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