193 W22 Woodford

ENGL 193, Section 10,  Communication in the Life Sciences,  Winter 2022

University of Waterloo
Department of English Language and Literature
Monday and Wednesday, 1pm -2:20pm, online for first three weeks, EV3 3406

Instructor Information

Instructor: Dr. Benjamin Woodford

Office: PAS 1285, on Zoom for first three weeks

Office Hours: Monday, 10:30 – 11:30am, by appointment for first three weeks

Email: bwoodfor@uwaterloo.ca

Course Description

This course emphasizes effective written, oral, and visual communication in the life sciences. Students will have the opportunity to shape these communication skills through iterative design processes that emphasize attention to audience, the purpose of your communications, and student agency. Students will work individually and collaboratively to craft messages for internal and external audiences, including scientists, government stakeholders, affected communities, or broader publics. Students 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 students enhance their 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; and
• describe and appraise the purposes and ethical concerns of science communication

Structure of the Course

Like all course at Waterloo this term, this course will begin online for the first few weeks.  Hopefully, we can return to in-person instruction on January 27.  While we are online, the course will be a mix of synchronous and asynchronous learning.  All of our Monday classes with be synchronous on Zoom.  The link to the Zoom meetings is posted on our Learn page in the announcement section.  All of our Wednesday class will be asynchronous (except for January 19).  For the asynchronous classes, I will post material (PowerPoints and lectures) and activities for you to do based on the readings and topic for the class.  If online learning needs to continue past January 27, we will keep this format (synchronous on Monday and asynchronous on Wednesday) for as long as we are online. 

Required Text

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

Course Requirements and Assessment

Here is the interesting thing about this course: the assignments will draw upon a range of genres that are employed in scientific writing. You’re going to present your work to a bunch of different audiences. It might be to other scientists, it might be to non-scientists who are just interested in learning about your research, or it might be to people who will give you money to complete your research.

All written assignments should be double-spaced in 12pt. Times New Roman font (except the poster) and submitted to the appropriate dropbox on Learn.  Assignments should be in Word or pdf format.

Participation

While we are still learning online, there are two online discussion activities for our asynchronous classes on Jan. 12 and Jan. 26.  These activity is connected to the reading assigned for that class.  I will mark the activities for completion and they are due Jan. 12 at 11:59pm and Jan. 26 at 11:59pm.  Each one is worth 1% of your mark (2% in total).  You can find these activities on Learn, under the Discussions section.

The remaining part of your participation mark (14% of your final mark) will come from your participation in class discussions.  I will monitor your involvement in class discussions and your in-class group work.  I will be keeping track of how many times you contribute to discussions during class.  Participation is both oral and aural. You must participate regularly in class and group discussions, you must listen and respond to your classmates’ contributions to those discussions, and you must contribute meaningfully to any discussions in which you are engaged.  You are expected to read all assigned articles BEFORE class and come prepared to discuss them in class.  To get the discussion going, I may call on individual students to answer questions.  In order to get the full 15% for participation, you need to make a meaningful contribution to the discussion in each class.

Modification if online learning continues past Jan. 27
If online learning extends further into the term, there will be more asynchronous classes.  For asynchronous classes, I will post a discussion question/activity.  Each asynchronous activity will be worth 1% of your final mark and will be included in your participation mark.  For these asynchronous activities, the asynchronous “class” will happen on on Wednesday and the activity will be due on Thursday.

Peer Review Activity

For both the Science Literature Review and the Grant Proposal, will did a peer review activity.  The Science Literature Review peer review with take place online.  You will be assigned groups and each group member will post their draft on a discussion board.  Group members will give each other feedback through the discussion board.  To receive the marks for this activity (2%) you need to post your draft on the discussion board and post feedback to the drafts of two of your colleagues.  You will receive guidelines on how to provide this feedback. 

For the Grant Proposal, you will be required to bring a draft of the assignment (as a paper copy) with you to class before it is due and exchange your assignment with several classmates.  You will provide feedback on your classmates’ work and they will provide feedback on yours.  In order to receive the marks for this assignment, you must come to class with a completed draft (that is, the appropriate length) and actively participate in peer-reviewing your colleagues’ work.  Each peer review activity is worth 2% of your final mark.

Modification if online learning is still happening past Jan. 27
If we are still online for the scheduled dates of the Grant Proposal peer review, this activity will happen online and follow the same method of the Science Literature Review peer review.
 

Reading Analysis Logs

Over the course of the term, you will produce several reading log. You will turn in the reading log twice during the semester: once at midterm to receive feedback and once at the end of the term.  Your first submission (Feb. 18) will include three logs of approximately one page (double-spaced) each (three pages in total) and be worth 5% of your final mark.  Each log should analyze one of the assigned readings.  You can discuss any of the readings that have been assigned before the due date.  Your second submission (April 12) will be one log of two pages (double-spaced) and will be worth 5% of your final mark.  This second submission will address one reading that was assigned on February 18 or after.

In each log entry, you need to comment on various aspects of the text.  These may include the form, function, aim, audience, diction, type of reasoning, and implication of each article.  You do not have to address each of these issues in every log entry.  You are also free to address other aspects of the article that you think are interesting.  Remember to provide evidence from the article for each point that you make (for example, provide evidence to show how you know who the audience is).  An example of the types of things that you can discuss will be posted on Learn under the Assignment Guidelines section.
 

Science Literature Review, 3-4 pages

Note:  The following three assignments (Science Literature Review, Grant Proposal, and Public Communication) build on each other.  You are going to identify an area that interests you, discuss previous work on the topic, apply for funding for additional research on the topic, and share your thoughts on this topic publicly.

Time to dive into your interests! Find and read a science research article on a topic of your choosing. It must follow the IMRaD format. At the top of your review, provide a short summary of your article. 

Science literature reviews are written BEFORE the research takes place. They assess: 1) what research is needed in the field – the gaps in research, 2) what methods and strategies are currently used with this topic and 3) what particular articles or ideas this work is in conversation with. 

In your article, the authors will have situated their work within that current research conversation.  Identify from their citation list two key texts that they either build on or challenge. Find those articles through the UWaterloo library system and download and read the articles.

Once you have identified two articles that you think are interesting and you can summarize in plain language, read through them and write short summaries about the research. Then, and this is the important part, write a few paragraphs about what those two papers mean to the research article you have chosen to work with. Why did your authors cite those articles? What does it tell us about the problem or issues the authors of your research article are trying to solve?
Make sure you write this report in plain language. Your review needs to be written in a formal tone, but without any industry jargon or specific terminology. Rather, you’re trying to provide a general understanding of what material currently exists in this research area. Remember also that your readers won’t have read or reviewed these articles, so you need to make sure that your references to them can be understood without accessing the original text. 

Finally, you need to provide a tentative assessment of those two articles in terms of their data quality, the arguments they make, etc. While I realize you’re just starting out and may not be fully capable of this kind of assessment, the goal here is to begin thinking about these problems. It’s okay to be wrong because we’re just beginning to learn how to do this work. We’ll talk about ways to evaluate research generally.
 

Grant Proposal, 3-4 pages

Increasingly research doesn’t happen without securing external funds.  This assignment requires you to craft a grant proposal requesting funds to pursue your research connected to the science literature review you have just written.  Your science literature review accessed the previous work on a topic; now you will request funding to do additional research on this topic.

For this assignment you will create a grant proposal. To do this, first choose an appropriate organization/platform for the kind of work you’re doing. You might use a crowd-funding platform like Experiment.com, or you might want to apply to a formal organization that funds scientific research. Just be sure you have a good rationale for why you’ve chosen a particular platform to try to fund your research. Once you’ve chosen a platform/organization you should look at all the different components involved, including the proposal, images in the proposal, rewards, etc. What will you need to craft to complete your project? You will also include a paragraph justifying your choice of organization/platform, identifying your audience, and explaining the different requirements for your proposal. Include this paragraph on a separate page in your submission.

Public Communication

Congratulations! You’ve completed the initial research and now you’re ready to report the results. You’ve been invited to give a talk at your local library about your work. Your audience could be anyone: other scientists, people interested in your topic, students, families looking for an educational opportunity, etc. Demographics include a range of learners and you’re going to have to figure out how to communicate your complex subject to a wide audience. 
You will first need to decide what aspect of your paper you think will appeal to your audience. What is particularly interesting about your work and what do you most want to share with others? You will want to figure out how much you can cover in just 5 minutes! It isn’t a long time to talk so you’re going to need to be selective. Prepare a slideshow or some other kind of multimedia to use during your talk.  You’ll also want to think about performative aspects of how you’ll tell your story. Are you able to modulate your voice, do you have vivid metaphors to describe abstract concepts, and does your story follow an arc with a powerful conclusion? All these aspects should be included in everyone’s talks, but it is a challenge to do well without any supporting materials.

Your presentation should be 5 minutes long, polished and practiced, and aimed at a wide audience with different kinds of expertise.

For this assignment, you will have to sign up to present.  Please let me know on which date you would like to present as soon as you can, as I can only allow so many presentations on each day.

Modification if online learning continues past Jan. 27
If we are still having the class online on the dates of the presentation, you will make your presentation online.  We will meet on Zoom, and students will take turns making their presentations.  You can share your screen in order to display any visual information that you have for your presentation.  I will record these Zoom sessions in case I need to review any of the presentations for evaluation.

Poster and Poster Presentation

Did you know there are often prizes for the best poster presentation by students at academic conferences? Fame, fortune, a CV line, posters are prized among many scientific disciplines to communicate your research at annual conferences in your field. The prizes signal something important: we care about how well you’re able to present your findings. Work in the lab doesn’t mean a whole lot until you can share it with others, and it is that sharing of findings that propels science forward. Posters, however, are a real challenge because they bring together almost every model of communication you need to master: written communication, visual communication (particularly data), oral communication in your short explanation of your research, and even interpersonal communication as you answer questions and possibly develop collaborations. All term you’ve been working on different aspects of these forms of communication. It’s time to bring it all together.

You will be placed in small groups of around 5 students. In your group, choose one scientific article (a different article than you choose for the science literature review) that can be represented both orally and visually and, together, create a poster based on that research article. You will also need to communicate outside of class to complete this project. The poster does not need to be a physical object.  You can create it on your computer and then project it onto the screen for the class.  In addition to the poster itself you will present your poster and its content to the class on April 4. Each group member should speak for at least 2 minutes about an element of the project. As a group, you will also write a one-page design rationale that includes a justification for your focus, your design decisions, and that explains the importance and visual significance of any graphics you include.

Your poster will be presented in class on April 4 and your one-page design rationale must be submitted to the dropbox on Learn by April 4, 11:59pm.  Your poster should also be submitted to the dropbox by April 4, 11:50pm.

Modification if online learing extends past Jan. 27
If we are still having the class online on April 4, then the group presentations for the posters will occur online.  We will meet on Zoom, and each group will present their poster with each group member speaking.  One group member can share their screen so we can all see the poster.  I will record these Zoom sessions in case I need to review any of the presentations for evaluation.

Course Outline

All readings are from Science and Society: An Anthology for Readers and Writers

Late Work

Late assignments will incur a 5% late penalty per day, including weekends. Permission to turn in a late assignment without penalty will be given rarely, will require documentation (a doctor’s note or other type of documentation) 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.  Assignments submitted late may receive no feedback, only a mark.  Assignments submitted more than one week late will not be accepted.

Electronic Device Policy

Cell phones must be switched off and put away during class.  Students can choose to do the in-class writing activities with either pen and paper or on a laptop.  If you choose to use a laptop, please refrain from using any program other than a writing program.

Attendance Policy

Attendence is this course is necessary for success.  Much of the learning for this course will take place in the classroom through activites.  Although there is not a specific mark for attendance, participation in classroom activities will be graded, and you must be present to participate in these activities.

Institutional-required statements for undergraduate course outlines approved by Senate Undergraduate Council, June 15, 2009 (updated June 2021)

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. See the Office of Academic Integrity webpage for more information.

Discipline

A student is expected to know what constitutes academic integrity to avoid committing an academic offence and to take responsibility for his/her actions. Check the Office of Academic Integrity for more information. 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. For typical penalties check Guidelines for the Assessment of Penalties.

Grievance

A student who believes that a decision affecting some aspect of their university life has been unfair or unreasonable may have grounds for initiating a grievance. Read Policy 70 - Student Petitions and Grievances, Section 4. When in doubt, please be certain to contact the department’s administrative assistant who will provide further assistance.

Appeals

A decision made or penalty imposed under Policy 70 - Student Petitions and Grievances (other than a petition) or Policy 71 - Student Discipline may be appealed if there is a ground. A student who believes he/she has a ground for an appeal should refer to Policy 72 - Student Appeals.

Note for Students with Disabilities

AccessAbility Services, located in Needles Hall, Room 1401, 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 AcessAbility Services at the beginning of each academic term.