Week 4: Rain garden draft 2: shape of definition memo + sentence craft
Morning on this blustery day!
Do not forget your ER Reviewing Task due tonight (sent by ELMS mail/linked on ELMS calendar). Great work in these posts now. Your job is learn about AI generated knowledge, prompting strategies, and checking AI by consulting authorative sources (not necessarily peer reviewed). More on that in class.
We are working throught the cognitive task of DEFINITION. Here are some patterns outlined in a short Google doc. Aristotle wrote about definitions as an act of categorization. We will focus on this move today AND arrange a set of paragraphs:
- short working definition (para 1)
- classification and context para (para 2 or 3)
- detailed CAUSAL definition (para 2 or 3)
- evaluation paragraph (para 4, will require formal citation, TBD this week)
See how we can start to "sort" details from our invention into meaningful paragraphs?. Incidentally, this approach of short detail toward expanded detail is called the cognitive wedge. The cognitive wedge (my coinage in short illustrated Google doc one-pager0) relies on the Given-New concept (short article) from Halliday (wikipedia bio of distinguished British cognitive linguist) and others. What I want you to note from the article is that:
- Given-New patterns reflect an awareness of human cognition
- Good writers think carefully on what the audience knows and needs to know (MEMORY)
- Given-new is one of many choices that writers make, with our judgement a key to making choices.
- Hint: location in a document, paragraph, or sentence is strategic for writers and readers.
The first part of this post concerns cognitive or critical thinking strategies about writing. Let's look again at the Padlet I share on Writing Process Models (you do not need to do the exercises; you could, though, think!) -->
Slides (Google, 10)) to guide how we revise our writing generally are here. You can preview this presentation if you like but we will look at them all week in class. Recall that Friday is another ER Writing Task of your "pretty good" rain garden memo for peer revision in a Monday ER Reviewing Task. Then, for Friday 28th, you tun in for a grade. You will revise solo based on the ER platform work of this Friday (21st) and next Monday (24).
Let's focus on sentence strategies, a powerful writing craft tool. Also, revising sentences from AI and other common knowledge sources gives you opportunity to add value to a search. You can also avoid plagiarism charges by re-tooling sentences and arranging them in tight, focused paragraphs. Here are some for the week, in these short Google doc handouts (new to you):
And, on to paragraphs (short MS Word handouts) that we will take up starting Wednesday.
Paragraph Types/Definitions: think Architectures
Paragraph Types by purpose, from the field as in real paragraph (longer doc)
Marybeth Shea
Happy very chilly Wednesday!
New idea for writing a concise memo in addition to sentence stuff and paragraph stuff. I want you to see the counting out technique at the paragraph level and the document level. The magic number for the rain garden memo is two:
- Two related environmental problems: storm water events and pollution carried in that water.
- Rain gardens have form and function that address these two problems (form and function -- two!)
- Rain garden (RG) form 1 = above ground biotic plant material. RG form 2=below ground = layers of soil and media, in a depression.
- Two bits of evidence that reflect this pattern of two is that we can use the logos of numbers from Alan Davis/Low Impact Development Center about
- volume of water remediated?
- percentage/quantifier of sample pollution type remediated.
And, on Wednesday, we will talk about the classifying paragraph, which can be a "kitchen sink" paragraph abou some of the history+Maryland specific detail you want to include for the ACP.
Image by Felix Hu from PixabayRemember the triagle of Audience, Context, Purpose. First among equals (vertices) is A for Audience!
NEW critical thinking item that documents have shapes, based primarily on paragraph sizes arrange strategically. We looked at the cognitive wedge on Monday, which is a shape-way of thinking about introducing your writing.
See this Google doc of dummy text using lorum ipsum (fake Latin to manage document before formatting/printing/publishing) to show you relative size of paragraphs PLUS cognitive wedge shape
To connect with paragraph type, see how these sample sentence starters (similar to the ones you have been working with fit in?)
Check your pathos feelings about how to select details/place details in paragraphs.
Are you overwhelmed by details?
In class we will talk about the over all categories of the job of rain gardens (hinted at in the opening paragraph. Two problems (storm water and pollution). Water flow is easier to understand (erosion/loss of valuable soil; sediments into waterways, where they lower water quality. Pollution in more complex, as some of you have asked me about. Let's count again by the categories (a type of classification). These are the thee pollutant classes -->
- hydrocarbons (oil, gasoline, and other carbon-based pollutants)
- heavy metals (lead, arsenic, mercury, cadmium)
- nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorus
Quick fix re plants: Do you have to list a dozen or so of plant types? Not for this context. You can use categories/classifying. This means you can describe the plants by function or attribute. Bottom line up front (BLUF). Describe plants in terms of categories, like native, drought/inundation adapted, etc.
Marybeth Shea
Happy Friday. Got wool? Good day to use this.
Fridays optional: Drop in at 9-9:50 or 11-11:50.
Some are nervous about this task. Just get in there! You are anonymous, so no one knows if you are not perfect yet. Besides, perfection is overrated.
As I have said, we do not know what our questions are until we dabble in the content, select content, place content into an arrangement, then see what others are doing.
Other questions center on the function of the cognitive wedge. Please review the link about to my one pager with visuals. However, here is a text summary of those ideas-->
What is the Cognitive Wedge? Consider a triangle, but now the triangle is a right triangle like an incline plane or a wooden doorstop. Readers conquer documents, especially the content. Encountering staged information by first simplicity in small sentences/short paragraphs is an ethical duty by the writer. Gradually, the complexity and volume of text is increased.
Some wrtie to me with concern about the fourth paragraph, aka the EVALUATION PARAGRAPH; here, we use evidence from Davis' peer reviewed findings about the quantified (logos of numbers) benefits of rain gardens. You can either punk this paragraph to next week (in baseball, we are punt) OR you can use these sentence starters/phrases to prep for this work next week. We are thinking about sources but not sending Jane, our boss, to paywalls. Irritation at paywalls is a pathos you completely understand.
Phrases you can use with the Davis work (dealing with paywalls/triangulating in on web-base expertise):
Most of Davis' peer reviewed articles (2017, 2012) are behind paywalls. The 2017 and 2012 articles are reviews of the literature and very helpful. See my bibliography. However, useful, open-access information is available in two slide sets:
(curate the link)
(curate the link)
An open access summary of Davis' work is available at the Zanadu Rain Garden project (NOT REAL). See this short PDF, which includes three cross sectional diagrams that emphasis the form and function approach of this low impact development technology. A longer and highly authoritative PDF is the Rain Garden, available at the Prince George's County Department of the Environment. (REAL SOURCE you could LINK in this sentence. You have some choices here)
OPTIONAL AL stuff medically-focused students:
- Cardologist and research physician (Scripts) Eric Topel at 9/24 NIH grand rounds presentation: Summary here; link to entire presentation at the end of the short article.
- 7/24 NIH news overview of mixed bag of AI for medicine. Link to full analysis here-->
- Qiao Jin, et al. Hidden Flaws Behind Expert-Level Accuracy of Multimodal GPT-4 Vision in Medicine. npj Digital Medicine. DOI: 10.1038/s41746-024-01185-7(link is external) (2024). Mb here: abstract is helpful.
Now: long read on Oxford commas. TLDR?: USE THEM. Skim. Laugh. We can chat on Monday. Also, editing/proofreading for this penultimate comma is a last step just before releasing your document to audience in the wild (aka, publishing). BTW, comma conventions are a writing craft element within the larger category of punctuation (See my Aristotelian category work here on defining comma use.?)
To my parents, Ayn Rand and God.
To my parents, J.K. Rowling and God.
To my parents, Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart.
OR
In a newspaper account of a documentary about Merle Haggard:
Among those interviewed were his two ex-wives, Kris Kristofferson and Robert Duvall.
These two preceding examples are from Theresa Hayden. Here is another doosie that cries out for a serial or Oxford comma.
Here is another doosie that cries out for a serial or Oxford comma.
The Times once published an unintentionally humorous description of a Peter Ustinov documentary, noting that
"highlights of his global tour include encounters with Nelson Mandela, an 800-year-old demigod and a dildo collector."
Now, to be clear, the serial comma does not always solve ambiguity problems:
They went to Oregon with Betty, a maid and a cook –
They went to Oregon with Betty, both a maid and a cook. (One person)
They went to Oregon with Betty, a maid and cook. (One person)
They went to Oregon with Betty (a maid) and a cook. (Two people)
They went to Oregon with Betty, a maid, and with a cook. (Two people)
They went to Oregon with Betty – a maid – and a cook. (Two people)
They went to Oregon with the maid Betty and a cook. (Two people)
They went to Oregon with a cook and Betty, a maid. (Two people)
They went to Oregon with Betty as well as a maid and a cook. (Three people)
They went to Oregon with Betty and a maid and a cook. (Three people)
They went to Oregon with Betty, one maid and a cook. (Three people)
They went to Oregon with a maid, a cook, and Betty. (Three people)
buying bread, jam, coffee, cream, juice, eggs, and bacon.
VS
eating toast and jam, coffee and cream, juice, and bacon and eggs
Finally, we have a theme song to remember this punctuation convention. Start your weekend with a catchy tune. Alert: liberal use of the F-bomb, especially in the chorus.
