MbShea@PWP@English@UMCP

Paragraph focus, including paragraph transitions. These short google docs will help you prep for this memo:

Discussion on sentences, with emphasis on "empty subjects" to be continued.  And, on to paragraphs: let's start with a brief document on transitions, taken from a real-world setting.

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 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).

Let's start by reading this short news article from Seattle:  Coffee Cup Recycling Brims with Obstacles.

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):

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 background 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.

We will work in pairs (because writing together is a workplace practice; synergies and efficiencies are possible).

FOR WEDNESDAY:

• Read online by googling and use of Wikipedia (20 minutes) to orient yourself to the problem, while being aware of the ethos of the sources (question:  are environmental sources the best way to approach this problem?)
• Find a peer-reviewed article by Martin Hocking (use library databases), a chemist who conducted a comparison analysis of paper cups v. plastic (Styrofoam); environmental science and technology databases can help you with this quest
• Read about Charles Moore's work at his foundation.  Then, find a peer-reviewed article by him about ocean plastic (marine science and oceanography will help)
• The above reading will ready you for class discussion; use the "scan, parse, brief notes" approach here
• You will need to take a side on this problem, to be supported by
  
  • your analytical frame,
  •  your decision criteria, and
    
  • your technical evidence.

Memos due on Wednesday, in hard copy. DOUBLE SPACED.  We can print in the classroom, but will need to use the stations around the perimeter of room, to connect with printer.

Office Hours in the Sky! Tuesday, 9-10PM in a google doc I will link to on that evening.

I want to review a few ideas: recall your sentence strategies in the three handouts:

BUFFY active voice, present tense, avoid long verby strings

PITCH place verb within first five or so words, keep subject and verb together, avoid the personal construction of I believe, I feel, I think.  WHY? Your authorship conveys this stance.

KATRINA (Bruce Ross-Larson) direct, embellished, complicated, conditioned, mixed (combinations of above) 

I am looking at your sentence superpowers in this assignment.  

Open and close a memo (subtle strategies). You can use these sentences types in memos and short-report professional documents.  First/second person makes sense here.  (Let the memo body be in third person to let your analysis "speak."

OPENINGS preview the content and manage expectations on detail, volume, and ethos of your analysis of sources.

Here is the short definition you requested on rain gardens.

Here is the rain garden information you asked for. As you requested, this is brief and will help you in your meeting.

I gathered this overview on rain gardens, summarizing several credible sources.

CLOSINGS

I hope this information helps you.  Should you need additional detail, I am happy to help. For example, I could provide more information on [      ].

Sources and suggested reading (bibligraphic entries on your two or three sources) 

Choices

• providing some examples by links (two is good) within body OR at end (which paragraph(s) are candidated?
• what additional material you want to signal your interest in (last sentence bracket area in the closing sample above)
• might you use a news source about cost/benefits?

 CHECKLIST

Monday, peer review and Q&A

Wednesday, DUE IN HARD COPY, double spaced

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Two additional helps for you:

• Checklist released on Monday during class
• Tuesday evening office-hours-in-the-sky (will use Google doc and be on that doc to answer questions between 9 and 10)

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: Conjecture (two types:  query, OR line of inquiry that is settling)
• Stasis 2: Definition (Here, we have three sub-routines, each with a separate paragraph)
  • Brief simple Functional definition (what is a rain garden, briefly, by two functions
  • "kitchen sink" --Classification (what type of technology is this? Hint: low impact development and storm water management; history details to establish ethos of technology) 
  • Description (Illustrative; give detail on the layers of soil and the type of plants) 
    • Where is Stasis 3?  TBD: hint -- practical causality -- this appears within the illustrative paragraph.  You can keep this within the illustrative paragraph OR separate out as form/function comment

• Stasis 4: Evaluation (is this environmental technology good or bad?  Use Dr. Davis' research as you do not have authority to evaluate based on your expertise)

We will leave Stasis 5 (policy) out of this memo as we are writing a brief, informative definition memo. You can close on a "hint" of policy or what ought we do, but let's take this up next class.

I would think you need about one natural language/ referral source per these paras: classifying and illustrating, BUT one formal source of the evaluating paragraph.  For Davis in this evaluation para: Use APA (author, date) citation from APA guidelines. Include a bibliography entry for that citation and a set of curated referral links).

Audience scenario for this memo: Here is Jane, our boss. She asked  for the memo at the end of our last staff meeting.

She will read the memo on her small device, in a concrete parking garage, just before meeting Governor Hogan.

Sources for you:

Look for a slide set or other public communication of Davis' findings. (The only formal APA citation

Use the Bioretention Manual (PG County; warning -- large PDF)

The Low Impact Development Center can be helpful.

EPA -- search on bioretention, low impact development, and rain garden.