_____________________________________
Oops, science is POWERFUL!
ENGL 390, 390H, and (sometimes) 398V Class Journal
_____________________________________
Welcome to SPRING 2020
Here is our GroupMe link, courtesy of C.J.
I would also suggest that you look at the links in the right-side navigation column and read the syllabus and the syllabus rationale.
On Friday, we look at the genre or document type of the informatinal memo: topic? Rain gardens and bioretention. If you want, spend fifteen minutes online, so you have a working definition of the technology.
Marybeth Shea
Post a Comment
DESIGN (using the raw material of your article review)
Between now and December 1, you will rework your review text into one of two design platforms. We will take about ten-fiften minutes each day to look at some aspects of document design. Note: in real life, when you are in high stakes design environments (conference, for example), you may want to hire a designer.
The two design genres are
- Review in template (text-heavy but with design elements) Earn less than A- on review? Choose this.
- Slide presentation (your choice of platform)
FIRST UP: slides: Here are some guidance readings for you on slides. "CrossTalk" at Cell features this good overview . Do you know that 10/20/30 rule? Nice write-up here hosted by the Slideshare platform. What does Tufte say about slides (Power Point started this)? Tufte is famously anti-slides. I think we can know his critique and still embrace slides.
Slides PLUS persona! TED talks are worthy study objects for the interplay on slides, persona, and presentation. This short article offers a simple critique of the TED genre of slides.
Case study: I presented slides for a short INSPIRE session at the August Ecological Society of American meeting. Here is the first run, in a December 2016 National Park Service competition "A Science Tale of Wonder" (Google Presentation)
- Articles based on this slide competition, posted at NPS website
- Overview slides from NPS on Science in Parks project
- Samples of the TED-like creature, called an Ignite Talk
Questions for slide design, ALWAYS:
- Stand alone slides v. presenter-essential slides
- Too much "junk and stuff"
- Slide Share is one place to see bad stuff, especially that labeled as bad
- UC Davis PDF-PPt of bad slides
- author image
- visuals from article
- open access conceptual diagrams
- other?
- Bullet use and document design are visual elements
- government-origin visual that sheds light?
-
Using MS Word as design template: We will analyze the second option of design into a template. This is what we aim at. Here is a checklist for what needs to happen in this assignment option.
You will need three or four images for this work; Make a folder and start looking for images; save them to this folder. Candidates?
- journal cover (two articles, two covers)
- web logo from journal site
- images of lead authors (NEED evidence of permission)
- visuals from the articles
- quotes from article designed into a pull quote
- useful figure from government or open access website
- copyright-free conceptual diagram (Google images, with permissions filter is your friend)
Start collecting visuals for your design document. Tomorrow, we chat about sourcing ethics on visuals.
MS Word file of what designed document can look like. Here is the masthead for you to use in the template.
FIRST: Copy your review document into a new file. Single-space that document and note the page count.
SECOND: Download this image, called a masthead, to your hard drive. Then, place the masthead at the top of the first page of your document.
Note: this masthead is courtesy of Megan B. (now a medical illustrator):
Directions, a document design genre
On Monday, bring to class a draft of directions to work on. Peer review (digitally with your trio of partners) on Friday, November 15. Due for grade on Monday, November 18.
Let's warm up with a mini lesson on voice and nominalization:
Check out this active voice exhibit from Duke's Scientific Communication overview. Read this web exhibit, starting with Principles 2 and 3. In your reading for your science classes, you may want to look for these techniques. Then, return to Principle 1.
Principle 1 is new to you. This focus concerns nominalizations. Read this clip from a New York Times article, which calls nominalizations "zombie nouns." Writer Helen Sword says:
Take an adjective (implacable) or a verb (calibrate) or even another noun (crony) and add a suffix like ity, tion or ism. You’ve created a new noun: implacability, calibration, cronyism. Sounds impressive, right?
Nouns formed from other parts of speech are called nominalizations. Academics love them; so do lawyers, bureaucrats and business writers. I call them “zombie nouns” because they cannibalize active verbs, suck the lifeblood from adjectives and substitute abstract entities for human beings:
The proliferation of nominalizations in a discursive formation may be an indication of a tendency toward pomposity and abstraction.
H.S.'s "Draft" -- a regular feature of the Times -- is a series about the art and craft of writing.
-----
- front matter,
- the heart of the directions (numbered, ordered commands), and
- back matter.
Let's talk about recipes, also a directions genre. Bones of the Dead (Osse de Mort). What about visuals? And, this website for publishing science procedure videos: JoVE.
How do we build trust in writing directions? To be discussed.
Also, where on the web do directions live?
Friday, I will post an online document for Friday's digital class. You can respond by 11.59 SATURDAY (updated to give you moreflexibility), just before the stroke of midnight. This is the Cinderella way of being clear about what day does "by midnight" actually mean.
A bit more on paragraphs
Paragraph Definition: think Architectures
And, we will talk about modifiers that do not fit, cognitively, the subject-verb pair of the sentence. By the way, Grammar Girl (aka Mignon Fogerty) is another excellent resource for you, now and in the future. You have the choice to listen or read her guidance on writing. Her expertise? Years of technical writing and editing. Her work focuses on how to use the "rules" and conventions well, and achieve clarity for your reader. Her document design and arrangement choices are nicely showcased her in Ten Myths of Writing.
Shall we have a seasonal punctuation lesson?
That-which: which takes a comma; that does not! See this handout on choosing which and that.
And, some verbs that will help you in your description and analysis paragraphs: Helpful signal verbs to show the reader where the citation information begins within your paragraph, first for the author,
...as in Quintillian
says writes observes notes remarks adds declares informs us alleges claims states comments thinks affirms asserts explains argues Additional signal verbs that we often use in technical and science settings to focus especiallyl on the research: ...this study (or finding or data or results) suggests asserts demonstrates finds establishes affirms attests supports correlates proves denies defies counters weakens
We can also talk briefly about "hopefully" or take than up on Wednesday.