MbShea@PWP@English@UMCP

Wednesday! We talk in detail about ABT statements.  This slide set includes ABT statements guided by Randy Olson himself with MS and PhD students in environmental science.  Look at the complexity and technical detail!  At the end of the slide set is a Google doc where you can see me guide medical humanities students into writing ABT statements. 

You will use and ABT statement or two in Friday night's Writing Task, prompt opened this afternoon.  By popular request I should bold and use large point size. 

Friday night 11.45PM (grace halo period until about 11AM Saturday), post an Eli Review Writing Task.  (Link updated at 3.41 Wednesday AND on your ELMS Calendar).

Monday night 11.45PM, post your Eli Review Review Task. 

BE ON TIME FOR EACH OTHER, please.

Have five or so points?  You can think also of dividing into a point used in your intro and/or appoint used to close.  

Here are seven ways+examples to open a document.  And, the way you close an article can borrow from these openings (based on the now defunct Cain Technical Writing E-Text project formerly hosted at Rice University.

Now, I want to look at how IMRAD and ABT work together.  And yes, we hear/see from Randy Olson again.  Two qualities to contrast are:

1. Narrative structure, ABT, follows a horizontal axis arrow (times arrow, actually)
2. Rational->irrational structure -- head, heart, guts, gonads/sex organs-- follows a vertical axis, where the action is from top down.

Five minutes, with an Australian scientist/interview:

Humanizing science!  Emotion and humor in just the right proportion and timing.  Aristotle would call this kairos.

Happy Friday and your protected time to manage your work! I am available online today between 9-9:50, 10-10:50 and 11-11:50. Here is your GoogleMeet code (same for all Fridays this semester).

Here is one follow-up on Randy Olson's work that connects IMRAD structure with ABT narrative frames on communication.  This 67-page PDF of a slide set features a few central images that I have captured in a working slide set (six Google slides for now to help you with your work this weekend) for us to use next week.  We need to deepen our understanding of ABT as a structure to guide critical thinking and careful, concise writing.

Task reminders:

Friday night 11.45PM (grace halo period until about 11AM Saturday), post an Eli Review Writing Task.  (Link updated at 3.41 Wednesday AND on your ELMS Calendar).

Monday night 11.45PM, post your Eli Review Review Task. 

Keishai Bahr, PhD, www.bahrlab.com

Wednesday morning.  Later today,  UPDATED this evening: I will open the "parking lot" for the Coffee Cup Memo; lot is for a week or more.  

By Thursday, I will open up a WRITE-ONLY task for you about your selected article.  Due Friday night.

Today, we chat briefly about items from Monday, that help us think about these elements of science communication:

1. scientific writing is different from science writing
2. humor does have a role in science, often an insider role and a broader communication role
   1. however, humor is deeply contextual and often results in pretty serious problems when "leaks" out to community (wider audience).
      1. gallows or dark humor  
   2. parody of music videos is a wonderful science genre, including for medical students

Oxford comma in science, a short mini lesson in a Google doc with comma iinformation links.

Happy Friday and your protected time to manage your work! I am available online today between 9-9:50, 10-10:50 and 11-11:50. Here is your GoogleMeet code (same for all Fridays this semester).

We chatted briefly about humor in science, with a focus on two qualities of humor in communication:

1. can be really effective
2. is risky and must be designed and deployed carefully.

The whole Twitter fiasco includes a rabid and vicious take-done of parody by some accounts and not others.  Listen to scientist Randy Olson -- and filmmaker -- about how logo and humor contrast in the human (audience) response. Listen for head, heart, guts, and sex organs and the irrational-rational gradient.

Food for thought by a marine biologist who communicates to stabilize the planet because upon the earth we live and move and have our being.

Post tonight in Eli Review (can be done as late as Sunday afternoon) for me, this reading grid with some elements about your article. Directions:

1. Download or copy my Google doc to your computer or your Google drive.
2. Place the APA citation of your selected article in the one-cell table within the header.
3. Fill out at least three of the lilac-colored rows in the table.
4. Upload to Eli Review.

Be reading to go forward on openings/closing and author ethos next week. We write this assignment in small portions now until the end of the semester. 

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Final thought:  humor reflects human complexity.  Getting humor right uses skills from critical thinking, acting, elocution, public speaking, timing, cultural sensitivity.  Humor requires flexes of the head, heart, gut, and often sex organs (See Randy Olson above).  I keep thinking about how tthe president of Ukraine began as a stand up commedian.  Wow. Talk about applied pathos. 

Recall that transitions strategies are your friend!  First up, the overall binding strategy is to pay attention to the beginning and end of paragraphs (as you know).  Here is your Lego memory helper for that. 

You can also use meta discourse of first person phrases -- within the memo -- that clue the reading that you are either:

•  
  •  
    • leaping
    • shifting
    • pivoting, or
    • punting.

Here is a checklist for the coffee cup memo (Google Sheet).  You can also review this Trait list from the most recent Review Task that was due on Monday, late evening.

I will open up the next Writing Task for this Friday-Saturday-Sunday-Monday Review Task on Thursday AM.

Happy Friday and your protected time to manage your work! I am available online today between 9-9:50, 10-10:50 and 11-11:50. Here is your GoogleMeet code (same for all Fridays this semester).

Three common lapses (noted in the Eli Review Writing Task prompt) include:

• not using formal citation with the Moore (Team Paper) or Hocking (Team Styro) paragraphs that you summarize; relatedly,->
• not using curated links that you use for referral or punting; and
• not acknowledging the reasonableness of the other position, including a formal citation to direct reader to that information. 

One critical thinking skill we practice here is achieve "flow" both in the writing and in the cognitive of the reader. In this assignment, we work to achieve flow across complexity and contrast when the science in unclear.

Some boilerplate language you can use, based on some questions emailed to me yesterday:

Having defined LCA, let's look now at Martin Hocking's work on . . .  (or, insert Charles Moore)

As you can see, Hocking's work is, essentially, an LCA on disposable hot beverage cups.

Moore's work focused primarily on the end phase of the LCA.  Here, the key idea noted earlier about how "leaky" both disposal and recycling systems are.  Essentially, we do not landfill and recycle near as much of both cup materials that we think; hence, we experience now a critical volume of aquatic plastic. 

Should you need more information on climate change and energy efficiency, see this helpful and brief article at..., which summarizes the science-based work of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). 

For purposes of this cursory analysis (short analysis, first-cut look, quick-and-dirty examination), we will now turn to Moore's groundbreaking work on ocean plastic.

Recall, that my recommendation relies both on:

• my opening assumption about ocean plastic (or climate change) and
• LCA as a decision criteria

TRANSITIONS!

First, begin by looking at this OWL PURDUE exhibit on useful transition words and phrases.  Back to paragraphs:  

• look at the last sentence of each paragraph; 
• then look at the first sentence in the next paragraph.

Do you see connection between content, including a reasonable pivot to new information?  The paragraphs, although they stand alone in topic and content, should CONNECT or TRANSITION with the surrounding paragraphs.  

Paragraph check: Ask

• What is the paragraph doing in the document?  What type of paragraph serves this purpose? For example, a narrative paragraph can tell a brief story or present a case or example.  An illustrative paragraph – cousin to descriptive paragraphs - paints a picture.
  
• Is the paragraph cohesive?  Does the content “hang” together?  Do the sentence choices achieve cohesion?  Look at the transition words and phrases in the OWL link above.  You can use them to achieve cohesion and flow between sentences. This focus is called local coherence, which is key to achieving flow.
  

Finally, paragraphs do not truly stand alone in most documents. Paragraphs combine to provide coherent content in a document for a reader.  Ask this:  do the paragraphs fit and support the arrangement or structure of the document?  Focus on transitions between paragraphs, which help with cohesion in the document.  Local coherence (within a paragraph) + global coherence (between paragraphs and within a document) create overall flow.

Cheap! Way To achieve cohesion between paragraphs try "chaining" by transitions. Place the  topic of the next paragraph in the last sentence of the preceding paragraph. The first sentence of the new paragraph must include that topic also. Doing this knits or binds the paragraphs to each other.  Here is how a math person would say this: 

Let ParaA be the preceding paragraph. 

Let ParaB be the following paragraph.  

Let T be the topic that should appear in both paragraphs.  

We will limit our discussion now to two sentences: 

•  
  • the last sentence of ParaA and the 
  • first sentence of ParaB. 

In reality, ParaA and ParaB exist in a document with an arrangement of many paragraphs.

ParaA relates to ParaB through the last sentence of ParaA AND SIMULTANEOUSLY through the first sentence of ParaB. The relating elements is a topic, T;  T can be a repeated word or a phrase.  Some variation on T makes for good style.  

Tight transitions pivot on repetition of key word or short phrase. Loose transitions allow a topic substitution or phrase (selected with care for reader knowledge/background).

Food for thought: You also can use the transition space to punt or jump to another subtopic in the memo. Phrases:

Having reminded you of the central emergency of climate change, let's turn now to...

Now that you have more details on the emerging problem of ocean plastic, we can look at...

Recall that this memo is a short back-of-the-envelope analysis for our purposes. We can reconsider these frames more carefully but would face the incommensurability problem.

define with punt referral link to Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy?

block quote of short definition from above

pivot to why we need to acknowledge the reasonableness of the other position

Climate change and the fate of ocean plastic resist direct comparison.  This is why the other cup choice is reasonable, given a different frame. Consequently....

Good morning. 

I am available online today between 9-9:50, 10-10:50 and 11-11:50. Here is your GoogleMeet code (same for all Fridays this semester).

Hint: do you see the block quote sample at the end of this post? 

What is your one ring source that can rule them all?  The celery-green flow chart! You should also review the pats three week, especial Weeks 9 and 8 (reverse chron order).  Have you gathered up all the free phrases, sentences starters, rough paragraphs, topic sentences, transition ideas into your working document?  PLEASE DO SO. This will make your busy life easier. 

Please do NOT forget your Eli Review Writing Task due tonight.  Show up. Post something.  Do this so you can give and receive feedback.  You can help your peer editing partners even if you are not completely with suggested 4-6 paragraphs that are pretty easy to write. This way, your presence helps others propel the writing forward.

And for you?  You can draft off each other in a cycling or aerodnynamic way. In this short 2017 web article from Cycling Tips is this quote:

So how much energy can you save from drafting? Interestingly, there seems to be little consensus among researchers that have investigated this topic. Studies have shown drag reductions of between 27% and 50% for riders that are drafting, with the exact reduction depending on a number of variables — the size and on-the-bike position of the rider in front, likewise with the rider drafting, the distance from the wheel in front, the direction and strength of the wind, and more.

de Vroet, Matthew

Writing techniques in this memo: Paragraphs! Paragraph transitions. We will take up a new idea for use in sentences, with emphasis on "empty subjects."  Let's also look at brief document on transitions, taken from a real-world setting. We will be looking at tight transitions and loose transitions.

Document genre is the memo. However, this NEW memo content is more complex and wide-ranging. Transitions are a way to thread the cognition for our busy readers. Your first memo focused on the definition stasis, with a evaluation move at the end. Here the concept was more narrow and very concrete. We will look at abstract concepts, where the science is unclear and yet we must make a decision.

Stasis two: definition!  Definitions/descriptions are pivot paragraphs that set the reader up with necessary knowledge before diving more deeply into complexity. Elements of this analysis that need definition/description work include:

• basic problem description of two cups (perhaps three, if you want to include re-usable ones)
• chains of disposal
  • landfilling or incineration
  • recycling
    • limits or leakage of these "grave" points on->
• life cycle analysis aka cradle-to-grave approach (a decision criteria for your work)
• brief reminder (plus punt/referral link) about the frames of
  • climate change+energy efficiency
  • ocean plastic and emerging food chain, ecosystem, human health problem

Some of these items require a small, targeted paragraph: problem description+chains of disposal (see the "meh" paragraph work), life cycle analysis, frames.

Reposting information presented earlier (looping based on previewing -- a cognitive support for readers facing complexity):

• Celery-green flow chart of problem-solution memo (Aristotle would say "strategic arrangement) 
• Return to Monday, Week 7, to see
  • free sentences you can use (try to match them to a paragraph topic sentence or transition sentence location
  • the "meh" to better paragraph exhibit (also one you can use!).

Mb did the invention (research for you) on sources.  Reposting from earlier:

1. Martin Hocking, research chemist at University of Victoria, BC, Canada. By Research Gate, you can see many of his articles over an incredibly long academic career. Here are the two foundational articles he published that compare the embodied energy of Styrofoam and paper hot beverage cups
   1. 1991 research results article (read abstract, as you likely will hit a paywall Springer.
   2. 1994 follow-up research letters (ditto above on pay wall but at Jstor, you get preview and not an abstract)
2. Charles Moore, marine biologist and oceans advocate, discovered these patches and began this line of inquiry:
   1. Algalita Foundation
   2. His list of publications here (Moore is typically not listed in Research Gate as he left academia to focus on ocean plastic).

Today is Friday. I am available online today between 9-9:50, 10-10:50 and 11-11:50. Here is your GoogleMeet code (same for all Fridays this semester).

Read and think this weekend and prewrite for your coffee cup short recommendation report.