MbShea@PWP@English@UMCP

with AND BUT THEREFORE statements.  Let's talk about the discipline of limiting AND moves.  BUT detects difference and signals where your research question/working hypothesis is....THEREFORE is what should happen next.

Look at all the grammar and conventions noted here. For those of you continuing on in academic science, this level of revision is part of manuscript prep.

Affect/Effect.  PLEASE LISTEN or READ to Grammar Girl. She does a really nice job of cautioning you about impact, as well. For more on how this use is changing, GG used Google NGram. 

For Friday, bring your returned hard copy review documents AND A DIGITAL COPY.  By next Friday, we are turning in a document design revision.  In this activity, we will also review copyright conventions on using images.  This is how we will start:

Design constraints, to start:
THREE or FOUR PAGES in TWO-COLUMN FORMAT, without excess white space.  If you have too much white space at the end -- more than two or three lines -- email me for a fix.  You can "fool" with the formatting to achieve three pages by

• varying font type, if needed;
• varying font size between 11 and 14;
• choosing the line spacing of either one-line or one and 1/2 line spacing. DO NOT USE DOUBLE SPACING FOR THIS DOCUMENT.

Images to find over the weekend. You will need approximately three graphics to work with: 

• journal covers
• photos of researchers
• selected graphic from article
• outside graphic

To Be Discussed in class. Bring these images to class along with your revised text of the review. 

For discussion, we will look at this sample THAT HAS SOME THINGS WRONG WITH IT!!!!

Gather your papers into a portfolio.

Consider what audience/context/purpose you will develop a final project with: Audience Analysis slides with nod to document type (four)

Document design: we need to think about formats, illustrations/visuals/graphics, copyright, permissions, white space.....start by skimming here. Design of information is part of visualizing technical information.  

outlined today in class.  

1. Two-article review
2. final project (can expand on two article review but other options)
3. resume and cover letter, in response to a particular job opportunity

Let's talk about a scenario for your two-article review. We are still at Leaf it to Us. Instead of staff meetings, we use the journal club approach to share knowledge. Your audience is technical BUT not necessarily in your field. You can also imagine that this review is a companion to your powerpoint slides (we are not making these, but this is a way for you to learn how to write a document that lends itself to revision into slides or a poster.

Here is a detailed guide on what the beginning, middle, and ends of the document can look like. Note the focus on paragraphs.

I suggest writing two/three paragraphs every other day.  Peer review copy due on Friday ,April 1.  Final copy due for a grad on Monday, April 4.

What about document openings?  We have a number of options; look at these seven strategies for opening.

This week: focus on paragraphs and citation style.  You should have your center-of-the-lemon paragraphs and the opening done by Friday. We will also think about counter arguments and how to end the document. For this work, you need to think about the three ways that these documents "fit":

1. both articles support each other and this is the bottom line (BLUF para?) of your review
2. the articles do not support each other and this is the bottom line
3. the articles need additional research or work to connect them better (hard to do)

You can also decide how to weight the information, in a compare/contrast pattern for the center section of your document:

1. review one article primarily, using the other article for either 
   1. support or 
   2. counter argument
2. review the articles equally, making, say, two points from each article. 

ROUGH arrangement here:

Let's think now about the review you are writing.  For this assignment, we will use the basic structure of the five-paragraph essay, for the idea of beginning, middle, and end.  However, we need to go beyond this structure.  The article review will use this paragraph structure:

Into (exigence and interest)

Author expertise/bio (two paragraphs; one per article, with position optional)

Identification of article type (in phrase or sentence)

Definitions/background (depends on your field -- two to three is typical)

point 1

point 2

point 3

OPTIONAL PT. 4

Analysis and counter argument (one, two, or three short paragraphs)

Comment on style/organization/readability

Comment on limitations or problems with work

Comment on experiment design and size of sample?

integrate with other article or more knowledge from field

Conclusion

You will need tight or strong transitions in these paragraphs.  The point paragraphs -- in italics -- do not need the same tight transitions.  You can use the "counting technique" to bind these paragraphs.

First point, next idea, third point, final information, an additional finding, etc.

LAST, but not least, you will deploy your Olson AND/THEREFORE/BUT sentence patterns in your document. Typically, this is a way to introduce your two articles.  Here is my set of sentences from my chicken shit-ology project:

Chesapeake Bay water regulations at the state and federal level focus on nutrients including nitrogen, AND  nitrogen seepage into Eastern Shore watersheds is primarily focused on soil born deposition of nitrogen.  BUT,  airborne nitrogen from poultry house fans is a pre-cursur step to soil-motile nitrogen that can be intercepted by both phytoremediation and exhaust fan capture.  THEREFORE, this project develops best practices for poultry producers in using Vegetated Emissions Buffers (VEBS) and exhaust fan acid-precipitate scrubber technology.

SPRING BREAK:  Directions due on the WEDNESDAY when you return, in HARD COPY.  Hold off on the WikiHow/extra credit portion until then. TO BE DISCUSSED.  When you come back, we write the two-article review, which will take about two weeks.  In April, we start your final projects.......

We will focus on establishing ethos with reference and attribution and acknowledgement.

Reading your articles: Here is a grid to keep track of what you are reading.  Reading technical literature is an art and skill you need to master.  You can skim, effectively, with rhetoric skills supporting this activity.

When you come back from spring break, I will ask you to present two AND/BUT/THEREFORE (Randy Olson's technique) statements on your articles.  From the Andrew Revkin piece posted yesterday (that you read and enjoyed, because Trey Parker is channeling Aristotle): BEGIN QUOTE

______ and _____, but _____, therefore ______.

Every story can be reduced to this single structure. I can tell you the story of a little girl living on a farm in Kansas AND her life is boring, BUT one day a tornado sweeps her away to the land of Oz, THEREFORE she must undertake a journey to find her way home. END QUOTE.

Ok, now the grammar convention lesson of the day on dangling modifiers. This point reflects the wonder of our brains to figure out stuff and the limitations of language and YET, we can pay attention to these problems and revise them. Why? Because science wants to be precise and accurate and clear. Watch out!  Opening clauses of sentences MUST MAKE SENSE with the subject. Consider the cognitive silliness of these examples: 

Watch out for empty subjects in your directions.  

DIRECTIONS

as do all good documents. After you are clear about who you are writing for, from a novice to an experienced practioner, then you turn to the writing task. Assignment sheet here (you already have a hard copy). Note:  we will discuss the WikiHow option OR OTHER WAY TO SHARE DIRECTIONS in class.

Writing instructions, procedures, and directions requires simplicity. Rather than write paragraphs, use numbers, bullets, and document design. Above all, be audience-centered. Write with the USER in mind. 

• Use short, concise phrases or sentences. Be consistent about choice of phrases or sentences.
• Use active, descriptive words. Be consistent in both word choice.
• Use bold, italic, and color to help key words, especially action verbs "pop." However, don't over-use these document design elements.
• Use command structure:  lead with a verb.

Example:  Read how to avoid a being eaten by a cougar. Note the preparatory information, safety comments, limits to strategy, parallel structure, command structure, numbering, attention to detail.

For those thining about a recipe, PLEASE CLEAR WITH ME BY EMAIL.  Let's think about how to make bones of the dead.

A bit about visuals.  We will discuss in class.  However, we can look at this document to start the conversation.

----

Research articles: Read them with an eye for specific take-aways.  Here is one way to generate a take-away, from Randy Olson.  Please view his TedMed talk here.  Warning:  fudge-bombs lobbed.  He does speak like a salty sea captain.

 

 

1. AND statement
2. BUT statement
3. THEREFORE statement

 Andrew Revkin -- dotearth blogger at The New York Times -- says this, in response to Randy Olson (involves South Park creators, really):

OPEN QUOTE: Every story can be reduced to this single structure. I can tell you the story of a little girl living on a farm in Kansas AND her life is boring, BUT one day a tornado sweeps her away to the land of Oz, THEREFORE she must undertake a journey to find her way home.

That is the ABT at work.

In a more practical way, a scientist could say, for example, “I can tell you that in my laboratory we study physiology AND biochemistry, BUT in recent years we’ve realized the important questions are at the molecular level, THEREFORE we are now investigating the following molecular questions….”

That would be the narrative of that particular research program. You can do the same for whatever you are working on. CLOSE QUOTE.

 We will look at a PP slide set in class (To be linked later).