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Oops, science is POWERFUL!
ENGL 390, 390H, and (sometimes) 398V Class Journal
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Week 5, cont.: leaving rain gardens for coffee cups
Coffee cup memo: paragraphs and an arrangement
Google Meeting here.
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.
Now, our boss wants a problem-solution memo about the type of coffee cup we use in our firm. Therefore, we need to frame this work with the stasis of policy (what ought we do).
Did you read about the limits of paper and plastic recycling? Even if you do not know this, the area is generally common knowledge. Citation hint: you may find helpful open access referral links in your quest. Referral links can be helpful sources when you want to share current and specific information. For example, see this 2019 Science Daily research summary on polystyrene, sunlight, and persistence as a pollutant. Note: Science Daily is a really good science journalism site that you can use as an open access referral link for many writing contexts.
Back to our boss: Jane wants a coffee cup policy for the office that is "green." OK, that is the content for your invention. Here is rough working arrangement (paragraphs):
CLASS DISCUSSION ON PROBLEM FRAMING!!!! Wednesday 9/29
POLITE OPENING, with your recommendation that previews your final policy paragraph
CONJECTURE PARAGRAPH Problem description (our office situation, with quantifiers), with reference to national. international size of the problem
CONTEXT PARA(s) Environmental problems (energy efficiency ->climate change AND persistence of plastic in ocean -> food chain disruption)
YOUR WEIGHTED PROBLEM SOLVING METHOD (revealing your pre-analytical frame or bias)
DEFINITION-->CAUSE/EFFECT information
Coffee cup types (how many? Can we do this in one paragraph or do we need one per coffee cup type? Use counting technique of two or three)
PIVOT PARA from backgrount to ANALYSIS PARAS
Decision criteria (HINT: Life cycle analysis, and define this; use an EPA source) HERE, this definition helps us move to the VALUE paragraphs
CAUSE/EFFECT continued (system) -->VALUE (Harm or benefit)
Martin Hocking's work on life cycle analysis of paper v. Styrofoam
Charles Moore's work on size of ocean garbage patches
POLICY/ RECOMMENDATION (restate your recommendation, with qualifiers, as one does in science land)
Science/Research support (remind about evidence discussed above in VALUING PARAGRAPHS)
Qualification (concede reasonableness of the other position)
Concrete examples (2)
Sentences that can help you as topic sentences or transitions sentences between paragraphs
Any analysis of coffee cup choice requires use of life cycle analysis.
Life cycle analysis -- also known as cradle-to-grave -- helps capture the entire environmental effect from origin and inputs through use and, importantly, to disposal.
In my analysis, I weight [name environmental problem] more heavily than [the other problem].
Life cycle analysis can help us understand this difficult question about coffee cup sustainability
We have two choices in coffee cups: paper or plastic (Styrofoam).
Martin Hocking conducted the first -- and to date only -- peer-reviewed analysis of the energy embodied in coffee cup choices.
Charles Moore is among the first to alert us to the huge problem of persistent ocean plastic.
We will work through the above next week, using stasis theory. COME TO CLASS. For Friday, you will need a working draft of this short memo for peer review. Monday, the memo is due in hard copy for a my evaluation.
Lesson on paragraphs, here for early in your memo, in the definition/description move (STASIS 2) where we also need to address context. Skill?: Coherence in a paragraph (sample content but the paragraphs might not be complete for the purposes of your coffee cup paper):
"Meh" paragraph
Plastic and paper cups pose problems for recycling. Ceramic cups are very energy intensive to produce. Recycling seems environmentally-sound. Paper does not degrade deep within most landfills and the plastic coating is also difficult. Not all plastic can be recycled. You need to check the bottom of the container. Landfills are increasingly full. There is a huge "patch of garbage" in the Pacific Ocean. Supply chains of garbage recycling, especially plastic do not really work.
Note: can you see the compare/contrast move here, even in this meh or necessary draft version?
Better paragraph
Paper and plastic both pose disposal problems. First, not all plastic can be recycled. Check the bottom of the plastic container. "No. 1" and "No. 2" types can be recycled by most facilities. Second, paper does not degrade deep within most landfills because of low oxygen conditions. The plastic coating also interferes with decay. Landfills are increasingly full. There are several huge "patches of garbage" in the Pacific Ocean. Recent analysis suggest that China is a source of this garbage.
Note: do you see a place for a referral citation, using the Seattle news article posted earlier? Can you find a more general article that you can refer to, about the limits of recycling and landfilling? Recall that this information, now, at this level of detail is common knowledge, even if you do know this.
Even better paragraph (can you see the re-thinking of content as well as sentence-level revision)
Paper and plastic both pose disposal problems. First, not all plastic can be recycled. Check the bottom of the plastic container. "No. 1" and "No. 2" types can be recycled by most facilities. Second, paper does not degrade deep within most landfills because of low oxygen conditions. The plastic coating also interferes with decay. Landfills are increasingly full, with paper and plastic part of the waste stream. Not all plastic is recycled or landfilled. According to the Algalita Foundation, huge "patches" of garbage in the Pacific Ocean are further evidence of of the environmental harm posed by plastic.
Note: do you see another place for a referral citation? Should we build a new paragraph with this information?
Visual to help you plow through this work below (flow chart/conceptiual diagram) For now? Read about the problem. The only peer reviewed sources you need are from
- Martin Hocking, chemist, on the energy embodied in each cup type (use environmental science/tech library data base through campus); and
- Charles Moore, marine biologist, on ocean plastic including styrofoam; use a peer reviewed source where he is a co-author.
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WEEK 5: Rain garden DUE, then problem-solution memo
Google Meet link for the 9+10 sections.
If you want to think ahead, consider what hot beverage cup is greener: styrofoam (plastic) or paper? Spend ten minutes a day or so, reading on the web and looking for authorativie sources. Hint: that paper choice? Not as green as you have been lead to think. Also, look up the efficiency of paper recycling, generally. Also, is styrofoam a recyclable plastic?
By popular request, we will hold Tuesday night "Office Hours in the Sky" before the final "Resubmit"is due for a grade. 9-10.ish This date is somewhat flexible, as I keep saying. BE ON TIME for each other in your posting of drafts and then responding to others. For me? More flexible. However, staying roughly on time makes the semester easier for everyone.
Here are some additional discussion material on thinking about referral links, bookending, curating courtesy, and sentencing citation: Next up? Signal phrases and bookending in your formal and referral citations
Why this focus? Technically, when you use a citation of either sort, the information that you cite is in the sentence where the citation occurs. HOWEVER, people routinely use citation in sloppy ways that make the reader infer where the cited information begins and ends. DO NOT DO THIS TO ANOTHER HUMAN BEING. Please. Besides: if you use the signal phrase + bookending skills I present, you communicate that you are a careful, detailed-oriented, ethical person. All of us need to 1) be such a person and 2) portray that personna to others, including in our writing.
Here is a question, posted at this Rasmussen University Q&A page. A student, much like you, writes:
Q. Can I use one citation at the end of a multiple sentence paragraph, or do I have to cite for every sentence?
Please read the Rasmussen U answer. Twice. Now, let’s talk about the style-awkward problem of citing every sentence. You have an alternative to this; enter, the signal phrase. What is a signal phrase? A S I G N A L, natch. You have been writing them, to introduce your citations. Review this short exhibit at this Butler Community College citation page. And, because you are practicing curated citation links in your first memo, you have them in place. NOW, to be clear about when the cited information begins and ends, we pay attention to the location of these signal phrases (which, as it happens, are acts of courteous curation of information for the reader). Let’s use lorem ipsum to look at this.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Donec porttitor magna nec interdum tincidunt. Morbi semper condimentum laoreet. Nam sapien leo, pellentesque quis ligula non, pulvinar tristique odio. Vestibulum lobortis iaculis lectus non faucibus. Sed quis pellentesque velit. Maecenas finibus id lectus non pulvinar. Vivamus rutrum, orci eu viverra porta, sem sapien malesuada elit, id interdum elit purus ac lectus. According to Roman orator Quintilian, Aenean ut metus diam. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Maecenas suscipit vel urna ac tempor. Aenean faucibus purus a orci volutpat gravida. Mauris pulvinar non nisl nec pharetra (Quintilian, tr by Mozafari, 2015).
Shea writes in her 2010 Hyattsville Patch article Vestibulum ullamcorper metus non luctus ornare. Duis euismod libero quis odio imperdiet tincidunt. Donec non diam vel nunc sagittis vehicula. Vivamus id est lectus. Cras congue tortor augue, ac vestibulum erat condimentum eu. According to a rhetorician Quintilian, Mauris semper dolor a nulla ornare egestas. Morbi faucibus metus ut sapien fermentum, as Shea describes sed vestibulum sapien pharetra. Donec dapibus sapien quis auctor placerat. Nam at felis justo. Vivamus et leo varius, egestas massa ac, sagittis ligula. Nunc maximus dictum nibh, ac posuere ipsum posuere nec. Nullam ut finibus arcu, ac malesuada ligula. Donec laoreet nunc eu nunc sodales, vel tempor odio mollis. (Shea, 2010)
Signal phrases also help us fold more than one citation together in a paragraph:
Shea writes about Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Donec porttitor magna nec interdum tincidunt. Morbi semper condimentum laoreet. Nam sapien leo, pellentesque quis ligula non, pulvinar tristique odio. Vestibulum lobortis iaculis lectus non faucibus. Sed quis pellentesque velit (Shea, 2010). Another writer who comments on stasis theory is Mozafari (post doctoral researcher at MIT) Maecenas finibus id lectus non pulvinar. Vivamus rutrum, orci eu viverra porta, sem sapien malesuada elit, id interdum elit purus ac lectus. Aenean ut metus diam (Mozafari, 2018). Indeed, they collaborated on a joint piece that was part of a conference on computers and language (ASD proceeding), where this quotation is helpful:
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Maecenas suscipit vel urna ac tempor. Aenean faucibus purus a orci volutpat gravida. Mauris pulvinar non nisl nec pharetra (Shea and Mozafari ASD Conference Proceedings, 2021).
Vestibulum ullamcorper metus non luctus ornare. Duis euismod libero quis odio imperdiet tincidunt. Donec non diam vel nunc sagittis vehicula. Vivamus id est lectus. Cras congue tortor augue, ac vestibulum erat condimentum eu.
BOTTOM LINE: I want to see evidence in your revised rain garden memo that you can apply these craft lessons on citation. I suggest that you use the booking with both signal phrases and curated links in the classifying paragraph and the illustrating paragraph (Consider the P.G. County Bioretention Manual). Then, use signal phrases with the Davis work in the evaluation paragraph, where formal APA citation is used for a peer reviewed article that you identify. Then, give a curated referral ink where the reader can get to information without hitting a paywall.
Week 4: rain garden memo gets real
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. Your writer climbs up, warming up with your simple two-part definition in paragraph one, with elaborated definition in the illustration paragraph three. See my storyboard? I wish we could draw on the white board but I used index cards. Read like a comic book page of panels
- hydrocarbons (oil, gasoline, and other carbon-based pollutants)
- heavy metals (lead, arsenic, mercury, cadmium)
- nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorus
Marybeth Shea
Tuesday, 9-10 PM Office Hours in the Sky:AMA, a google doc where you ask me questions about the Eli Review task.
Marybeth Shea
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. 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. (LINK in this sentence. You have some choices here)
Here is the google doc we looked at on Wednesday about Oxford comma use in science. P.S. The links in that google doc are worthy. Check them out. And, below? Lots of evidence about the power of this positional comma AND some limits.
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.
And, this from S.C.
http://www.cc.com/video-clips/fo5d9i/the-colbert-report-vampire-weekend
Preview for Monday? Bookending with signal phrases at the location of the referral link information.
Aliquam scelerisque eget felis sit amet tincidunt. The Low Impact Development Center, founded by rain garden inventor Larry Coffman, roin laoreet tempus sem nec placerat. Duis ut feugiat dolor. Quisque nec pharetra tellus. Phasellus vitae nulla eu ante consequat iaculis. Nullam quis imperdiet tellus, nec bibendum magna. Access these helpful LID exhibits here on the technical specifications page. Aenean iaculis suscipit elit, vel volutpat augue pharetra sed. Ut justo ipsum, accumsan sed massa et, viverra aliquam velit. Curabitur mauris elit, consequat quis pretium at, viverra porta nunc. Donec tristique, leo facilisis pharetra ultrices, according to the PG County Bioretention Manuel, felis ex blandit lectus, tempus molestie lectus nulla eget velit. Quisque ut sem ex. Cras quis accumsan metus, in gravida leo. Maecenas quis efficitur felis, sed maximus elit. The Bioretention Manual, 2007 version, is available for download as a PDF here. Caution: 267+ pages.
Both the "bioretention" and "rain garden" Wikipedia entries provide excellent overview of rain gardens and the storm water problem. Sed gravida ullamcorper urna eu feugiat. Vestibulum non eros maximus, consequat odio non, rhoncus est. In hac habitasse platea dictumst. Sed sit amet condimentum quam. Duis vitae libero ullamcorper erat lacinia mollis eget ac massa. In addition, Chesapeake Bay Program pages at the U.S EPA site provide numbers on pollutants remitted: Mauris iaculis mollis leo et varius. Morbi gravida, ex vel ornare dapibus, elit sem interdum elit, vel egestas elit purus eget purus. Duis orci ante, placerat a urna efficitur, placerat feugiat turpis. Find the EPA CBP article; cost saving summary linked here. Ut auctor mauris vel erat facilisis accumsan. Morbi posuere turpis a quam congue elementum. Quisque aliquam scelerisque eros quis eleifend.
How about using Office Hours in the Sky before the rain garden memo is due for a grade? Discuss.
Week 3; 9/13
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:
And, on to paragraphs:
Paragraph Definition: think Architectures
More on stasis approaches:
Stasis and research (Owl Purdue, by colleague A.B.)
BYU page on stasis approach (see how legal process and jurisprudence knits forth?)
Stasis and dinosaur debate (download full text and skim)
My take on stasis with environmental scientists
Marybeth Shea
For Wednesday and Friday: three Google doc resources that will help you imagine the size of the memo (think paragraphs and their tasks/jobs). We will also think about cogntive wedge.
- Dummy text (2 pg.)(lorum ipsum) + cognitive wedge (my metaphor! in 1 page visual explainer)
- Stasis theory and rain garden memo (2 pg.)
Marybeth Shea
Week 3 Audio-visual file link
Week 2: 9/8
Morning. 
- Getting oriented to class and the use of tech for this synchronous class
- Google Meet link M,W, F (you can come to either 9 or 10, same link)
- How is the GroupMe going? Anything interesting? Do we have a link for the Spotify list? If so, here is my entry for the first set of music we each find interesting and want to share.
- Peter Wagner's Furrows project on Band Camp, special attention to new EP "Grey Cities" at Distrokid/Spotify
- This class journal space for reading! This platform is our text. I will post on M, W, F. We will look at the material together during class sessions. So, you can read after class as a follow up.
- Eli Review: sign up by Friday. See ELMS announcement day 1 for the link and class code.
- Did you listen to the Week 1 Round-up MP4? (llnk where you can download file). I posted on Friday in the class announcements.
Let's also get to know each other a bit with this Google slide set of introductions; please fill out a slide by Friday.
New you can use: "Dr. Fauci Answers your Biggest Questions" 1 hour podcast 9/8 In the Bubble, featuring Anthony Fauci, MD interviewed by Andy Slavitt (Wikipedia profile here).
Marybeth Shea
UPDATE: Link to Friday Round up MP4 file.
Friday, here, Next week we start our work on a memo. If you looked at the syllabus rationale, you have an idea where I am going with this assignment. This is the information we will work with next week.
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 1: Definition (what is a rain garden, briefly, by two functions)
- Stasis 2: Classification (what type of technology is this? Hint: low impact development and storm water management)
- Description (Illustrative; give detail on the layers of soil and the type of plants)
- include two examples; consider the ones on campus
- Where is stasis 3? TBD: hint -- practical causality
- Description (Illustrative; give detail on the layers of soil and the type of plants)
- Stasis 4: Evaluation (is this good or bad? Use Dr. Davis' research as you do not have authority to evaluate based on your expertise)
I would think you need about one source per these paras: classifying, illustrating, evaluating. Use (author, date) citation from APA guidelines. Include a works cited page also.
Audience scenario for this memo: Here is Jane, our boss. She asked for the memo at the end of our last staff meeting. (We are pretending, here.)
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
Sources? Guidance below but we will discuss extensively next week.
To start see the Low Impact Development Center, and an article by Dr. Allen Davis at the University of Maryland. You may also wish to use information from the Prince George's County Department of Environmental Resources.
YOU DO NOT NEED TO FIND OTHER SOURCES. You can read the Wikipedia entry as background BUT do not cite this source. Using Wikipedia to dive into the ocean of knowledge is a really good skill.
Knitting up from last week, let's look through this visual padlet together.
