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Week 10 (hope your break was lovely)

Light post today.  Topics that I touch upon include this list of most of your skills/approaches by now.  Also, you have an Eli Review post due tonight.  Recall that you are supporting each other.  I implore you to be on time for each other.

In no particular order-->

  • Commas help clarify details and complexity for readers
    • Oxford comma YES
    • commas set off appositives (think bunny paws but also recall that parentheses and dashes work, too)
      • Caution: try to keep subject and verb together most of the time aka the Lego snap
    • that-which distinction; basically (you can punctuate clearly, even if you are not sure)
      • , which takes a comma
      • that does not take a comma
  • Counting out helps readers (and writers) keep track of where they are!) Imagine you, as a student, taking notes. You use the counting words to transfer to note cards, even deciding the number of cards.
  • Definitions/descriptions are essentially in most documents and are skillfully placesd early on; additionally, 
    • within later portions, equally skillfully, as nested phrases often in appositives. More on that in Assignment 3.
    • stasis 2 is the definition/description step in Stasis theory (a way to conquer complexity)
    • definitions/descriptions are also the lion's share of description work, prior to analysis. Recall that distinction?  And, people tend to describe more fully than they analyze.  Make sure you include analysis in your documents.  
  • Cognitive wedge -- begin at the bottom of the hill and work up!
  • Metadiscourse -- the language hovering above the content that helps readers keep their wits
    • counting out 
    • voice changes that direct reader toward meaning and cognitive flow
  • Strategic use of I/me/my and We/our to bring the reader in (creates warmth as well as wakes up reader)
  • Third person voice for most reporting, summarizing, quoting, paraphrasing of technical information.
  • Ethical move: Show your work!
    • begin with conjecture (stasis 1), which is a question (working hypothesis) in most cases
    • reveal analytical frame, which is also a way to limit the discussion
    • show decision criteria, i.e. LCA
  • Be ethical, reflecting the norms of science
    • at end, acknowledge the other frame and the reasonableness of another way to plot the problem
    • note the limits of one solution only, which is part of "people biases"
      • we need to solve more than one problem at a time
      • people are complex, especially in society
  • Be ethical in the norms of work
    • offer to do more (short memo)
    • hint at other research you did that does not appear in memo/document
    • try to be future oriented, including about directions in science/technology
  • Topic sentences in paragraphs are signposts to the reader
    • can allow readers to skim
    • reveal paragraph content
    • help readers hang on to meaningful content, before they enter more complexity
  • Topic sentences are a kind of transition element, too, from the paragraphs/sentences that come before.

NEW class content! Speaking of transitions, we can look at tight and losoe transitions in this two-part Google doc presentation.

  • tight transitions tend to be the same word or same phrase to pivot to new content
  • loose transitions expand the word or phrase choices BUT still carry the linking sense for reader to new content.

Both types of transitions carry a sense of logical progression to this craft choice.  Transition craft moves help keep a cognitive thread going for the reader.  Another way to imagine this is via a Schoolhouse Rock Video. Thie one helpes us think about a transition strategyy based on three conjuction words:  to think about the job of conjunctions, which are really places of joining/meeting.  Why this video?  And, but, or -- these are the most common metadiscourse jobs of transitions.  When we move to a new paragraph, we tend to be saying "Dear reader, here is

  1. additional information (AND)
  2. counter or hedging information or limitation (BUT)
  3. additional information that offers the fork-in-the-road type (OR, not and).

 

 

Posted on Monday, March 25, 2024 at 06:20AM by Registered CommenterMarybeth Shea | Comments Off