_____________________________________
Oops, science is POWERFUL!
ENGL 390, 390H, and (sometimes) 398V Class Journal
_____________________________________
Week 4: Rain garden draft one due on Friday+peer editing Monday
First, here is the critical thinking strategy to teach a stressed, busy reader about a complex topic quickly (Jane is in this position). What is the cognitive wedge? Read this one page, illustrated Google Doc.
And for our first Eli Review task, we want to use this dummy text guide to show you want the cognitve wedge gives at the begining of a document.
Instructions to begin with Eli Review:
- Go to Eli Review.
- Did you view the video I suggested last week? View at least one now.
- Sign up for the course: Our Eli Review course code = direst591manias
- Pay! Use these two steps to save you money and get you through May
- Sign up for two week trial
- THEN, pay for the class at the 3 month rate.
The first task is due on Friday by 11:45 PM -- your calendar notes these due dates.
PREVIEW: We will talk about sources this week and next. However, generally in the memo you are dealing in common knowledge and do not need sources strictly. YET, you will use preview links, well curated next week.
On to a craft lesson: What is an appositive? A bit of information you insert in between the subject and the verb. You need commas or other sorts of punctuation to set this off. This image of bunny paws can help you remember to do this:
Let's review some sentence items -- with detail on appositive strategies -- from last week in this one page PDF on my Google Drive
Marybeth Shea
Hello to Wednesday: context paragraph. What is the JOB of the context paragraph? Several, actually. Try to answer:
- who? -- Larry Coffman, of PG County Department of Environmental Services (formerly)
- where? -- Prince George's County, first in Somerset area
- when? -- early 90s, meaning that the technology is mature and tested
- what/why? -- pioneered a low cost way to address the last mile problem of storm water management
- what is a last mile problem?
- storm water management to address storm event overflow with erosion (loss of soil) and sediment effluent into watershed
- now? We can absorb pollutants of several types, which raises your question of how. NOW, transition to the illustration paragraph, no. 3.
So, I told you to not worry about sources yet, though you may want to look at a few additional places. For example, you will feel confident about describing the illustration (form and function/above ground and below ground/biotic and abiotic) -- visit the Low Impact Development Center. In class, I will reveal insider knowledge about how/why this will be come an authoritative source for you next week.
Gif of the day:
Marybeth Shea
Happy dreary Friday, yet we have RAIN. MuHaHaHa. For our rain garden memo.
I will be around (same GoogleMeet all semester) per usual at
- 9
- 10
- 11
Between the n:50 to (n+1:00) time, I am possibly walking doggy in rain. Be patient as I will return.
As of this morning, I see 17 submissions by 49 people. This means that about 20 of you have yet to sign up for Eli Review. You must do this to be able to submit your draft. i implore you to submit something so that you can participated in the giving and receiving of feedback. Recall that you earn labor grades for showing up in this way.
If you do not post this assignment on time, you will be excluded from the peer revision work. That work is due Monday evening at 11:45. This means that you can do over the weekend if you like but you can wait to ask me questions in class on Monday. Again, respond to your colleagues by that deadline. PLEASE.
(I emphasize because students seem to not get this pattern!)
Grammar moment of the day -->> Alot v. A lot: the abomination of alot. alot is not a word. Let's see what this blogger says about remembering to use a lot and not alot(click into image to access her website).
Click into the above image to enjoy (Hyperboleandahalf) Allie Brosch's rant about a lot v. alot. Many images!
Now, to this bit of charm from N.N., a former student. Ta DAH! She made this in response to beer-can Alot.
Post a Comment
Week Three: Rain garden memo (long post/read+re-read)
Stasis theory and the rain garden memo
The structure and type of paragraphs you will write follow Aristotle's stasis theory (very much a system of analysis and action, like your scientific method steps):
- Stasis 2: Definition overview PARAGRAPH 1 (what is a rain garden, briefly, by two functions)
- Stasis 2a: Classification PARAGRAPH 2 (what type of technology is this? Hint: low impact development and storm water management)
- Stasis 2b Elaborated definition in a Description PARAGRAPH 3
- (Illustrative; give detail on the layers of soil and the type of plants)
- Function by form -- which gives you Stasis 3 for practical causality)
- Stasis 4: Evaluation (is this good or bad? AKA do rain gardens work well? Use Dr. Davis' research (from Marybeth + the long PDF) as you do not have authority to evaluate based on your expertise)
Audience scenario for this memo: Here is Jane, our boss. She asked for the memo at the end of our last staff meeting.
irst up! What is a memo?
By the way, the OWL website at Purdue is a fabulous resource for writing. Memos also have a standard format: See the image to the left. Also, look at the email heading in your software. This electronic message is based on the memo format. Bonus question: what is the difference, traditionally, between a memo and a letter.
Topic Sentences: A list of qualities for you to strive for
- Usually a short direct sentence (think announcement)
- Signals the topic in the paragraph (think preview)
- Hooks the reader by 1) raising a question or 2) provoking thought
- Can be placed anywhere, but early on in the paragraph is the best default strategy for most professional documents; in other words, at the beginning of the paragraph
- Contains an element of transition from the previous paragraph
Note: topic sentences can be implied in tightly coherent prose (for now, leave this subtle technique to the professionals!)
Let's look at examples of topic sentences useful in the rain garden memo:
Rain gardens, or bioretention ponds, are a kind of low impact development. Low impact development....
Rain gardens have two components: layers of percolation material and carefully chosen plants.
Rain gardens protect the local environment by absorbing water run-off from impervious surfaces and by sequestering pollutants.
Dr. Allen Davis studies rain garden effectiveness. Davis, a civil engineering professor, has been studying bioretention for more than twenty years.
Let's also think about sentences generally. General advice to you? Write shorter sentences than those you are familiar with in literature and many of your textbooks.
Now, let's think about sentences (links to shorr google docs): UPDATED FROM MONDAY! :)
And, on to paragraphs (short MS Word handouts):
Paragraph Types/Definitions: think Architectures
Paragraph Types by purpose (longer doc)
Marybeth Shea
WEDNESDAY!
Picking up with stasis theory, a five-step hierarchy of categories to understand complexity. Here is a Google doc one-page that incorporates your rain garden memo (Assignment 1) work with many of of the stasis steps. Focus your thinking on the power of definitions. You are best helped in this document (pre-writing stage) if you have
- read Wikipedia entry about rain gardens and bioretention
- read several of my links about what stasis theory looks like (is precursor to scientific method)
For Friday, I will ask that you continue this prewriting work about rain garden content. Today, I want to show you a craft of writing that helps link prewriting/critical thinking work with the mechanics of writing this assignment.
Counting out! We will loop back to the paragraph types document posted Monday to look at the last paragraph about Jennifer Lopez. Then we will look at a Stephen King paragraph. For the rain garden work, I want you to think in patterns of two:
Hints (in the form of conjecture, which is stasis one):
What two environmental problems do rain gardens address?
storm water run off and pollution absorption
What two forms within rain gardens address these linked environmental problems?
inverted bowl shape+ layers of media type, carefully selected plants
What are two primary benefits of rain gardens, especially in urban environments?
environmental protection of the local watershed, low-cost, low impact last mile problem solution.
Next week, we will post (on Friday) a working draft of your memo for peer collaboration. Here is a Padlet link about how to approach peer editing. Note: you earn grades for this collaborative work.
On Friday, I introduce -- within a post nested here -- an incline plane to think about how to work with the shape of your memo. Think another triangle!
Take-aways?
- definitions are key to this informational memo
- counting out helps us select (invent) and arrange information for writing
- documents have a shape; the best shapes serve audience-context-purpose. You will open your memo with a small about of text in a short paragraph, then build to complexity with larger chunks of text.
Marybeth Shea
Happy Friday!
If you like, you may preview Eli Review at this student-centered link. Do not triy to sign up, though. We will do that next week.
For today, I am available by the same GoogleMeet link in three chunks of time:
- 9-9:50
- 10:10 :0
- 11-11:50
Ok, that right triangle AKA an inclined plane: is a cognitive wedge approach to opening documents. Here are three gifs that help underscore what we will talk about next week:
Week 2: visuals as communication tools
You looked at slides last week for my class. Triangles are important. Equilateral triangles, actually. Power Point by MS and later Presentation by Google and a few other platforms shifted communication toward visuals and designed information.
About fifteen years ago, infographics entered our communication universe:
An infographic is a collection of imagery, data visualizations like pie charts and bar graphs, and minimal text that gives an easy-to-understand overview of a topic. (Information is Beautiful seminar, 2022)
One classic+modern tree diagram from infographics teaches us that visualisations are a very old human genre for communication. Skim this Wired piece announcing a new book on tree diagrams.
Here are two selections from visualization history that you should be aware of; first, Florence Nightingale and her circle or rose chart (open access Scientific American article, 2022):
;)
Now, consider these "data portraits" by W.E.B. Du Bois described in a 2018 Smithsonian Magazine article. As in the article noted above, a new book presents his collection (see more at the Library of Congress).
The book cover --> shows his use of strong primary colors, a new aesthetic that represented printing ink innovation but also European design theory including the German Bauhaus group. A note on audience: Du Bois included some notations in French because he was presenting in that country (1900 Paris Exhibition). However, he planned that his primary audience were in the U.S., including politicians and thought leaders. Du Bois' academic and social activism focused primarily on Reconstruction and the Jim Crow south.
His lengthy Wikipedia bio does not say much about these ground-breaking data visualizations.
This Medium piece (is this a platform, a blog, or a publisher?) is a huge deep dive into his data visualization work.I have not curated this link well. Do you trust this? Me? We will talk about ethos framing.
What is a meme, by the way?
--
ONLY gif of W.E.B. Du Bois? Do we have a gif maker in the class? Email me.
Marybeth Shea
Notice the format change from Week 1? I will next Wed. and Fri. class journal posts UNDERNEATH the Week n for each Monday. We will look at this in class.
New slide set about audience analysis (four of four) that uses Shakespeare! We will look at them in class. I want to note that you need to think of two contexts for slides:
- rely on presence of presenter to make full use?
- intended to stand alone.
When you search online for information and land on slide sets, see if you can infer the full meaning without the presenter. This ability often depends on your training and expertise.
Now, let's look at slide set 3 about audiences. Preview: two blue triangles used to underscore meaning.
Ok, for Friday, new terms from classical/modern rhetoric: the five canons. Skim these eight slides to acquaint yourself with these five terms and how they fit into the writing process.
Optional culture note: Women in classical rhetoric? Scholars used to say no but Shirley Logan, professor emerita at UMCP (and others) said YES. Aphasia, for one. You may enjoy this 2018 nterview (html article)with Dr. Logan, who is one of my mentors. Interviewer Nabila Hijaz is a Maryland-trained professor of rhetoric.
Shirley Logan, PhD
Marybeth Shea
Happy Friday to us all. Jamboard for today (to text and learn)
I will poke through these sources on rhetoric that you may appreciate skimming. You can select the way you want to learn.
- Really good overview here by a communication professional (short html web exhibit)
- Student quiz-card set that you might appreciate (kinesthetic appeal, for one)
- Forest of Rhetoric at BYU that student-above "riffs off" (search engine here)
- A six-slide set--> San Jose State (Hawker, CAUTION -- autormatic PPT download on most browsers)
Option: You could see if OWL at Purdue includes rhetoric resources.
Next: another frame of classical rhetoric is stasis theory. Owl DOES take this on--> Read here, to start. Next, this four-page PDF is a good overview of stasis theory and relies on UMD English professor emerita Jeanne Fahnestock's work (my mentor). Author? Grant-Davy, English professor at Utah State.
I use stasis theory with environmental scientists: preview here (one slide).
Preview of next week and writing assignment No. 1: definition memo about rain gardens! What are they? We will discuss. This is the primary source we will use (do not need to read yet, I promise) 90 pg. PDF from Chesapeake Bay Network.
Day 2, week 1: main take away? Reading strategies
Consider these three documents as prep for next week. You may skim them. We need to establish context and special language of thinking/writing for our work this semester.
- Guide to reading for Science Writing students (Short Google doc)
- Audience analysis slides based on Aristotle: Set 1 (15 Google slides)
- Audience analysis slides based on Relationships: Set 2 (12 Google slides)
Think on the usefulness of my current counting out strategy of three. I borrowed this from Aristotle, especially the three proofs or qualitys of information:
- logos, pathos, ethos
- (now) audience, context, purpose
- (strategy for reading) linked above)
- (pre-read, means three+ or nearly four strategies)
- Skim
- Parse
- Read, Review, Cross-reference
- Parse
I stacked these verbs (note that they are action commands to you) with document design to emphasize that this action pattern is a heirachy.
If you want more guidance on how this class works, you can look at this "helper" link (from my website) to useful web sources I gathered for you. We really do not need a text as the world is truly available to us!
Dutch illustrator Thjis Geritz
Bonus culture video about three. This may help you remember how important counting out is to cognition and memory. The Wikipedia entry about this series is informative. Wow. She linked to Wikipedia. What kind of source is that?
Happy return to Terpland. DAY ONE of class
Hello.
This webblog -- aka blog -- is OUR CLASS text. No book to buy. Cheer! (YouTube animation+sound of, well, cheering!)
Topics for Wednesday and Friday: all means of persuasion, aka, the proofs (pistei) of Aristotle:
Logos, pathos, ethos.
Listen/watch this five-minute video by educator Krista Price.
So, question for contemplation: How do we trust her? What is her ethos? Hint: k-12 is really k-16. Teachers know stuff and so do students.
Now, let's consider the cognitive aspects of persuasion presented by journalist and podcaster Shankar Vedantam in his popular Hidden Brain series. Hint: you can listen at 1.5 speed, while walking around campus. Another way to access this information is to use the coordinated website he offers, with a text summary and references. 
D. Sanders/NPR
On to a "news you can use" resource that is presented in multimedia format with written text (eight-minute read) as the basis.
--
Key ideas:
rhetoric, logso.pathos, ethos, persuasion
ABL -- always be learning
What is a text? Is a podcast or video a text?
What is a genre or text type? Think classification from biology (genus, species, etc).
Science says, we can learn and retain better if we switch up the attributes of material to learn. (Do you believe/trust my claim here? Why or why not?)
Friday? We think about persuasion and the infographic, a visual genre for communication of complex information. See you at the same Google meet link posted in your ELMS welcome announcement. We will start with this Tweet by a former student who shows a short video of her med school sketchnote journal.
Weird GIF of day (also Happy Lunar Asian New Year):
From a London-based scholar