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Oops, science is POWERFUL!
ENGL 390, 390H, and (sometimes) 398V Class Journal
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Week 3: definitions, informational memo, with rain garden content
The structure and type of paragraphs you will write follow Aristotle's (really, more the contribution of Hermanagoras!) stasis theory(hint on how to Purdue's OWL website). The BLUF, which equals bottom-lin-upfront, is that stasis theory is very much a system of analysis and action, like your scientific method steps.
You will open and close the memo with brief introductory paragraphs, but the meat and potatoes (or tofu and kale) of your memo will be these staged, disciplined paragraphs.
- Brief, Working Definition (what is a rain garden, briefly, by two functions)
- Classification (what type of technology is this? Hint: low impact development and storm water management)
- Extended Description (Illustrative; give detail on the layers of soil and the type of plants; best to divide the complex material into two parts, plants/function and soil layers/function)
- include two examples; consider the ones on campus (can be sep. para OR placed at end of doc)
- Evaluation (is this low impact technology 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. However, we do not need to use formal citation in most of the paragraphs. However, for this last paragraph you will use formal citation. Use (author, date) citation from APA guidelines. Include a works cited page also.
Wednesday, we will work closely on sentences.
Peer revision of complete memo on Friday in Eli Review in a WRITING TASK. Your REVIEWING TASK is due Monday in Eli Review. These tasks are in your ELMS calendar. I will place links to the relevent Eli Review page this week. TBD.
Audience/Context/Purpose --> the audience scenario/aka rhetorical situation for this memo is a workplace memo. Here is Jane, our boss. She asked for the brief definitional or information 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
Now, here are your topic sentences for this memo--> (sentence starters you can use in your prewriting work, due this Friday in Eli Review)
- A rain garden is an environmental technique that...
- 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.
On Wednesday, we will talk about size of paragraphs, order "swap outs," and which paragraphs are common knowledge and which ONE needs an authoritative source.
Marybeth Shea
Happy Wednesday (farmers' market in Tawes).
New material to help you with the rain garden memo, 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 cognitive wedge, a powerful critical thinking frame that invokes a "shape" of the memo arrangement (one of the five canons).
- Dummy text (two pgs.)(lorum ipsum) + cognitive wedge (my metaphor! in one-page visual explainer)
- Stasis theory and rain garden memo (two pgs.)
Now, let's think about sentences (Google doc one-pagers):
Sentence Patterns (Bruce Ross Larson)
And, on to paragraphs, next week. Sentences live in paragraphs. Paragraphs have two places of "cognitive threading," which is a way to think about how the topic sentence (paragraph beginning) and the transition elements at the end of the paragraph, keep the reading from falling into a gap where they lose their way.
Kntting up two items not well presented on Monday:
- We will visit the site map of OWL (Purdue) and look at these stasis resources:
- Here is a link to the "pink diamond" model of writing (very common, pedagogically, in Asian countries) I believe that the platform has a block on linking with the visual. Here is the visual (from the Padlet) to remind you of what that model looks like
Stasis Theory
Stasis Theory
Stasis Theory for Research
Stasis Theory for Teamwork
Tips and Examples for Writing Thesis Statements
Stasis Theory
Stasis Theory for Research
Stasis Theory for Teamwork
Tips and Examples for Writing Thesis Statements
Marybeth Shea
Happy Friday. Am here, as per class times, to chat about the assignment due tonight in Eli Review. You can also click into the Writing Task via your ELMS calendar. Note: you must sign up for Eli Review as per my many invitations starting this week.
Typically on Fridays I try to support students in completing that assignment. I also try to comment/present on some aspect of visual communication. The cognitive wedge of Wednesday does both!
Think of this visual way to present complex information to a busy reader as also chiming the cognitive bell of Aristotle's arrangement canon. Here is a quote from. :
WHAT IS ARRANGEMENT (DISPOSITIO)?
When we talk about arrangement in rhetoric, we’re referring to how a communication is constructed or organized. When you write or say or design something, you make choices about where and when things show up in a document. Consider where to organize words, sentences, paragraphs, and sections. Make strategic decisions about what comes first, what goes last, where the key points of emphasis are, and so forth. Arrangement is much like storytelling. How can you set up your communication so that someone can understand the key people, the key problems, the key solutions, and the key series of events and locations that matter?
There are many ways (endless, in fact) to arrangement documents, but many speeches, reports, and common communication platforms follow similar arrangement styles. A proposal, for example, will often start with an introduction; provide a problem statement; give research, proof, or facts that support the thesis; show the results of the research; and offer a proposed idea. Depending on your communication piece, consider if there are conventions or paradigms that you should follow. Then strategically modify where necessary to give appropriate emphasis.
Here is another visual that focuses on the shape of document (science research article), courtesy of Canadian scientist/writing coach Lennart Nacke, PhD, --> (View in another tab to see this at large size; worth saving!)
Why my focus on shapes? Visuals improve our learning, so of course I use visuals. Also, for most of us, a visual depiction of a document type (think genre) is easier to work with than an outline.
Back to the cognitive wedge: this shape is foundational to physisc theory and practice, as well as engineering. Shall we consider an inclined plane? (12 minutes and watch only if this helps you in physics! Note: this professor's channel is helpful if physics is hard for you.)
Week 2 (short) thinking and talking about writing
Happy Wednesay (GoogleMeet link )
From last week (strategic redundancy)-->
Here are some short Google Presentation sets (Mb-genrated) that also show how this course works:
- Science writing (eight slides that rely on quotes)
- Logos, pathos, ethos (nine slides)
- Audience, context, purpose (set 1, thirteen slides)
New slide sets: (not curated; are you a bit irritated?)
Frames:
- How to THINK about knowledge and writing (cognitive frame)?
- How to COMPOSE elements/order/arrangement (pattern frame)?
- What writing choices SERVE the reader?
- writing craft frame
- ethical frame
- What is the rhetorical situation (classical frames. including logos, pathos, ethos + audience, contect purpose, see below)?
- logos, pathos, ethos
- audience, context, purpose
- Variations
- canons -- invention, arrangement, style, delivery, memory
- stasis theory -- conjection, definitions, causal analysis, good/bad/neutral/unclear, policy
Mascots:
Aristotle (Wikimedia images)
Marybeth Shea
Happy Friday.
Watch for an email to all in ELMS re signing up for Eli Review by Tuesday next week.
Let's go back to the Canons of Rhetoric slide set (8) of Wednesday and focus on this last one-->
Go to the padlet on Writing Process models
Mb here: strategic redundancy in platforms (think of the Delivery Canon below) can help audiences. So, in that spirit, here is a link to the padlet on Writing Process models. This additional way to access the platform -- in addition to clicking into the image above and working to the last slide for the padlet link -- is courteous to audiences and respects the varying expertise with this squarespace platform. Bottom like up front (BLUF)?: we have ethical duties to our readers. Also, Aristotle would say, irritating your audience (bad pathos move) impedes your message transmition and lowers your ethos.
In the padlet link we can look at writing process models. Eli Review allows us to really enter into the stages of writing strategically and expertly to compose, draft, reviews, and present really find pieces of written communication.
Let's look again at the canons of rhetoric first presented in this slides because this is the most ancient and enduring models of (oral) communication.
- Invention (imagine yourself as more an inventor or building or active agent of writing and thinking)
- Arrangement (what is the best stteps or order of revealing information for your purposes and your audiences needs?)
- Style (what tone, complexity, vibe, (pathos = feels), warmth/coolness+audience connection serves you and your reader?)
- Memory (sync your brain with the reader(s) brain (s) )
- Delivery (what type of document and in what platform? mono or multimedia?)
This 13-minute YouTube video offers a highly visual explanation on the canons. You can watch, which gives your both audio and visual sensory input (memory aid) OR you could just listen to the narrator (audio modes are learning are powerful and less common in higher ed).
On to next week: we will write a brief memo on rain gardens. In support of this work, spend 15 minutes on the web learning about what a rain garden is. You are using search functions to "invent" what the rain garden is. Pay attention to how searches now give you a combination of AI-assisted text and the classic sets of links for you to use. I suggest reading also the Wikipedia pages (authored by people, many of them experts) on related topics:
- rain gardens
- bioretention
- low impact development
Week 1: Fall 2024 Science Writing
Day 1 (Monday but I posted on Saturday, August 24).
We will primarily use this blog platform as our class text. I will post entries as a combination of what to read and what we spoke about in class. You can also think of this space as notes from class discussion.
I will use ELMS for student email as well as the ELMS calendar to prompt you on assignments.
Ideas we will discuss this first week include:
- critical thinking frames (audience, context, purpose)
- writing craft skills and choices (arrangement, style, word choices, formality, complexity, etc.)
- audience-centered writing (what do your readers need from you)
- strategic redundancy (technical and professional writing differs from literary writing)
- peer revision / drafting (how we build a learning community here)
- labor grading (differs from how you experience grading in your k-16 progress)
Tools will we use include
- GoogleMeet, compared to Zoom
- Squarespace and this class journal
- Eli Review (you will buy a subscription that is about 25 dollars; Not until week 2)
- Padlet--sample padlet on using baseball in writing classes-->
More on Wednesday. Most Fridays, I offer a little lesson on science visualization. Enjoy this clip from Twitter->
Find her Science Pusheen series here. Hope this scicomm charm makes you happier. Did you find your field? Or one of the classes you are now taking represented here?
Marybeth Shea
Wednesday
Hello to day two. Here is what is up:
- Knit back to Monday's post and reflect together on the bulleted items
- Think about two important frames for teaching and writing
- Metaphors and concrete language
- Visuals (in concrete language) and in document design
- Visuals (Mb Google this morning searched on "concrete language")
- Document design
- Headings, subheadings
- tables
- bullets (signals that items are more or less equal --> see numbers below)
- numbers (sigals order or importance or chronology)
Here are some short Google Presentation sets (Mb-genrated) that also show how this course works:
- Science writing (eight slides that rely on quotes)
- Logos, pathos, ethos (nine slides)
- Audience, context, purpose (set 1, thirteen slides)
Marybeth Shea
We will knit up from Monday and look at:
- kawaii
- Eli Review
- preview that you should reflect on what you want to learn in this class, placing the paragraph or two into Portfolium
Good (soggy) morning.
Do not forget to complete the ER Reviewing Task that is divided between the two trains DUE TONIGHT. At the point in the semester, please endeavor to respect and support colleagues into managing their schedules. Here is a train song for today! Trixie Smith (1895?-1943), blueswoman, with her Freight Train Blues-->
At the end of class, we will chat about "boomer," which appears in this Trixie rendition and the change from the late 1800s to now. The opening lyrics are:
I was born in Dixie in a boomer shack
Just a little shanty by the railroad track
I want to warm up today, but looking at something I posted recently on a Friday: comic ethos in sci illustration. This three-slide set is simply for your contemplation and enjoyment.
Now, to pick up the Google doc guidance sheet you have see before. Let's look at a few items today and Wednesday, including numbers in science prose, conventions on titles for wholes (italics) and parts (double quotation marks), etc. On Wednesday, we will look at dangling modifiers, which are clauses at the beginning of sentences that when read grammatically are wrong and often funny.
I am seeing lots of empty subjects, like It is/was and There is/are. Use your search function to avoid these weak constructions that are often at the beginning of sentences and/or main clauses.
Now, onto word choice/word evolution (including de-evolution with some ideas from thoughtful U Michigan dean and English professor/linguist: Anne Curzan.
Kinder, funner?
registers of formality and occasion
code switching/audience accommodation
many Englishes (airplane English, for one!)
More science is written/promulgated globally by non native English speakers than native speakers
Critical thinking v. perfect grammar and diction
December, 2021 Washington Post opinion "Why Words in English Die Out" by Curzan. Link is NOT paywalled if you are on campus technology.
Marybeth Shea
Oh my goodness, how can this be the last day?
Quick sentence construction lesson on dangling and misplaced modifiers. First up, dangling modifiers, you may recall this example from middle school:
While walking down the street the dog bit Carrie Del.
(so, what is nearly always intended is that Carrie was walking down the street.). The entire first clause -- while walking down the street -- is positioned to technically modify the subject of the sentence, which is dog. Carrie Del is the object (ouch) of the dog bite.
How about this example that makes absolutely clear how wrong the sentence technically is: While walking down the street a piano fell on me.
Piano. from Paul Rayment on Vimeo.
This video "example" came in 2005 to me from a student named Hannah G.Thank you, H for the memorable and odd video to remember this problem in sentence construction. Also, pickle people are scary, actually.
Here is what The Mayfiled Handbooks says: Section 6.12
Dangling Modifiers
A modifier whose connection to the sentence is implied or intended but not actually made explicit is said to dangle. Dangling modifiers detract from the clarity of your writing, so you should make sure your modifiers are properly connected to the words they modify. To repair a dangling modifier, add the the noun or phrase that the modifier was intended to modify and rephrase the sentence accordingly.
Weak
When traveling at the speed of sound, the moon is approximately 320 hours away. [The moon does not travel at the speed of sound.]
Improved
An object traveling at the speed of sound will reach the moon in approximately 320 hours.
Now, on to misplaced modifiers: Here, we MUST know the writer's meaning. Do these sentences have different meanings? Why?
The dachshund under the tree bit Carrie Del. VS. The dachshund bit Carrie Del under the tree.
The dangling modifiers are what you should focus on in your final paper. Why? Because they are often unintentiohnal and confuse readers! Samples plus revisions-->
INCORRECT: After reading the original study, the article conclusions remains unconvincing.
REVISED: After reading the original study in Petrick, I find the researcher's conclusions unconvincing.
INCORRECT: Relieved of your semester's responsibilities now that finals are over, your home should be a place to relax.
REVISED: Relieved of your semesters responsibilities now that finals are over, you should be able to relax at home.
INCORRECT: The experiment was a failure, not having studied the lab manual carefully.
REVISED: The students failed the experiment, not having studied the lab manual carefully.
Lastly these two from one really well written student paper years ago-->
While swimming in the bay, unwitting watermen may catch unsuspecting diamondbacks.
With their meat being served as a delicacy, the Native Americans saw Diamondback Terrapins and their population plummet during the 19th century.
Week 15: wrapping up; WHICH TRAIN are you on?
I will talk about Friday's Eli Review task where I will post TWO DIFFERENT LINKS where you begin your
- Train Ride to Atlanta, planning to wrap up between the last day of class and the first weekend of finals
- Train Ride to Boulder, planning to wrap up after the first weekend and before/on the last day of finals.
Ok, craft lessons, re Theme and Variations, you have seen before!
BEGINNING with Definitions. You can consider bullets. These work well when the concepts are closely related. For example,
Let's review PCR types before we look at Guerro's modifications in her study:
- Polymer chain reaction (PCR) tests for....
- Quantitative PCR (qPRC)...
- Pyro sequencing ....
The treatment studies for Patel's rice productivity work examine subtle soil pH variability in spring crops typical of terraced fields in SE Asia. The soil categories, based on surveys of Thailand posted at the UN FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization) data base:
podulized categories 3-8: blah blah....
spodosoil category 6: blah blah....
hydropodosoils (two) designed for this experiment but based on FAO emerging research linked here.
More complex definitions might need their own paragraphs. Consider defining what a highly conserved gene is and how that work helps scientists use animals for human disease. Do not forget the idea of bolds, here. However, we can also use nested definitions. Example from my work-->
In my work with farmers and nitrogen scientists, i need to define Q method, which tests subjectivity rather than objectively. Farmers get this but scientists tend not to. For a short video definition of Q-methods, see this four-minute video and related pages hosted by Q-method expert Tim Deignan. Mb here: curated referal links are an option for your definitions, which are nearly always common knowledge.
Train ATLANTA: Here is our video inspiration from Edward Kennedy, aka Duke, Ellington-->
We change up this metaphor a bit with the idea that we are traveling to Atlanta, GA, down the East Coast from DC. A train to Atlanta will arrive at the destination faster than a train to Boulder, CO starting in the same place.
Train BOULDER: Our inspiration now is Emmy Lou Harris-->
Later today, I will send you an ELMS email with dates for both Trains with the associated ER Writing and Reviewing Tasks. And, similarly, I will adjust your ELMS Calendar.
Next up, for craft lesson: Voice to distinguish between researchers work (show cased by you in the body paragraphs) --> USE THIRD PERSON. Related, in your two analysis tasks (one general; one stats/logos of numbers focused), signal that this is YOU commenting --> USE FIRST PERSON.
Examples you can model after (mentor text is our friend)-->
Postel also sees this genomic study as offering a way to visualize which oncogenes are turned on, likely by environmental factors. (add rest of para)
I see that Postel uses both R-squared and p values to vet some of this genomic analysis. As a computational biologist, Postel understand the scale-effects of p values that, while low, might be more of an artifact of size rather than a check against randomness. She speaks about this in a note to Figures 8 and 9, as well as in the analysis section. I think this means that the R-squared test and associated visuals are a better statistical test for this genomic study.
Pacquin's inference about this study on words that carry emotional import comes from his used of survey instruments from 2018 through 2020. He excluded 2021 forward in an abundance of caution concerning the pandemic context, which might skew results to the negative. He ganged three surveys together -- all used same questions -- to test five words......
Survey analysis relies on t-tests and calculation of a critical value. I agree with Pcquin that the one-tailed sample t-test is correct because the identical surveys are ganged together. This test looks at whether the mean (aka average) of data from one group (in this case the differences in identified emotional content) is different from the critical value. I also noticed that he included within supplementary tables all the ways the five words differed in survey responses by age (quintiles), gender (two variables), and self identified liberalism or conservatism (two variables). The math here involved permutations to yield desired sub categories. Pacquin discussed primarily.....However, I would be interested in the Q categories and plan to study those datasets more closely.
- Lemon and Pear flow chart, aka the Theme+Variations visual
Newish: text-based guidance/checklist, I have references before(long Google doc but worthy!) But first, let's think about new language for our body points in the document middle. I give you
Marybeth Shea
You MUST CHOSE because the trains are on separate tracks starting Friday. Also placed to your ELMS calendar and send via ELMS mail
Spring 2024 Schedule for two trains.
ATLANTA, to finish early, with a week-long parking lot
ONE LAST ER Writing/Reviewing round to check and recheck your work and partners.
Friday, May 3: ER WRITING TASK (use the ATLANTA ONE; LAST ONE)
Monday, May 6 :ER Reviewing TASK (use the ATLANTA ONE; LAST ONE)
Wednesday May 8: Last day of ENGL390
Friday, May 10: ATLANTA parking lot opens; also READING DAY
Saturday May 11: Finals begin
Friday,, May 17: ATLANTA parking lot closes at NOON; Finals end
Monday, May 20:Graduation!
BOULDER , to finish later, with a shorter parking lot of four days
TWO rounds of ER Writing/Reviewing rounds, to check and recheck your work with partners
Friday, May 3: ER WRITING TASK (use the BOULDER ONE; PENULTIMATE ONE)
Monday, May 6 :ER REVIEWING TASK (use the BOULDER ONE; PENULTIMATE ONE)
Wednesday May 8: Last day of ENGL390
Friday, May 10: LAST ER Writing Task for BOULDER; also READING DAY
Saturday May 11: Finals begin
Monday, May 13: LAST ER Reviewing Task for BOULDER
Wednesday, May 15: BOULDER Parking lot opens; note shorter period of 4 days
Friday,, May 17: Finals end
Saturday, May 18 Boulder Parking lot closes at NOON
Monday, May 20: Graduation!
"Get your ticket at the station for the Rock Island Line*."
, which means that you signal your train to me by what you do for Friday night. * Written, most likely, by bluesman Clarence Wilson circa 1929. That Secondhand Songs web archive also notes that Wilson responded to similar folk songs to craft his version. Quick class discussion on folk music and plagiarism. Do you also see the nest little reminding about punctuating that and which?
We will go back to Monday's post and talk about why THING One and THING Two and my addition of Thing Three. If we have time, we look at the short three slides I posted on Friday concerning anime/cartoons and science communication. Just for your interest and fun.
Upcoming lessson within Friday's ER Writing Task. You could consider writing a BLUF -- bottom line up front body paragraph.
Marybeth Shea
Happy Friday.
See you between 9-9:50 and 11-11:50.
Which train are you taking? Tonight is your last chance to commit to a train. Cue The Monkees (original fake boy band but are pretty good, actually) and this 1966 hit "Take the Last Train to Clarksville," from the 1966 album The Monkees: Take the Last Train to Clarksville. The two linked Wikipedia articles flesh out this "fake" band concept from the mid 1960s.
Mb here: Do you see the nested reminder of parts of works are in double quotes and the encompassing work is italics? What does this mean for science writers working on Assignment 3? You use italics on journal articles and double quotes on the article title. Recall, though, my style caution on NOT dropping the article title in your prose. You place the bibliographic cite in the heading of your piece. Also, TBD next week, you do NOT need a bibliographic cite at the end of the piece.
Excerpt from the Mayfield Handbook of Technical Communication (online courtesy of MIT)-->
Section 6.12
Dangling Modifiers
A modifier whose connection to the sentence is implied or intended but not actually made explicit is said to dangle. Dangling modifiers detract from the clarity of your writing, so you should make sure your modifiers are properly connected to the words they modify. To repair a dangling modifier, add the the noun or phrase that the modifier was intended to modify and rephrase the sentence accordingly.
Weak
When traveling at the speed of sound, the moon is approximately 320 hours away.[The moon does not travel at the speed of sound.]Improved
An object traveling at the speed of sound will reach the moon in approximately 320 hours.Mb here: another excerpt from Mayfield on paragraph types/purposes/jobs.Mb again: Are you stuck in this work or other writing project? As yourself this question, "What am I trying to say here? ..... Then, the job of this paragraph is .... Click into the Mayfield examples and see if you are inspired.
I am trying to explain nitrate-nitrite equilibrium. (Ahaha!) Then this job of this paragraph is to present a process. And, I can use a BLUF -- bottom line up front -- topic sentence like this: Nitrogen motility is complex in soil water systems. The equilibrium of N-x salts, however, is part of the winter crop rotation theory. Let's examine the nitrate-nitrite equilibrium closely.....