Week 9: what shape will your review be; article in hand, right?
Chilly Monday. Halloween is Thursday. Will start grading your coffee cup memos today. Been reading them, with such pleasure as I prep my responding outline.
I will post a this week's ER WRITING TASK early Tuesday AM: to ELMS mail and to your ELMS calendar. You cannot complete this task without having an article. You MUST HAVE AN ARTICLE NOW (from ealier: copy/download to track your reading)! These shapes guide our work. Can you see the cognitive wedge at the stem end of each fruit?
What is a research article, anyway? We will work through this 39 slide Google Presentation. I am reposting some material from earlier that I provided for context. I urge you to skim read these links. You will gain some knowledge that will help you in other classes, in laboratory settings, and your professional future.
Getting clear on technical, scientific prose (in contrast to literature): Let's look at this recent article in PloS One about writing scientific prose (ten step format). Here is a PloS follow-up about writing your first research article. In Science, two scientists talk about how they read articles. Ruben writes with a somewhat lighthearted approach while Pain responds to his piece with her approach. Read the comments.
Writing resources are also reading resources! Here is the open acess "bible" of writing (and reading) scientific prose: Mayfield Guide. Now, let's look/review at the basic parts of the IMRAD article using this guide. BTW, this book is hosted by MIT. I follow the MIT ethical practice of teaching openly, so that knowledge is available to all and not just tuition paying students.
As given earlier, a flow-diagram to help you. Open in a new link. Save in a draft document! The lemon and pear document shapes appear here, too.
Marybeth Shea
Halloween eve here; Day of the Dead sorta begins now, so we will use the plural Days. Diwali too!
Today, we will
- talk briefly about how Aristotle's logos, pathos, ethos triangle helps us make sense of a horrific use of our coffee cup memo topic of patches of plastic trash in the ocean.
- look at more of the seven openings/closings guide ("more" here reminds that you saw this earlier; I talked about the anecdote/case opening last week. Today, we will look at the statistics opening (really a logos-of-numbers opening).
- reconsider the writing craft lesson about that and which of a few weeks ago (which takes a comma; that does not). Here is a handout that you can look at for examples of when to use which and when to use that (is nuanced and not at all clear in a binary way). However, smile! You can always punctuate the clause perfectly. Sometimes the look of correctness is more important than intellectual perfection. Hey: punctuation carries an ethos of being literate, if used according to the rules.
Visuals for today:
1) LOGOS PATHOS ETHOS to examine this "joke" (link to BBC New article that opens with a 31 second video clip). Now, first Aristotle's rhetorical triangle from week 1 of class. I use a green triangle visual for that powerful way to think about communication--> (Both are tumbnails.; we can click into larger images as needed.);)
We also use Booth's two blue rhetorical triangles -->
;)
Here is the case we examine. BBC short news article with 31-sec. video clip (. No curation? Mb will explain. Warning: is difficult, disgusting, dangerous, deranged.
2) LOGOS of NUMBERS in openings. Numbers are powerful! Directions for you as rational person trained with the science ethos--> Look for the numbers (helpers); we are borrowing from Mr. Rogers, with this iconic advice to children and all human beings.
He is quoting his mother, actually PBS short clip from interview. Quick writing craft lesson:
Mr. Rogers's mother (correct)
Mr. Rogers' mother (correct, conventional)
3) THAT and WHICH, (new to you! samples in G doc) punctuation is clear; nuance on use? Harder. We have three memory helpers for getting the
- comma with that and
- no comma with which
OOPS (errata and mea culpa)
- comma with WHICH, and
- no comma with THAT
Here you go: that" and "which" should be used with care. Read more here, at Grammar Girl. She offers a simple rule (start here) and a more complex rule; her discussion relies on understanding the difference between restrictive and non restrictive clauses. Note: WHICH takes a comma while THAT does not. Here is another image to help you:
Need more on how to decide? Here is a one-page handout (Google doc by me) with science-associated examples about that and which. Recall, that much of this decision lies in the emphasis of the writer.
YET: you can ALWAYS punctuate correctly, whether or not you are completely clear on using that vs. using which. WHICH takes a comma. See that hat? Visual memory for you that WHICH (witch) takes a comma.
Sometimes, getting the punctuation right is enough for a fussy, gatekeeping, older, more exacting reader. Those of you writing personal statements for medical and dental school may want to think about this final flourish, as these readers are often gatekeepers with knowledge of all the grammar and punctuation conventions.
Other visual? In class, you had to be there. And, also in class? We have a little song to remember from the Wizard of Oz, no less. Senses -- sight, sound -- help us remeber details.
Marybeth Shea
Holidays continue with Day of the Dead. Have a neighborhood Diwali party tonight. Asked to come with small battery-powered candles because of the children.
Will be in in digital office hours:
9-9:50
11-11:50
Your ER prewriting/skim reading/grid task is due this evening. BE ON TIME FOR EACH OTHER. Please.
Some of you need to turn in the coffee cup memo to ER parking lot. If you still need more time, YOU MUST EMAIL ME TO DISCUSS.
Now, to a few things for today, mostly visual. First, a few funny (humor can help engage the memory) memes
re commas more generally.
Ok, now how about a panda-inspired comma clarity lesson? Here we go-->
Eats shoots leaves (hmm, are all these words verbs? "Shoots" can be verb and can be a noun).
Eats Shoots Leaves (can capitalization help us? More verb-like)
Eats. Shoots. Leaves. (three sentences, with the subject of Panda understood)
Eats shoots and leaves. (no comma; apparently we are safe in this situation)
Eats, shoots, and leaves. (I am worried here)
Eats, shoots and leaves. (Still worried)
“There are people who embrace the Oxford comma and people who don’t,” writes British author Lynne Truss in her humorous punctuation book, Eats, Shoots & Leaves; then, she opines, “and I’ll just say this: never get between these people when drink has been taken.”
More on Monday, re punctuation including the apostrophe. Also, know that spoken speech is NOT punctuated except with speaker pauses.
See this web exhibit of ten funny black-ant-white (hyphens, again) illustrations of punctuation saves.
