English 193: Communication in the Sciences
Instructor: Dr. Ashley Irwin
Email: a3irwin@uwaterloo.ca
Office Hours: Email to book a one-on-one virtual appointment
Delivery Method: Virtual and asynchronous until further notice. This means that you can study from anywhere, as long as you have stable internet connection, and that you do not need to log into Learn at any particular time to attend lessons. Your lessons will be recorded and uploaded to weekly folders on Learn. Should we return to campus: we will meet in-person every T/Thurs from 10am-11:20am in EV3 3408
Territorial Acknowledgment
I would like to acknowledge that we are on the traditional territory of the Attawandaron (Neutral), Anishnaabeg, and Haudenosaunee peoples. The University of Waterloo is situated on the Haldimand Tract, land promised and given to Six Nations, which includes six miles on each side of the Grand River.
I would also like to acknowledge that Canada has a 200 year-long history of enslaving Black and Indigenous people and that this past has reverberations in the present. I recognize that my Black and Indigenous students are discriminated against in terms of access to housing, education, employment, and justice under the law. I commit myself, as an educator, to fighting systemic racism within and beyond the walls of our educational institution.
Course Description
The sciences expand our understanding of the world. In order to have an impact, the information and insights generated by scientific research need to be effectively communicated, whether to other scientists, potential funders, or to the general public.
In this course, we will be simulating the scientific environment in the sense that you, the student, will be conducting and communicating your actual research findings through written, oral, and visual communication. You will select a real scientific mentor whose research will determine the trajectory of the course this semester. For example, if you are interested in genetics, and select Gregor Mendel as a mentor, you will spend your semester engaging with, and continuing his work while operating as if you are a member of his team. 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 hone your communication skills by producing a mentorship vision board, a collaborative research report, a letter of inquiry and cover letter, and a public science project all based upon the work conducted by your mentor. Overall, this course will help you enhance your capacity to communicate research in an ethical manner, and thereby affect important change.
Course Outcomes
By the end of the course, learners 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;
- 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 Readings
All of your readings are available FREE OF CHARGE on Learn. Your primary E-Textbook is Writing in the Sciences: Exploring Conventions of Scientific Discourse by Anne M. Penrose and Steven B. Katz.
You will also be required to read “Letters of Inquiry and Preproposals” by Angelika H. Huffman and “How Can We Use the ‘Science of stories’ to Produce Persuasive Scientific Stories” by Michael D. Jones and Deserai Anderson Crow.
All of your readings can be found by clicking “Content” followed by “Readings” under the Table of Contents tab.
Course Assignments and Requirements
10% Participation
10% Mentorship Vision Board
25% Bologna Science Research Report
25% Letter of Inquiry and Cover Letter
30% Public Science Project and Reflection
Participation 10%
Due Date: Ongoing
Participation is one key to success in this course. It is very important that you communicate with your classmates in a respectful manner, reading discussion posts carefully, and responding in a generous manner. That being said, sexist, ablest, homophobic, transphobic, and racist comments of any kind will not be tolerated. All discussions and group work will count towards your participation grade.
If this course continues online: it is expected that students will participate in weekly discussions on Learn. Participation will include not just making an original post on the discussion boards but responding to posts made by your classmates. A minimum of one engaging post and three thoughtful responses are required each week in order to receive full participation marks.
Mentorship Vision Board 10%
Due Date: January 27 by 11:59pm
For this assignment, you will produce a vision board consisting of text and images that convey the type of scientist you want to be. Select one real scientist, living or dead, whose work inspires you. This person will serve as your mentor this semester, and the work that they do/did will determine the type of projects you will undertake in the course. You will use your creativity to assemble a digital document containing images and text that represent your mentor and their research. You will also submit a one-page reflection that provides a short biography of your mentor, a brief summary of their research, and an explanation of why you find their work inspiring.
Bologna Science Research Report and Team Assessment 25%
Due Date: Thursday, March 3 by 11:59pm
For this assignment, you are assuming the identity of your mentor’s team member. You will work together, in a small group, to produce a research report using real data, stats, theories, etc. to support a completely fabricated and utterly ridiculous hypothesis suitable for a team of scientists from various backgrounds. You will follow the IMRAD structure to support your hypothesis and you will use your imagination to populate the Introduction, Methods and Materials, Results, Discussion, and Conclusion sections with false and fabricated information. Each individual group member must also submit an assessment of their team members’ contribution to the research report project. You will tell me exactly what each team member contributed to the project, and you will assign them a letter grade based on their contribution to the group as a whole.
Letter of Inquiry and Cover Letter 25%
Pitch Due Date: Thursday, March 10 by 11:59
Due Date: Thursday, March 24 by 11:59
For this assignment, using the identity of your mentor’s team member, you will produce a letter of inquiry and a cover letter. You will imagine that you are applying for funding to produce a public science project related to the field that you dedicated yourself to in your vision board assignment. You will submit a short low stakes project pitch to your professor prior to submitting your LOI and Cover Letter. It is important to ensure that your project is practical as you will actually have to complete the project for your final assignment. Your goal for the LOI and Cover Letter Assignment will be to persuade funders that your proposed project will be a valuable contribution to the scientific field. The purpose of this assignment is to gain experience writing for a knowledgeable audience, clearly articulating your research, and demonstrating the significance of your work.
Public Science Project and Reflection 30%
Due Date: Tuesday, April 5 by 11:59pm
For this assignment, you produce the project that you pitched in your Letter of Inquiry and Cover Letter Assignment. You will present a scientific theory or concept in a genre of communication that will appeal to the general public. Your communication can take the form of a podcast, a YouTube video, a work of visual art, a short story, a Twitter or Reddit Campaign or another genre of science communication approved by your instructor. In addition to your public science project, you will produce a one-page reflection that explains why you chose the specific genre of communication, the process you undertook in order to produce your communication, and what tactics you employed to appeal to the general public.
Grading
|
Letter Grade |
Numeric Grade Range |
|---|---|
|
A+ |
90-100 |
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A |
85-89 |
|
A- |
80-84 |
|
B+ |
77-79 |
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B |
75-76 |
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B- |
70-74 |
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C+ |
67-69 |
|
C |
65-67 |
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C- |
60-64 |
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D+ |
57-59 |
|
D |
55-56 |
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D- |
50-54 |
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F |
0-50 |
Resources for Students
Accommodations
We will all need some accommodations in this class because we all learn differently. If you need specific accommodations, let me know. Your success in this course is important to me, and I will work with you to ensure that you have the means of accessing class information, ways to take part in class activities, and avenues for fair assessment of your coursework. The University of Waterloo has a long-standing commitment to support the participation and access to university programs, services, and facilities by persons with all types of disabilities. AccessAbility Services 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 AccessAbility Services at the beginning of each academic term.
Mental Health
Your mental health is extremely important, and we all experience varying degrees of mental health concerns at some point in our lives. University is a very stressful environment, and if you are feeling unwell, please know that you are not alone. I am not, by any means, an expert, but if you approach me with a mental health concern, you can be sure that I will take your issue very seriously and will point you in the direction of help. The following is a list of resources available for students experiencing mental health difficulties:
On Campus
Due to COVID-19 and campus closures, services are available only online or by phone.
- Counselling Services: counselling.services@uwaterloo.ca / 519-888-4567 ext. 32655
- MATES: one-to-one peer support program offered by the Waterloo Undergraduate Student Association (WUSA) and Counselling Services
Off campus, 24/7
- Good2Talk: Free confidential help line for post-secondary students. Phone: 1-866-925-5454
- Grand River Hospital: Emergency care for mental health crisis. Phone: 519-749-4300 ext. 6880
- Here 24/7: Mental Health and Crisis Service Team. Phone: 1-844-437-3247
- OK2BME: set of support services for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or questioning teens in Waterloo. Phone: 519-884-0000 extension 213
Full details can be found online on the Faculty of Arts website
Download UWaterloo and regional mental health resources (PDF)
Download the WatSafe app to your phone to quickly access mental health support information.
Chosen/Preferred First Name
Do you want professors and interviewers to call you by a different first name? Take a minute now to verify or tell us your chosen/preferred first name by logging into WatIAM.
Why? Starting in winter 2020, your chosen/preferred first name listed in WatIAM will be used broadly across campus (e.g., LEARN, Quest, WaterlooWorks, WatCard, etc). Note: Your legal first name will always be used on certain official documents. For more details, visit Updating Personal Information.
Important notes for name changes:
- If you included a preferred name on your OUAC application, it will be used as your chosen/preferred name unless you make a change now.
- If you don’t provide a chosen/preferred name, your legal first name will continue to be used.
Writing and Communication Centre
The Writing and Communication Centre (WCC) works with students as they develop their ideas, draft, and revise. Writing and Communication specialists offer one-on-one support in planning assignments, synthesizing and citing research, organizing papers and reports, designing presentations and e-portfolios, and revising for clarity and coherence. Please note that communication specialists guide you to see your work as readers would. They can teach you revising skills and strategies but will not change or correct your work for you. To book an appointment, please visit www.uwaterloo.ca/wcc.
Student Success Office
The Student Success Office provides academic and personal development services, resources for international students, as well as study abroad and exchange support. They aim to create a vibrant student experience and help students achieve personal and professional goals. For more information, please visit https://uwaterloo.ca/student-success/student-success-office-sign, or reach them by phone at 519-888-4567 ext. 84410.
Course Policies
Contacting Me
Please do not hesitate to contact me to discuss your writing, to seek assistance or clarification, or to raise questions/concerns pertaining to coursework. I am readily available via email at a3irwin@uwaterloo.ca. Although I will be checking the discussion boards and my email often, I do require 24 hours to respond. If you would like to arrange a virtual meeting, please send me an email and we’ll arrange a time and date.
General Assignment Guidelines
Your written work must follow APA guidelines. For an excellent APA style guide visit The Owl at Purdue website. Please utilize 12-point Times New Roman font, and double space your work. Assignments must be submitted online via Learn and inserted into their corresponding dropboxes in PDF or DOC. Please note: I cannot open any other file type on my computer. All of your assignments are due on Thursdays before midnight. All assignments that I receive after this time will be subjected to late marks unless an extension has been granted. Please see below for more information.
Late Work
Late work will be accepted without penalty if prior permission has been granted. If you fear that you will not be able to submit your assignments on time, please ask me for an extension-I am very flexible with deadlines as long as you contact me before the assignment due date. Otherwise, late work will be penalized 5% per day, including weekends.
University Policies
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. Check the Office of Academic Integrity website 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 instructor, academic advisor, or the undergraduate associate dean. For information on categories of offences 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 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. 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/they has/have a ground for an appeal should refer to Policy 72, Student Appeals.
Academic freedom at the University of Waterlo
Policy 33, Ethical Behaviour states, as one of its general principles (Section 1), “The University supports academic freedom for all members of the University community. Academic freedom carries with it the duty to use that freedom in a manner consistent with the scholarly obligation to base teaching and research on an honest and ethical quest for knowledge. In the context of this policy, 'academic freedom' refers to academic activities, including teaching and scholarship, as is articulated in the principles set out in the Memorandum of Agreement between the FAUW and the University of Waterloo, 1998 (Article 6). The academic environment which fosters free debate may from time to time include the presentation or discussion of unpopular opinions or controversial material. Such material shall be dealt with as openly, respectfully and sensitively as possible. This definition is repeated in Policies 70 and 71, and in the Memorandum of Agreement, Section 6.
Course Schedule
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Date |
Topic |
To Do List |
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MODULE 1: Critical Thinking & Career Planning |
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Week 1 (Jan. 6-7) |
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Week 2 (Jan. 10-14) |
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Week 3 (Jan. 17-21) |
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Week 4 (Jan. 24-28) |
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MODULE 2: Writing For Scientists |
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Week 5 (Jan. 31-Feb 4) |
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Week 6 (Feb. 7-11) |
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Week 7 (Feb. 14-18) |
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Week 8 (Feb 21-25) |
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MODULE 3: Writing For The Public |
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Week 9 (Feb. 28-March 4) |
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Week 10 (March 7-11) |
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Week 11 (March 14-18) |
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Week 12 (March 21-25) |
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Week 13 (March 28-April 1) |
Science and Podcasting: Saw Bones |
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Week 14 April 4-5) |
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