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Being a chemist. Oops, science is POWERFUL!

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

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Wrapping up course: Last post (abstract and audience)

On Monday, we will talk about how titles can scope and signal your project's MAIN MESSAGE.

You find your main message in the problem statement/thesis.  Make sure this prose appears in the first three paragraphs of your document. And, you may wish to restate this prose at the end.  Nice bookending technique that you first learned in the Five-Para Essay AKA the Extended Constructed Response.

Folders and project due on Wednesday, May 22 by 1PM in Tawes Rm. 1230. I will be there. 

I also propose that we start the crowdsourced final project document on Monday in class. I will make a link soon.

 

Posted on Friday, May 10, 2019 at 06:29AM by Registered CommenterMarybeth Shea | CommentsPost a Comment

Office hours in the sky tonight; 9-10

But you can post questions in this google doc earlier.  Recall, that this is largely a discussion about visuals so screen capture is one way to put the visual question in the document.

I am on an event on campus this evening, so be patient with me.

Here is a round of text/links from earlier posts about design.  I hope that placing this reference information here makes your work tonight easier to manage. (In reverse chron order):

----

On to some design discussions:

  • Choices concerning slides requiring presenter presence v. slides that are wholistic and stand alone.
  • Captions and snaplines or guidelines.

Additional topics:

  • Web-driven options for captions in online publications, one designer's take.
  • The Non Designer's Design Book makes GitHub appearance.
  • Nice example of meta-analysis and clinical note genre.

-----

Between now and May 1, you will rework your review text into one of two design platforms.  We will take about ten 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)
  • Slide presentation (your choice of platform)

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 am working on slides for a short "TED talk" at the August Ecological Society of American meeting. December 2016 National Park Service competition "A Science Tale of Wonder" (Google Presentation)

 Questions:

  • Stand alone slides v. presenter-essential slides
  • Too much "junk and stuff" 

Friday: 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. 

Posted on Tuesday, April 30, 2019 at 09:12AM by Registered CommenterMarybeth Shea | CommentsPost a Comment

Recall that on May 1, you turn in either slides or designed article

assignment.

I am running a pedagogy test about how well students can follow discussion guidelines about design choices in these two typical assignments.  Recall: no grade/no evaulation BUT does ding you if you do not do this version of your article review.  

Question: do we need a set of office hours for the slide and article generation?  TBD.

Annotated bibs due in HARD COPY ON MONDAY. Here are the most common lapses:

  1. Not identifying the genre or document type. Why do I ask for this?  Genre recognition is essential reading and research skill.
  2. Not noting the ethos of publication.  Why?  We need to be able to recognize many authorities of publication and platform. Ethos matters.
  3. Not describing the selected information that will help your reader in your document. Why? Information extraction is a key research and writing skill.

On to some design discussions:

  • Choices concerning slides requiring presenter presence v. slides that are wholistic and stand alone.
  • Captions and snaplines or guidelines.

Additional topics:

  • Web-driven options for captions in online publications, one designer's take.
  • The Non Designer's Design Book makes GitHub appearance.
  • Nice example of meta-analysis and clinical note genre.

 

 

 

Posted on Friday, April 26, 2019 at 06:21AM by Registered CommenterMarybeth Shea | CommentsPost a Comment

By midnight Friday, please post your final project

proposal here.  Most of you will do this in class.  For those with religious obligations this weekend, please post by 8Am Monday morning.

This is the link for your project proposal post. I will leave up the examples on Friday but will start clearinng them out over the weekend, so we we can have a slate of our projects.

 

Posted on Friday, April 19, 2019 at 07:48AM by Registered CommenterMarybeth Shea | CommentsPost a Comment

Design options on your review

Between now and May 1, you will rework your review text into one of two design platforms.  We will take about ten 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)
  • Slide presentation (your choice of platform)

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 am working on slides for a short "TED talk" at the August Ecological Society of American meeting. December 2016 National Park Service competition "A Science Tale of Wonder" (Google Presentation)

 Questions:

  • Stand alone slides v. presenter-essential slides
  • Too much "junk and stuff" 

Friday: 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. 

Posted on Wednesday, April 17, 2019 at 06:26AM by Registered CommenterMarybeth Shea | CommentsPost a Comment