cup memo (helps with voice shifts noted below)
- Celery-green flow chart (linked in the Google Sheet as an audience-friendly act for YOU)
- Two Google Docs from previous semesters that are FAQ-organized.
- Office Hours in the Sky 1 (note, this is an archived resource and not active for our class)
- Round up of most of the free content you may use
- Cognitive frame here is mentor text. What are mentor text approaches to writing? TLDR? Here is a visual clip from that University of Maryland Writing Project: (I am a board member of this k-16 professional group.)
Now, what do I focus on when I grade you?
- topic sentences and transitions to thread the cognition for the reader
- referral links for courtesy and to punt/bunt (writer) that give the reader a choose-your-own adventure option (Para 4)
- bookending the links so reader can tell what information traces to the informal but powerful linked sources
- use of first person voice strategically BUT third person voice in much of the prose
- acknowledgment of the other frame
- use of the founder sources/highest ethos sources I give you
Here are some nice choices I see in your work that are worth wider adoption:
- PROBLEM QUANTIFICATION: Global data but local description/with quantifiers (Para 2). Sample --> The Galactic Union of Hot Beverages Society notes that in the Rigel Galaxy, 7.8 parsecs of disposal cups are used daily. In our office, i note that the two recycle bins and one large trash bin are routinely filled with a mixture of cups. For our 25 employees and five weekly visitors, I estimate that we use X disposable cups weekly, This means our annual cup use is about Y.
- Three writers suggest that we spend more time on this problem description together. One person notes that the fossil fuel industry is at the heart of both problems.
- Another writer suggests that we plan a project examining social behavior and how to "nudge" toward better behavior. Writer notes the disciplinary origin of nudge. I will let you search and see how new Google serves up the knowledge.
- Finally, a few students include encouraging information on microbes that can consume plastic. You could conclude on that sort of knowledge but looking specifically at styrofoam, which is a kind of plastic.
Marybeth Shea
Friday feeling! No one does this better than Robert Smith of the Cure. Enjoy! Such singable punk. My favorite kind of punk :) !
Here digitally between 9-950 and 11-11:50. Complete your ER WRITING TASK TONIGHT! Some of you are behind on several previous tasks. Sigh. Procrastination is human but can hurt you. Take care, students! Stay in the sci-wri game we play together.
Here is a graphic by Gemma Correll, British artist, for Evernote. Many artists use evernote to organize sharing small art files with users and possible patrons. This style is becoming known as sketchnote (encouraging short definition) or elementary school teacher art. Simply put: sketchnote style combines handwritten text with simple sketches to illustrate a concept.
A company capitlizes on this -- Sketchnote! -- of course. See the exciting punctuation here aka the dashes. Technically this is an en-dash, which is created by two hyphens (old school typewriter days).
You can use sketchnote style to prep for exams by doodling key concepts as images or even just connection phrases with arrows or in Venn-style diagrams. Hope that helps you. I used to use sketchnote practices on the whiteboards of in-person teaching. Miss those days.
