193 W20 Clary-Lemon

University of Waterloo Department of English Language and Literature ENGL 193-001
Communication in the Sciences
Winter 2020
T, Th 10:00-11:20, STC 3014

Instructor: Jennifer Clary-Lemon
Office: HH 368
Office Phone: 519-888-4567 x 33594
Office Hours: T, Th 1:00-3:00p, and by appointment Email: jclarylemon@uwaterloo.ca

Note: I respond to emails from M-F and try to take a break on the weekends. You should too; we all have mental health to care for. If you email me on the weekend, please be prepared to wait until Monday for a response.

In this class, held at the University of Waterloo, we acknowledge that we are living and working on the traditional territory of the Attawandaron (also known as Neutral), Anishinaabe and Haudenosaunee peoples. The University of Waterloo is situated on the Haldimand Tract, the land promised to the Six Nations that includes ten kilometres on each side of the Grand River.

Course Description

In this course you will learn about effective written, oral, and visual communication in the life sciences. You will have the opportunity to shape these communication skills through iterative design processes that emphasize attention to your audience, the purpose of your communications, and student agency. You will work individually and collaboratively to craft messages for internal and external audiences, including scientists, government stakeholders, affected communities, or broader publics. You will learn a variety of genres such as research reports, grant proposals, conference abstracts, conference posters, public talks, blog posts, and podcasts. Overall, this course will help you enhance your capacity to conduct research and report research findings, communicate ethically, and thereby effect important change.

Course Goals and Learning Outcomes

Upon completion of this course, students should be able to:

• design, draft, and persuasively deliver scientific communications to expert and non-expert audiences;

• justify decisions about the language, content, and genre used when communicating scientific information;

• practice collaboration and peer review in support of iterative communication design processes, including revision;

• practice research processes to find, assess, document, incorporate, and cite research resources and communicate research findings;

• describe and appraise the purposes and ethical concerns of science communication.

Required Text

Nelson-McDermott, Catherine, Laura Buzzard, and Don LePan. Science and Society: An Anthology for Readers and Writers. Broadview, 2014.

Online readings. See course LEARN site.

Course Requirements and Assessment

Note: all homework and draft work should be typed and printed before class on the day it is due. Please include a bibliographic citation for all references used in assignments.

Summary (5%)

You will write a 250-word summary of an article that we read in class in order to familiarize yourself with the conventions of this important academic skill.

Adapting Science to Different Audiences Assignment (Team) (15%)

For this assignment, you will work in a group of 4. Together, you will decide upon three questions that your group would like to ask a visiting scientist in class. You will also read a published report or article authored by that scientist. Based on these two sources of information, you will write a 3-4 page paper that compares these two experiences to come to conclusions about scientific knowledge, discourse, ethos, and decisionmaking. You will include an appendix to the assignment that details the roles that each group member had in completing the project.

Report Analysis Assignment (20%)

For this assignment, you will locate a lab report, a policy report, and a field report. In a maximum of 4 pages, write a rhetorical analysis that examines the audience, purpose, accepted reasoning, and stylistics of each report. Conclude by discussing their similarities and differences.

Public Understanding of Science Assignment (25%)

This assignment is based on exploring Public Understandings of Science (PUS), which often present science communication as a one-way model from scientist to citizen, and Critical Understandings of Science in Public (CUSP), which notes science’s uncertainties, practices, biases, and ethics. Based on the layout of our textbook, which chooses both original scientific reports and popular press articles, locate an original version of a scientific report and at least two popular press articles (1 blog post or podcast is also acceptable) that take up its findings of a contemporary scientific phenomenon. You will place the three pieces in context, taking a critical view by analyzing their use of accurate raw science content, the framing of that content, and who benefits and suffers from the science as presented.

Public Understanding of Science Presentation (Team) (10%)

You will develop a visual and presentation for a 3-minute-thesis (3MT) style presentation, presenting three minutes on your main findings of your Public Understandings of Science Assignment. (Note: this may take the form of a public poster presentation subject to instructor scheduling).

Homework and In-Class activities (15%)

We will often complete individual and collaborative activities in class that engage with our course readings (note: you must be in class to receive credit for in-class assignments, and homework should be typed and printed out in advance of when it is due). Often you will be given homework from the reading questions in the textbook that hone the skills of close reading, summarizing, and paraphrasing.

Peer Review (10%)

Because the main component of this course is writing, a large part of it is devoted to respecting and keeping track of writing processes: drafts, notes, ideas, feedback. When we workshop writing in class, you act as a willing and prepared reviewer of other writers’ work. This means that on peer review days, you show up with a finished draft in class, and act as a thoughtful reader and commenter of your peers’ work.

In-class, Homework, and Peer Review Grading

Writing-to-learn activities that we complete in class are process oriented, which means you learn from the activity rather than from me assigning a letter grade based on a finished product. As such, when you receive in-class work back from me with a(checkmark), it means that you have received full credit (100%) for completing the writing-to-learn activity. For homework that are more involved learning-to- write activities, when there is more attention paid to format and polishing the product, you will receive a percentage grade out of 10 points. Peer Reviews will similarly be out of 10 points, with full credit being given for not only participating in peer review, but using the feedback gathered during peer review to revise your draft towards a polished final product. For final papers, you will receive a numeric grade out of 100.

Course Outline, ENGL 193-001 (Life Sciences)

Late Work

Late assignments will not be accepted without an extension. Permission to turn in a late assignment without penalty will be given rarely and only based on a conference with me, and never on the day the assignment is due. If you are having trouble completing an assignment, please come speak with me.

Electronic Device Policy

Please turn off sound on your device during class time. If you need to check text or phone messages or make a phone call, please step out of the room to do so.

Laptops are useful to take notes and read online course materials; however, surfing the web and doing your homework for other classes is distracting in a variety of ways. Please keep your electronic attentions toward the business of the course only.

Attendance Policy

It is essential that you attend each class. By “attend” it is meant that a person arrives on time, having read the material and ready to engage with it, and stays for the entire class period.

Basic Needs

Any student who has difficulty affording groceries or accessing sufficient food to eat every day, or who lacks a safe and stable place to live, and believes this may affect their performance in the course, is urged to contact the Dean of students in their faculty for support. Furthermore, please notify the professor if you are comfortable in doing so.

Children in Class

Although the University of Waterloo does not have a formal policy about children in the classroom, in my classroom, I recognize the complex and rich lives students with families have. Thus I have the following policies about children and babies in class:

• All exclusively breastfeeding babies are welcome in class as often as is necessary to support the breastfeeding relationship.

• I understand that all children get sick, and that childcare arrangements fall through. Occasionally bringing a child to class is acceptable, though obviously not a long-term childcare solution.

• In all cases where babies and children come to class, I ask that you sit near the door so that if your child needs special attention and is disrupting other students, you can step outside until their need has been met.

Institutional-required statements for undergraduate course outlines approved by Senate Undergraduate Council, April 14, 2009

Cross-listed course

Please note that a cross-listed course will count in all respective averages no matter under which rubric it has been taken. For example, a PHIL/PSCI cross-list will count in a Philosophy major average, even if the course was taken under the Political Science rubric.

Academic Integrity

Academic Integrity: In order to maintain a culture of academic integrity, members of the University of Waterloo are expected to promote honesty, trust, fairness, respect and responsibility.

Discipline: A student is expected to know what constitutes academic integrity, to avoid committing academic offences, and to take responsibility for his/her actions. A student who is unsure whether an action constitutes an offence, or who needs help in learning how to avoid offences (e.g., plagiarism, cheating) or about “rules” for group work/collaboration should seek guidance from the course professor, academic advisor, or the Undergraduate Associate Dean. When misconduct has been found to have occurred, disciplinary penalties will be imposed under Policy 71 – Student Discipline. For information on categories of offenses and types of penalties, students should refer to Policy 71 - Student Discipline.

Grievance: A student who believes that a decision affecting some aspect of his/her university life has been unfair or unreasonable may have grounds for initiating a grievance. Read Policy 70 - Student Petitions and Grievances, Section 4.
Appeals: A student may appeal the finding and/or penalty in a decision made under Policy 70 - Student Petitions and Grievances (other than regarding a petition) or Policy 71 - Student Discipline if a ground for an appeal can be established. Read Policy 72 - Student Appeals.

Other sources of information for students

Academic integrity (Arts) Academic Integrity Office (uWaterloo)

Accommodation for Students with Disabilities

Note for students with disabilities: The AccessAbility Services office, located in Needles Hall Room 1132, collaborates with all academic departments to arrange appropriate accommodations for students with disabilities without compromising the academic integrity of the curriculum. If you require academic accommodations to lessen the impact of your disability, please register with the AS office at the beginning of each academic term.