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Being a chemist. Oops, science is POWERFUL!

ENGL 390, 390H, and (sometimes) 398V  Class Journal

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FRIDAY: Catch up week

Hello,

I do not see that many people were able to use this time to catch up.  We are still waiting on many people in Eli Review Tasks.

So, here is what you should do by the end of the weekend.  Your work flow (TRAIN 1 or TRAIN 2) depends on how behind you are.  For those who have not uploaded Assignment 2, the Coffee Cup memo, for a grade. PLEASE DO THAT ASAP. You will likely be on TRAIN 2 for the last assignment.

For those who have not participated in the most recent round of Eli Review on Assignment 3, the one-article review, PLEASE DO THAT ASAP. This requires that you

  1. Complete this Assignment 3 draft Eli Review Writing Task BEFORE YOU THEN give/receive feedback-->
  2. Complete this Assignment 3 draft Eil Review Review Task.

I am starting the differiented class time table now.  TRAIN 1 assumes that you are DONE with Coffee Cup and ready to move on wrapping up your one-article review.  Two types of people can board TRAIN 1:

  • Are you all caught up on Assignment 3 writing and reviewing tasks?  If so, then you can post on Friday's Eli Review Writing Task that assumes about a 95% done review.  You can ask for feedback.  You will give Freedback by Monday evening (I have not opened this yet).
  • Do you plan to be really caught up on Assignment 3 by Saturday at midnight?  See steps 1 and 2 above. If so, then you can board TRAIN 1 and upload a 95% done article review, this weekend.    And, plan to respond to others by Monday evening.

TRAIN 1: Tonight, please post a 95% done version in Eli Review here.

For TRAIN 2, your mission is to CATCH UP.  I will give you a TRAIN 2 schedule next week for, first, your 95% done work and then on to the last check before turning in for a grade. Catch up.

Posted on Friday, April 29, 2022 at 10:03AM by Registered CommenterMarybeth Shea | CommentsPost a Comment

Week 13: deepening your analysis

We will talk about choices regarding analysis and the stats (numerical analysis; exploratory data analysis) paragraph.  We will also talk about choices regarding definitions.  Both of these choices are somewhat similar as in you have a location to think about. And, volume of "stuff": consider

  • smaller definitions set off by punctuation in an aposphitive -- think bunny ears, paws, and hind feet
  • small analysis paragraphs between your body paragraphs of cool points -- think gold beads between larger pearls.

Voice helps, too, in analysis.  Use first person in your analysis "moves" and third person when presenting more generally.

We will also look at a Google Doc from an earlier semester where we took on questions the week before the one-article review was due.  Can be instructive, I think.

Let's also look at language helpers from the Manchester University Academic Phrasebank and a few other places.  Critique and counter argument for junior scientists is hard.  Having some phrases to prime the pump can be helpful.

Wikimedia Common, under Creative Commons license

Manchester University academic writing phrase bank. Look at all these sections:

 

 Now, to what we are doing:

The sample size in treatments two and three is small (7, 12).

I remain unclear how the experiment addresses the central research question noted in the Introduction section. 

The sample size is small, making this work exploratory.  I look forward to seeing more work before drawing a conclusion about clinical use.

In the fourth steps of the proof, you would have to accept some unusual assumptions on the limit factors.

 

 

 

Posted on Monday, April 18, 2022 at 06:49AM by Registered CommenterMarybeth Shea | CommentsPost a Comment

Week 12: planning out your article review

Here is your reading grid (posted last week; placed here for your convenience.)

Documents have beginnings, middles, and ends.  For this work, think LEMON-shaped (lemons reflect the cognitive wedge!).  Here is a good way to arrange your analysis:

Beginning: 1-3 paragraphs that prepare the reader to understand and trust the center portion of your analysis (three or four body paragraphs).  Use a cognitive wedge strategy aka "lemon nipple." Think:

  • Opening (see the seven strategies -- you can combine them.)
  • Ethos of lead author
  • Definitions/descriptions or backgrounds, which is largely common knowledge. 

Middle: 3-4 body paragraphs. Start with one paragraph per point BUT you may need to divide complex material into two shorter but connected (by transition) paragraph. These are your larger paragraphs.  You MAY need to nest small definitions -- use the appositive technique -- near the material.

End: Taper off, with some useful information or thoughts for closing.  For example, brief critique (this is hard and will NOT count against your work grade-wise), applications, further line of inquiry, implications for society.

New links for class discussion today:

Academic language phrase bank (really useful for analysis and writing). Spend some time here AND save the link.   Thank you to the fine folks at Manchester University, UK.

Opening moves for technical documents (short google doc, with seven ways!). Also, these strategies can 

 

  • be combined (two or three but with concision+craft)
  • inspire your endings (slide down to a conclusion).

 

Citation/ethos/introduce your lead researcher:  in class, we will talk about the conventions of citation in a close read of an article.  Basically, the steps are:

  1. first mention, full name (in the ethos paragraph that also introduces the article).
    • (author, date)
  2. last name throughout
  3. Example:  Marybeth Shea is a professor of technical writing at the University of Maryland. She studies stasis theory in environmental policymaking.  Her research article appears in the Journal of Conservation Biology and is the subject of this review (Shea, 2014). Then, in rest of document, refer to the work using the last name:
    • Shea's approach...
    • Her findings...
    • What Shea's inference fails to account for...
Posted on Monday, April 11, 2022 at 06:21AM by Registered CommenterMarybeth Shea | CommentsPost a Comment

Week 11: shifting to journal club time

Eli Review task due tonight.  Many of you remain in the train station.  Get on board, please.  I will open a "parking lot" on Wednesday in Eli Review for the Memo 2 for a grade.  

Journal club is the context for Assignment 3: one article in-depth review.

UPDATED WITH LINK! To start, we will look at this "grid" (a Google doc for you to copy) to manage your reading.  PLEASE READ THE LINKS in the header.

What is journal club?  Here are a couple of linked resources for you to read about journal clubs:

  • Lucy Bauer's NIH guide for first-time jc-ers. In 2015, Bauer was a post-bacc scholar in one of the many intramural lab positions
  • 2018 many-authored how-to, published open access in Stroke.
  • Pedagogy article on how journal club activities help students understand scientific method
    • ". . .students reported increases in confidence in their abilities to access and present scientific articles and write scientific abstracts. Additionally, the students reported improved confidence and performance in their courses."  From the abstract (co-authors Sandefur and Gordy teach undergraduate science."

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Ok, here is a resource (32 slides in Google) that we will use to think about the "parts" of a research article. 

Good listening about second booster.  Share with your parents, perhaps.

Posted on Monday, April 4, 2022 at 07:05AM by Registered CommenterMarybeth Shea | CommentsPost a Comment

WEEK 10! Spring break was number 9

Hello. Chilly, isn't it. Yet, as Tom Waits tells us:

 

 You have an Eli Review Review task due on TUESDAY.  See your ELMS email/calendar.  Be on time for each other.  Expect to post a 98% done draft on Friday, for one last peer collaboration, before you revise to turn in next week for a grade.

Recall our work earlier on the utility of Oxford commas? Here is a short Google doc on science examples.

How about a lesson on dangling modifiers. I would read this Duke Graduate School short exhibit AFTER class. We will use the board in class, too for this useful clarity lesson.

Finally, enjoy this odd little mini lesson on dangling modifiers (while walking down the street a piano fell on me) from former student Hannah S. circa 2008.

 

Piano. from Paul Rayment on Vimeo.

 

Some "free" ideas/phrases to customize the ending of your memo:

These two huge environmental problems resist direct comparison.  Philosopher of science Thomas Kuhn calls this situation "one of incommensurability"; incommensurablity means without common measure.

I would like to spend more time on this question for our office.  One approach would be to localize the problem to the Chesapeake Bay.

As you know, I did not include human health effects in this analysis.  I could refocus my research team to devote three work days to this, with your approval.

I read some new information about plastic-eating microbes. Would you care learn more?

Resusables -- including double-walled thermos mugs -- can be used in our work, with logos including. This way, the mugs are also advertising, even if lost.

I grew up in Belgium.  We simply do not use coffee consumption the way most US people do.  I wonder if we could institute a "tea time" culture in our offfice, where we relax together and drink in mugs.

 

 

Posted on Monday, March 28, 2022 at 06:51AM by Registered CommenterMarybeth Shea | CommentsPost a Comment