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Oops, science is POWERFUL!
ENGL 390, 390H, and (sometimes) 398V Class Journal
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Week 5: on to the short recommendation (policy) memo/report
Happy rainy Monday to all of you. I had no idea this was happening! Kermit performed on campus, last Friday. Wonder if Turner Daily will make a dragonfly ripple ice cream, as suggested?
Eight submissions to ER thus far. Read all of them twice. Started my grading guidance sheet and will begin grades via ELMS email. What good work, demonstrating the techniques with variations. I am learning so much. Thank you. For the rest of you? Just ge this in, asap (said gently) and move on to thinking about which hot beverage cup -- styrofoam (class of plastic) or paper -- embodies a better sustainability profile. According to science.
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 science news article from Science Daly.
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/narrows in on you work. Tells your analysis process.
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. (OR/Remix)
Charles Moore is among the first to alert us to the huge problem of persistent ocean plastic.
We will work through the above over the next two weeks, using stasis theory. More on that later this week. However, you are using the full five steps more fully than in rain garden work (primarily definition).
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 iinformation, 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.
Notes: 1) is that referral link well curated? do you see another place for a referral citation? Should we build a new paragraph with this iNY Times nformation or this 2022 Science Daly piece noted earlier.
Marybeth Shea
Happy Wednesday. Your Eli Review WRITING TASK is posted. BE ON TIME FRIDAY FOR EACH OTHER. Try to do about 70 percent of what is asked. Within your groups, you will see how others approach this difficult prompt. Is a kind of drafting in both writing and in cycling! Our class is a bit like a peleton. Again, I am metaphor-making Marybeth.
Important Google doc rounding up guidance for you. Hint: you will refer to this often, so copy link into your workspace.
Sources and knowledge type: Most of what we work with is common knowledge, even if you do know this information. Still, we can use sources -- especially as curated referral links -- to buidl credibility (without formal citation) and help the reader to valuable information.
Note: Do not think of citation as only a way to avoid the plagiarism police. Think about citation as a two-part ethical act:
- Credit to the original or innovation or highly quantified details (otherwise, you commit theft. Stealing ideas, particular ways of telling, and (often) highly quantified details is wrong. Do not do this because you are moral person AND you want others to see you that way. Builds your credibility. Readers more likely to trust you.
- Courtesy to the reader. Save them time researching. Point to available and credible sources. You also benefit be creating trust between you and your audience. Props to you, then. Serve others and serve yourself. Win-Win. Human community benefits because trust is important soil glue.
Round up of sources you may use (not in any particular order:
- New York Times piece on limits of recycling. Platform note: if you are on campus wifi, you have access. Otherwise, you hit a paywall.
- You will need to understand and define (for Jane, your reader) what life cycle analysis or life cycle assessment is. Go to EPA and search on one. You wll find several. You will use this definition midway through your recommendation report. I will let you google that. :)
- Caution on using environmental organizations for cup recommendations. We will discuss advocacy work vs. analysis work. You can, however, 1) look at who they cite (ethos) and 2) consider the Natural Resources Defense Council as this is one of the science-central environmental sources.
- Watch out for greenwashing by foam and by paper companies.
- More generally, commercial entities sell us stuff. Primary goal. Driftaway Coffee is an example? Are they evil? No! But, not the best source for analysis of cup type virtues.
For the evaluation work -- paragraphs relying on peer review research, you will need a cite or two for either
Martin Hocking (use your campus library research tools to example lit. Hint: two pieces from the early 90s are easily found.)
Charles Moore (we will discuss his advocate and analysis roles) is a co-author on many marine biology and ocean science pieces. Find one or two.
Hint: work-arounds for peer reviewed research/excellent science journalism summaries (open access) are at:
Marybeth Shea
Happy Friday.
Still grading your rain garden memos. When you post -- if you do -- over the weekend, send me an email to just ping me that you have done so. Thank you.
Am looking forward to what you do with draft one of three due TONIGHT toward the coffee cup memo. Note: if you are celebrating high holy days through this time, send me a quick note. I can develop a workaround for you that we could arrange on mid day Sunday.
As per ususal, am available here: 9-9:50 and 11-11:50.
Here is a fun research meme-->
BTW, what is a meme anyway? The answer is rooted in science, actually. A meme is a "unit of cultural information spread by imitation." British evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins coined this term. He took meme from the Greek mimema meaning “imitated,"introducing this in his book The Selfish Gene (1976).
What are mixed methods approaches in science? According to the National Institutes of Health (undated 40 pg PDF), mixed methods intentionally combines quantitative and qualitative research methods to draw on the strengths of each. In doing so, complex research questions may be explored more fully by use of combined methods. (paraphrase of this definition)
What are mixed methods approaches in science? A 2022 description paper hosted at the National Library of Medicine (US NIH) explains mixed methods research in health disciplines this way:
The overall goal of the mixed-methods research design is to provide a better and deeper understanding, by providing a fuller picture that can enhance description and understanding of the phenomena [4]. Mixed-methods research has become popular because it uses quantitative and qualitative data in one single study which provides stronger inference than using either approach on its own [4]. In other words, a mixed-methods paper helps to understand the holistic picture from meanings obtained from interviews or observation to the prevalence of traits in a population obtained from surveys, which add depth and breadth to the study. (Wasti)
(at the end of your document, you would use this bib cite for Wasti-->
Wasti SP, Simkhada P, van Teijlingen ER, Sathian B, Banerjee I. The Growing Importance of Mixed-Methods Research in Health. Nepal J Epidemiol. 2022 Mar 31;12(1):1175-1178. doi: 10.3126/nje.v12i1.43633. PMID: 35528457; PMCID: PMC9057171.
We will talk more on Monday about these two ways to incorporate quoted materials into our documents. Enjoy the weekend.
Week 5: wrapping up the rain garden memo; taking stock of learning
Hello, on this mild but overcast Monday.
We deepen our skills on this definition memo, for the audience, context, purpose (yours and the reader's). First up is bookending, then, we look anew about counting out (this episode is brought to you by the number two), and a renewed look at how stasis theory helps you distill content into nimble, readable, and helpful documents.
Bookending is a way to show your reader WHERE the cited information comes from, and where this information ends.
Here is an example, which underscores that bookending is a technique that improves paragraph coherence:
Rain gardens have two components, to perform their pollution and water/erosion control functions: below ground structure and above ground structure, where the plants are. According to the helpful design manual from the Low Impact Development Center, Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Cras lacinia placerat rutrum. Integer et commodo dolor, condimentum suscipit massa. Suspendisse vel quam elit. Donec nec facilisis nunc. Duis congue consequat orci, vel pharetra nibh efficitur vitae. Aliquam ornare cursus commodo. Donec ac nulla venenatis, bibendum urna sed, congue risus. Nulla ut orci velit. Praesent lectus lacus, rutrum at dapibus quis, vestibulum in erat. Nulla pharetra congue placerat. Nulla convallis, mauris non finibus fringilla, erat felis mollis ipsum, ut gravida ex mauris quis ligula. Suspendisse a ex vel justo euismod congue id nec augue. Aenean pulvinar dictum neque. Proin nec nibh ac enim accumsan volutpat. You can access this guide here, which will show you both the soil and living materials needed.
Technical writing craft note: Bookending relies on signal phrases, typically at the opening of the bookending sentence. Then, bookending is powerful in the closing sentence, where you tell the reading that the information in this citation language ends here. This way, you help read see -- eventually -- in a paragraph with more than one source, which information goes with which citation.
I posted a link last week to OWL on signal phrases. Here are a few to use, other than the powerful "according to":
argue, assert, claim, comment, confirm, contend, declare, deny, emphasize, illustrate, imply, insist, note, observe, point out, report, respond, say, suggest, think, and write.
YourDictionary.com offers an excellent curated list of signal phrases. Highly recommended! Micro lesson: should I have repeated the link to OWL here? Are you irritated as a reader to have to scroll back?
Next, another bookending=signal phrase+referral link citation example:
Rain gardens have two components, to perform their pollution and water/erosion control functions: below ground structure and above ground structure, where the plants are. See the helpful design manual (2009) from the Prince George's County Departmnt of the Environment, sectetur adipiscing elit. Cras lacinia placerat rutrum. Integer et commodo dolor, condimentum suscipit massa. Suspendisse vel quam elit. Donec nec facilisis nunc. Duis congue consequat orci, vel pharetra nibh efficitur vitae. Aliquam ornare cursus commodo. Donec ac nulla venenatis, bibendum urna sed, congue risus. Nulla ut orci velit. Praesent lectus lacus, rutrum at dapibus quis, vestibulum in erat. Nulla pharetra congue placerat. Nulla convallis, mauris non finibus fringilla, erat felis mollis ipsum, ut gravida ex mauris quis ligula. Suspendisse a ex vel justo euismod congue id nec augue. Aenean pulvinar dictum neque. Proin nec nibh ac enim accumsan volutpat. You can access this manual here (caution! 250+ page PDF), which will show you both the soil and living materials needed. I can also suggest these two example rain gardens, included on a 4 page PDF brochure about University of Maryland installations.
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I expect you to use at least one bookended referral citation in each of your illustrating and classifying paragraphs. This is one of the most common lapses in the rain garden memo. Do it, not just because I request. Do this so you learn the technique to use in real-world writing that matters to you. Do you see how bookending gives you a place to think about curated referral links?
Pivot to formal citation: Use formal APA citation in the Davis' paragraph about evaluation where you make a class. Note: announcing Davis early in the paragraph for his expertise and foundational work on bioremediation IS A SIGNAL PHRASE MOVE. In this way, you are bookending here, too! You can use bookending with in text citation. From above:
See the Bioretention Design Manual (2009) from the Prince George's County Department of the Environment, sectetur adipiscing elit.
You would pair this in text, parenthetical citation in the body of your memo with this at the end of the memo:
Prince George's County. (2009). Design Manual for Use of Bioretention in Stormwater Management. Prince George's County, MD Department of Environmental Protection. Watershed Protection Branch, Landover, MD. Digital version, based on 1997 first publication and updated 2009.
Other examples you can borrow from:
Davis pioneered his rain garden work with a 19897 paper in Environmental Science Today. Here are two takeaways from that paper about the effectiveness of storm water retention and pollution remediation: 1) Aliquam ornare cursus commodo. Donec 57 percent nulla venenatis, bibendum urna sed, congue risus. Nulla ut orci velit. Praesent up to 87 liters per stormwater eventlectus lacus, rutrum at dapibus quis, vestibulum in erat. 2) Nulla pharetra congue placerat. Nulla convallis, mauris non finibus fringilla, erat felis mollis ipsum, ut gravida ex mauris quis ligula. The full paper is included with a link in the biblograph at the end of my memo. You can see an open access summary at this abstrat. (LINK)
Counting out! I want you to see the counting out technique at the paragraph level and the document level. The magic number for the rain garden memo is two:
- Two related environmental problems: storm water events and pollution carried in that water.
- Rain gardens have form and function that address these two problems (form and function -- two!)
- Rain garden (RG) form 1 = above ground biotic plant material. RG form 2=below ground = layers of soil and media, in a depression.
- Two bits of evidence that reflect this pattern of two is that we can use the logos of numbers from Alan Davis/Low Impact Development Center about
- volume of water remediated?
- percentage/quantifier of sample pollution type remediated.
Back to stasis theory and the rain garden. We looked at this briefly three weeks ago. Now, you are in a better position to look at this with newer understanding.
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Rain garden memo is "due" for a grade on Friday, 27! The parking lot opens then, giving you a week for this work. Metaphor? Act like you are parking at BWI to go away. You are in long term parking and you can pick up the car when you return. How is that?
Use groupme this week to ask each other for refined writing and details. You can also ask me questions, seriously!
Tonight, you have your last ER REVIEWING TASK DUE. Help each other and yourself. BE ON TIME. I expect that many will be busy with this today as we have three people who have completed. Looking forward to what you write in support of each other.
Marybeth Shea
Thank you for 100% completion on the ER REVIEWING TASK. Huzzah!
Quick sound test (western meadowlark with occasional cow in background); BBC making available a huge, open-use sound archive.
Polite first-person opening.
P1 -- NO CITATION NEEDED as is simple common knowledge of a well established technology
P2 -- CLASSIFYING: You can build your ethos by including references in natural language (supports curated referral links, too)to help your reader trust you as well as find additional sources that the reader chooses:
Marybeth noted that both Prince Georges' County and the University of Maryland played key originating roles in developing this technology, as well as evaluation this technology. As you know, she is a trained botanist.
The Wikipedia "rain garden" entry is quite good, however, the "history" section misattributes the inventor to Dick Brinker. Actually, according to a conversation with Marybeth, Larry Coffman...... HERE, add link
P3 -- ILLUSTRATION -- for details on plants and soil layers, perhaps the BEST referral sources are either the Low Impact Development Center (founded by Larry Coffman) and/or the P.G County Bioretention Manual, but curate the links as in P2 and other other examples I gave. Readers hate to be sent to large PDF w/o warning.
P4 -- EVALUATION --Use a formal citation style for the engineering curriculum material as Davis is a co-author. Recall here that you are using a short, open access standing for a paywalled peer review piece by Davis. Our boss cannot find/access on her smart phone under this meeting deadline.
P5-- Police 1st person closing.
Gathering of sources discussed thus far:
- visit the Low Impact Development Center
- Prince George's County. 1993. Design Manual for Use of Bioretention in Stormwater Management. Prince George's County, MD Department of Environmental Protection. Watershed Protection Branch, Landover, MD. See this digital version->
- Bioretention Manual (Report). Landover, MD: Prince George's County, Department of Environmental Resources. 2002. Archived from the original on 2009-04-22.
- SAMPLE for EVALUATION PARA: Davis, A. (2011). "WATER QUALITY IMPROVEMENT USING RAIN GARDENS: UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND STUDIES" (PDF).
TLDnR? Use curated referral citation links that Jane can refer to LATER. Or, she can forward that email to a contact she encounters in the meeting.
Use a formal citation for the Davis paragraph? Why, we are making a claim!
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NEW!
RESOURCES (3): 1) Checklist! Note: you can ignore the anything marked in "purple" cells, as we have not spoken fully about these elements (thinking and craft) but will take them up next week.
(2 and 3)
PUNCTUATION Craft lesson 1: ...rain gardens that... or ...rain gardens, which.... (is a bit complicated but the punctuation is NOT. This little witch hat will help you remember that which takes a comma. Like 99% of the time.
That-which: which takes a comma; that does not! See this handout on choosing which and that.
Marybeth Shea
Happy Friday. Eli Review WRITING TASK/PARKING LOT to submit memo for a grade here. I also updated your ELMS calendar and sent this by ELMS mail.
Variations you can try in the rain garden memo, if you like. Totally your choice.-->
- Break a very long paragraph into two, to help your reader. Take care with transitions so that your reader can see that the two paragraphs treat one larger topic.
- Divide classifying paragraph into the low impact/bioretention way to address the environmental problem of storm water and carried pollutants into local water sheds; and 2) answer the journalism Qs of who, where, when, (the what is in the first paragraph just described.
- Divide the illustrating paragraph into two, based on the above-ground and below-ground content, if you are wordy or offer many details to also show how the infiltration or absorption is accomplished by the soil media layers, within a natural or built depression. Then, you can note -- IF YOU WANT -- the phytoremediation role of plants that uptake heavy metals by hyperaccumulation as well as all plants taking up both hydrocarbons and a good measure of N and P.
- For the evaluation paragraph, you may want to close the memo with a separate and brief optional paragraph on cost-effectiveness (we will discuss the differences in class re Larry Hogan as a republican and Wes Moore as a democrat.
- You can even offer the two examples of rain gardens, by curated links, as an additional short paragraph. Here are the places that work:
- If your illustrating paragraph is relatively short, place here.
- You can make a small paragraph after the illustrating paragraph that simple is the two curated links.
- You can place them in the last paragraph, where you close the memo in first person.
- You can make a tiny paragraph as per number 2 above and just place at the end as a kind of back matter.
- We also will have another contextual way you can consider this that involves "playing" in our Leaf it To Us case. Here, at the beginning of your memo simply state your scene in this play, like:
- I plan to send the two links in a follow up memo when Jane returns.
- I will mention the links/local examples at a staff meeting, offering to send to all iinterested.
- Just tell Jane in the break room about the local rain gardens she could visit; then, you send her a map with two locations pinned.
See how writing at work appears in a context?
Wrapping up this memo means we can image Kermit in a wetlands environment.
Week 4: rain garden continues, with sentence and paragraph details
Thank you for such a good response to the Eli Review (ER) Writing Task. I assigned four reviews per person, which is not as burdensom a load as you might think. Note that you, the writer, benefit from seeing what others writer. Win-win!
Due tonight is your Reviewing Task; see ER or use the ELMS calendar to click in. BE ON TIME FOR EACH OTHER.
Knitting up from last week, I want to talk about paragraph jobs. Yes, paragraphs have a job, which is related to YOUR purpose as a writing.
- 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 want to ask return to the sentence handlouts of last week. I hope you scanned them as you will see simple, elegant ways to improve your sentence game, especially in two paragraph positions:
- topic sentence position
- transition sentence position
Placing them here for your convenience (see my strategic redundancy and meta discourse, to help you the reader aka audience?)
Now, let's think about sentences (Google doc one-pagers):
Sentence Patterns (Bruce Ross Larson)
BLUF? Subject-verb placement early in the sentence is cognitive-frame strategy of keeping your audience within the subject as you unleash knowledge and complexity. You can think of the subject-verb pair of words as needing to follow a LEGO principle most of the time. Can you hear the click?
Marybeth Shea
Rainy Wednesday, here.
Writing craft idea today that should make two things easier:
- Sorting your details into the classifying paragraph and the illustrating paragraph; and
- Learning more about the power of paragraphs.
Here are the two sub-organizing ideas by paragraph "job" in your memo:
- The classifying paragraph establishes context and builds confidence for the reader about why rain gardens are a "thing". You can use the journalism DubbU formula and answer these questions briefly in this paragraph:
- Who (Larry Davis)
- What (rain gardens, also called bioretention, is a type of low impact development)
- Why (low cost, effective storm water management)
- Where (Prince George's County in the Somerset development)
- When (early 1990s)
- The illustrating paragraph paints a picture and helps Jane "see" how this works in a two-part analysis that compares and contrasts:
- gather the abiotic details into one part of the paragraph
- pivot on a transition element within the paragraph*
- gather the biotic details into the other part of the paragraph
Preview of citation in these two paragraphs. Use a curated referral link per each paragraph. Here, the goal for Jane when she follows up, is that you are pointing her to several authoritative links. You save her time. In a way, you keep her from the problem of "let me google that" with deep, deep sarcasm voice and look.
Phrases you can use for curation:
Blue Baltimore, an environmental NGO, describes the design of rain gardens quite well. Note the helpful cross section diagram here and here.
The "bible" of bioretention is the PG County Bioretention Manual. Shee this link; HOWEVER, the pdf is over 270 pages.
Marybeth, well versed in low impact development and water quality, described this history. You can also find details at the Low Impact Development Center pages (link). The Wikipedia articles on X, Z, and Y are actually quite helpful.
Now, preview of evaluation paragraph aka the Davis paragraph, where formal citation (Google doc on how to approach) supports your claim.Skills within the evaluation paragraph:
-
Signal phrases (we will look at OWL again)
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demonstrate ethos of Davis’ expertise early on,
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logos of numbers in this paragraph: support with two details from Davis that quantify your claim with evidence.
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how to use formal (APA in-text+bib entry at memo's end) and informal (curated referral link) citation together. (See linked Google doc above in this bulleted list).
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Sources for Alan Davis (work through his pages here to select a sources for curation).
SAMPLE PARA: Alan Davis studies rain garden effectiveness, having pioneered this work with Larry Coffman. Nunc id neque eget urna pharetra rutrum. Nulla a sapien a turpis consectetur maximus. According to several recent peer reviewed studies... Quisque sagittis ornare sapien, id consequat leo posuere dapibus. One study in particular...(Davis, 1066). Phasellus pulvinar velit ac purus consectetur vulputate. Davis’ large body of work confirms that rain gardens address...Fusce ultricies This 1638 study focused on stormwater removal. Davis and colleagues found that 8 trillion gallons of water .....(Davis and Needleman) ullamcorper felis, eu tristique dui. Integer at. In a 1492 study focused on hydrocarbon absorption (one of three classes of water borne pollutants)m, researchers found that up to 67% of automotive hydrocarbons were incorporated into plant biomass..... metus vitae nibh efficitur posuere non in ex. Nunc in lorem id lorem hendrerit dapibus nec in metus. Quisque venenatis sagittis dui, id ullamcorper augue accumsan accumsan. These two websites (UMD Campus web exhibit; Chesapeake Bay foundation short explainer) give a picture of how Davis’ study rain gardens work (not behind a paywall). Curabitur sit amet velit rhoncus, euismod nibh ac, fermentum orci. This research page on the 1877 study includes a highly detailed abstract that you can read. Nullam sit amet rhoncus augue.
Preview: ways to close the memo
- Give curated links to two MD examples-->
Here are two short web exhibits that show two Maryland-located rain gardens:
Nullam sit amet, includes cross section, rhoncus augue. LINK
Nullam sit amet rhoncus augue, was designed in part to address flooding in Hyattsville by a UMD Landscape architect in 2001. LINK
- Hint at qualifying research or emerging new work:
Some researchers warn that under the anticipated warmer, wetter Maryland (Bosch report, summary linked here), many adequate bioretention installations will fail under larger, more frequent rain events.
Because some plants hyperaccumulate heavy metals, composting the plant material here is not advices in home gardens or in agricultural applications. See me for more detail.
I found this information about X. Let me know if this aspect of rain gardens is useful to you. We can discuss.
*Order can be switched. Sample sentences for this work-->
Rain gardens have two components: layers of percolation material and carefully chosen plants.
The soil media layers act like a sponge, with the goal of infiltrating storm water slowly the goal of this abiotic portion of the rain garden.
Next, the biotic portion of the rain garden... (Mini lesson here: next implies sequence; HOWEVER, you want to signal a shift from one part of the compare to the others. Stronger metadisource words include:
Turning now.. or Let's turn to... (mini lesson: one is third person, other is second person or first person plural
Having described the engineering soil/ponding function, we can examine the types of plants that form the phytoremediation function. (mini lesson: focus on function in this paragraph underscores how rain gardens work)
These two related forms of abiotic and biotic parts work together to function on the two linked environmental problems of storm water management and sequestering (trapping) of pollutants. (nice summary sentence, here. Could be at end of paragraph to lead into the transtion).
How effective are rain gardens? The technology is mature, with a rich body of technical literature.
Allen Davis studies (mini lesson: what do we conclude from Allen Davis studied....?)
Marybeth Shea
Happy Friday, everybody 
DO NOT FORGET YOUR ELI REVIEW WRITING TASK. If you do not post something, you cannot be including in the Reviewing step. Remember, I give you (free) labor grades based on this work. Remember, doing this HELPS YOU HELP OTHERS AND YOURSELF.
For fun, check out this short slide set (working/draft where I collect anime/kawaii sci comm images). Remember Pusheen on the first day? Well, why not have fun while we think and work so diligently on science.
Here are some links to short reads about such visuals in science (for fun! not required):
- Science blog by Dan Hickson on this Sarah Roh cover/illustration (above) at paywalled Journal of Organic Chemistry issue.
- This Wikipedia article on pikachurin will delight you. (Discovery and Nomenclature section) Related is 7 minutes video (U Rochester biochemistry) on the Sonic Hedgehog proteins you may know about.
In closing, can you guess what this depicts? From a former student in an MdPhd program now.
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
