Welcome to the last stretch of Unit 2. We’re officially halfway through the semester! Click here for a full unit overview. This week, we’ll be revising our drafts based on peer feedback.

No Zoom Class on Tuesday, 3/23. 

What To Do for Async Tuesday, 3/23

• If you have signed up for peer review, please give feedback to your partner by the end of the day, and also turn in the feedback to me (either via Blackboard or via email) so that I can give you credit for it.
• If you are not participating in peer review, just keep working on your paper!
• For everyone: LMK if you want to schedule a time to meet and talk about your writing.
• The link and password to the Zoom recording of the APA lesson is in your email. I don’t want to post the password here since the site is open to the public– email me if you have trouble finding it.

Optional: Read excerpts from “Genre and the Experimental Article” — it’s an analysis of the kind of writing we’re doing!  Click here to view the PDF.

What To Do for Async Thursday, 3/25

Assignments Due (Everyone):

Unit 2/Midterm Reflection! Instructions here. 

Ongoing Work (Everyone):

Continue working on/revising your Unit 2 projects. LMK if you want to schedule a time to meet and talk about your writing.

Suggested (But Optional) Revision Exercises:

As you’re revising, you might know you want to change some more things but not know where to begin. I strongly recommend grading yourself using the real rubric to help you identify what areas you want to work on.

You can also compare your paper to some of the examples we’ve looked at.

If you want to, you and your peer review partner could decide to give each other a second round of comments. 

Or, you could schedule a digital appointment at the writing center.

Spring Break (3/24-4/4)

The final draft of your Unit 2 project is due on Tuesday, 4/6, our first day back after spring break. However, if I were you, I would try to turn it in before spring break so that you can, you know, actually take a break and not worry about it.

There are two readings due before class on 4/6 as well, but it’s no more than a normal class day’s worth of work, and is designed for you to do Monday night, rather than over your break. That stuff will be the start of Unit 3, so I’ll write about it in a separate post.

The Unit 2/Midterm Reflection is due for everyone on Thursday, 3/25.

You can answer these questions 1 by 1 like a worksheet, or write out your reflection in paragraph form.

1. What do you feel like you learned this unit that you didn’t know before?
2. What did you already know , but now understand better or learned more about?
3. What (if anything) do you feel like I wanted you to learn, but you still aren’t sure about?
4. What are the strengths of your final project article? What are you most proud of?
5. If you were to revise your final project article, what would you want to do differently?
6. How would you describe or rate your participation/engagement in this unit?
7. What did you do this unit that helped make you successful?
8. What (if anything) do you want to do differently in the next unit?
9. Please complete the sentence: “This class would be better if……”
10. For you, how did this unit compare to the Humanities Unit? Do you have any suggestions for when I revise for future semesters?
11. Now that we have 2 units completed (or almost completed), what do you think about the system of different grading plans? Should I continue this system in future semesters? Why or why not?

The unit reflection will be graded out of 5 points.

0 points: You didn’t turn in a reflection.
1 point: You turn in something that does reflect on the unit at least a little
2 points: You address at least half of the questions in your reflection
3 points: You address most of the questions in your reflection
4 points: You answer all of the questions in your reflection
5 points: You answer all of the questions using specific examples

This week, we will continue talking about the genre norms and expectations for writing in the natural sciences and practice giving constructive feedback to one another. Click here for an overview of Unit 2.

3 Quick Things First:

1. If you want to receive notifications of announcements and reminders not via email, click here to sign up for the class Remind group.This is fully optional.
2. If you haven’t done so already, please fill out this Google Form to choose a grading option for Unit 2. As of when I’m writing this, 23/27 of you have already filled it out.
3. This Tuesday (3/16), another English professor will be joining us in Zoom class to do my teaching observation. Please don’t be nervous– he’s there to evaluate me, not you– but also please make an extra effort to be prepared and participate. 🙂

Preparing for Tuesday (3/16)

Readings Due:

“Shitty First Drafts” by Anne Lammot

Assignments Due (Required for Structure & Accountability Folks, Recommended for Everyone):

1. Write a first draft of your imaginary article! Have your draft ready by class time so we can discuss them together. Instructions & Rubric Here
2. Fill out the Unit 2 Peer Review Survey

Even if you don’t have a draft ready by Tuesday morning, I encourage you to come to class anyway! It’ll still be beneficial to participate in discussion, and you can look at some classmates’ papers for inspiration for your own.

What We’ll Do In Class Tuesday

• Discuss your observations/annotations about the genre features of academic natural science writing
• Talk about your writing processes (and take a DEEP BREATH)
• Discuss questions and sticky places that you encountered while writing
• Go over the plan for the coming weeks
• If we have time, go into breakout rooms to write and/or give feedback

Things To Do On Async Thursday (3/18)

“Readings”:

***These videos are from last semester, so some things I say might be outdated/related only to last semester.***

Assignments/Activities:

• Read your peer review partner’s draft
• Write feedback for your partner (instructions at this link) (feedback due 3/23)

Optional: Read More Examples of Imaginary Science Articles

• Many more Harry Potter articles
• Imaginary Star Wars articles
• Imaginary Article on Why Unicorn Poop Is Rainbow
• Student Example #1  (This is from my class last semester, shared with permission!)
• Student Example #2 (This is also from my class last semester, shared with permission)

Preparing for Tuesday (3/23)

Next Tuesday, 3/23, we will NOT have synchronous Zoom class. Please just keep working on your papers! If you would like to talk about your paper, please email me so we can set up a time to meet! I’m more than happy to do individual conferences with you.

**I will email you with peer review partner assignments once more people have filled out the peer review form.**

Peer Review Comments Are Due Tuesday, 3/23

Please share your paper with your partner according to the peer review method chosen, then give comments/feedback in a form appropriate for your peer review method. (For example, if you’re using Google Docs, use the Commenting feature. If you’re using email, you could write comments using MS Word comments or another program and email, or just write an email with feedback in paragraph or bullet point form.)

You should also share your draft with me, whether you use email, upload it to the course site, or upload it to Blackboard.

In addition to general feedback/comments, please also fill out a peer review report for your peer and share it with both me and them.

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This week, we will begin talking about some of the genre norms and expectations for writing in the natural sciences. Click here for an overview of Unit 2.

3 Quick Things First:

1. If you want to receive notifications of announcements and reminders not via email, click here to sign up for the class Remind group.This is fully optional.
2. If you haven’t done so already, please fill out this Google Form to choose a grading option for Unit 2. As of when I’m writing this, 23/27 of you have already filled it out.
3. Not this Tuesday, but the following Tuesday (3/16), another English professor will be joining us in Zoom class to do my teaching observation. Please don’t be nervous– he’s there to evaluate me, not you– but also please make an extra effort to be prepared and participate. 🙂

Preparing for Tuesday (3/9)

Readings Due:

1. Read Unit 2 Overview
2. Listen to Podcast: “Sawbones: COVID Lies, Darned Lies, and Statistics”
3. Read Phony Study on Coronavirus from April 2020  (This study is FALSE/deeply misleading, and we’ll talk about why during class)

Assignments Due: None!

What We’ll Do In Class Tuesday

• Discuss the use of statistics and data in scientific communication
• Discuss how the phony study uses the genre of science articles to mislead people
• Go over the instructions/rubric for the Unit 2 Project

Things To Do on Async Thursday (3/11)

On Thursday, I’m asking you to start looking at some examples of academic articles in the sciences. One of these is imaginary (pretending they did a study within the world of Harry Potter). The rest are real, mostly from the last month or two.

While reading for the content is interesting, please primarily focus on noticing aspects of the genre. How do scientific articles differ in structure and style from the kinds of writing we’ve looked at in previous weeks?

Readings:

• Imaginary Scientific Paper on Harry Potter
• Choose At Least One of the Following to read and Skim at Least One More (I’m including a wide range of topics so you can choose one that matches your interests and/or you can avoid reading things that will be particularly upsetting to you):
• 1. Study on teacher bias against overweight students
• 2. Study on to what extent the weather affects Covid transmission
• 3. Study of what things people who died of Covid have in common
• 4. Study of anti-vaccine rhetoric on social media
• 5. Study on family dynamics, sense of self, and anxiety among young adults in Spain
• 6. Study on what makes people good at a particular soccer video game
• 7. Study comparing the stress vs. mental health of LGBTQ people across several generations
• 8. Study on the socioeconomic distribution of alcohol-related violence in England and Wales
• 9. Study on race and gender-based disparities in deaths from intimate partner violence
• 10. Study on how non-school friendships relate to teen alcohol and drug use

Come back to these later on in the unit to skim as additional examples of scientific writing!

Assignments Due (Required for Structure & Accountability Plan folks only–but everyone is welcome/encouraged to do them!):

1. Observations/Annotations

   As you read, make a list of things you observe about the genre of scientific articles. Similar to what we did for humanities reviews! How are the articles structured? What kinds of information do they include? How does the sentence-level writing style differ from other kinds of writing?

2. Brainstorming for Your Own Article

   Take some time to brainstorm ideas for your own article. What imaginary worlds might you be interested in writing about? If you were a scientist in one of these worlds, what things might you be interested in studying? Based on your knowledge of scientific methods (which is probably limited, and that’s okay!), how would you go about conducting these studies?
   Try to come up with 3 different options for your project, then write me a note about which one you’re leaning toward and why.
   

3. Fill out the Peer Review Survey

Preparing for Next Week (Tuesday 3/16)

Readings Due:

“Shitty First Drafts” by Anne Lammot

Assignments Due:

1. Write a first draft of your imaginary article! Have your draft ready by class time so we can discuss them together.
2. Fill out the Unit 2 Peer Review Survey

Unit 2 Project: Imaginary Scientific Article

The purpose of this project is to practice writing in the genre of academic science articles.

Due Dates

Brainstorming Assignment: End of Thursday, 3/11
First draft: Before Class on Tuesday, 3/16
Peer Review Comments: End of Tuesday, 3/23
Revised draft: End of Tuesday, 4/6

To begin:

1. Choose an imaginary world. It can be a fantasy world (like Harry Potter or the MCU), or a fictional version of our own world (like Riverdale).
2. Imagine a science experiment or study that could take place in that world.
3. Imagine how the researchers would design their experiment, what they would do, and what kinds of data they would collect.
4. Decide what you want the results of the experiment/study to be (this is NOT part of the scientific process. We are ONLY doing this because it is imaginary, so we have no real data).
5. Make up some data that supports those results.
6. If you were a scientist in your imaginary situation, doing your imaginary research, what pre-existing articles might exist that you would want to refer to? For example, if you’re making up an experiment conducted in Stranger Things 2, maybe you refer to an imaginary previous paper based on the events of Season 1. For starters, come up with a title and author name for each imaginary source.

Once you have completed the imagination work, now it’s time to write!

Your article should:

1. Use APA formatting (have an APA-style title page, have a running head, have an abstract and key words, use APA subheading styles)
2. Include all of the major sections of a scientific article (Introduction, Methods, Results, Analysis/Discussion, Conclusion)
3. In each paragraph, follow conventions for academic writing (topic sentence, information, explanation/analysis of information, conclusion/transition sentence)
4. Include an imaginary works cited page (also in APA style—3 imaginary sources)
5. Use a sentence-level conventions appropriate for scientific writing (third person, passive voice, objective tone, etc.)

Rubric (graded out of 15 points)

APA Formatting (0.3 points each for a total of 3 points)

• Title page ___
• Title ____
• Name ___
• University ____
• Correct Running Head First Page ____
• Correct Running Head Subsequent Pages ____
• Page Numbers ____
• Abstract ___
• Keywords ___
• Beginning of works cited page is titled “References” ___

Structural Genre Norms (2 points each for a total of 6 points)

• Article is divided according to the major sections of a scientific paper and includes all of these sections. These sections are labeled with APA-style subheadings ___
• Each paragraph is focused around one subtopic or piece of information ____
• Each paragraph includes a topic sentence, analysis or interpretation of the information, and a conclusion or transition sentence ___

Stylistic Genre Norms (1 point each for a total of 4 points)

Article consistently exhibits:

• Use of the third person ___
• Passive voice when appropriate ___
• Formal tone/word choice ___
• High level of specificity, context, and detail ____

Works Cited/References (1 point each for 2 points total)

• Article includes 3 imaginary sources that are referenced in the body of the article and documented in APA style in a references section ___
• The imaginary sources make sense within the context of the chosen imaginary world and make sense as sources that would be referenced within a scientific paper ___

Next week (3/2 and 3/4), we’ll be doing a mini-unit on grammar and academic writing–overview for that week will be posted in the next couple days. Then, we’ll begin Unit 2. This unit will take us all the way through spring break. It’s designed to be finish-able before spring break, so you can have a proper rest, but you’re also welcome to take the extra week to work on your final project for the unit.

Scheduling Notes: There is one day during this unit (Tuesday, 3/23) when we would normally have synchronous class, since it is a Tuesday, but instead we will be asynchronous. (I’ll be taking my PhD qualifying exams that week, and you’ll be working on your drafts.) Please feel free to schedule an appointment with me if you’d like to talk about your writing, though!

Then, we have spring break March 27 – April 4.

What is “Natural Science Writing”?

Well, there’s lots of genres of natural science writing, and we’ll be looking at several (science podcasts, science journalism, and academic articles). Broadly speaking, the natural sciences are sciences that look at the physical world: biology, chemistry, physics, neurology, zoology, and medicine, to name a few. Some kinds of psychology research might be considered natural science (how do the biological functions of our brain affect our thoughts and moods?) but some might not be.

Writing For This Unit

Your final project for this unit will be to write an imaginary scientific article in an academic style. So, you will not be doing experiments or (necessarily) doing online research (although you can if you want to). Instead, you will closely study the genre of the scientific article and make up content that matches the genre features. Don’t worry– we’ll look at some examples of both real articles and imaginary ones.

Grading/Checklist for This Unit

The Natural Science Unit as a whole will be worth 20% of your final grade, regardless of which grading plan you choose.

Maximum Flexibility Option Required Assignments/Grading:

1. Midterm Reflection (due 3/25)– 5 points, completion and thoroughness
2. Revised/Final Article Draft (due 4/6)- 15 points, see rubric

Because there are only two required assignments for you, I STRONGLY ENCOURAGE you to remain engaged in class/do as many of the readings and non-graded activities as you can. The flexibility grading option is designed to do just that — give you flexibility — but the non-graded elements are designed to facilitate the learning and writing process.

You are also MORE THAN WELCOME to turn in early drafts and participate in peer review– you just won’t be graded on it.

Total: 20 points. Each point is worth 1% of your final grade.

Structure and Accountability Option Required Assignments/Grading:

1. Observations/Annotations (due 3/11) – 2pts, completion
2. Brainstorming Activity (will do in class 3/11)– 2pts, completion
3. First Draft of Science Article (due 3/16)– 2 pts, completion, on time
4. Peer Review (due 3/23)– 4pts, completion, thoroughness, on time
5. Midterm Reflection (due 3/25)– 5 points, completion and thoroughness
6. Revised/Final Article Draft (due 4/6)- 15 points, see rubric

Total: 30 points. Each point is worth 0.67% of your final grade.
**I will input all the math into Blackboard so you don’t have to worry about calculating what this means for you**