ENGL 193 F22 Gerber

ENGL 193 Communication in the Life Sciences Fall 2022 

Instructor: Kyle Gerber

Class Hours and Location:

• Tuesdays & Thursdays 11:30 a.m. – 12:50 p.m., EV3 3406

Communication

• Email: k2gerber@uwaterloo.ca
• Office Hours: Tuesdays & Thursdays 1 – 2 p.m. or by appointment
• Office Location: PAS 1060

1. 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 emphasizing attention to your audience, 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 Objectives and Learning Outcomes

The ethical is … linked with the communicative, particularly when we consider communication in its broadest sense, not merely as the purveying of information, but also as the sharing of sympathies and purposes, the doing of acts in common,

as with the leveling process of communicating vessels

– Kenneth Burke

Objective

Communication is essential for science and scientists, as it is for all of us engaged in the business of living. And communication, because it is a shared act, is necessarily connected to the ethics of being human. Yes, the goal of this course is to explore a variety of ways scientists communicate and to equip you as effective agents in this crucial work; but because communication necessarily involves the “sharing of sympathies and purposes, the doing of acts in common,” the objective includes attention to ethics, considering the overlap between science communication and the occupation of being human.

Outcomes

By the end of this course, learners should be able to:

• Design, draft, and persuasively deliver scientific communication 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 Textbook Reading

• Hoffman, Angelika H. Scientific Writing and Communication: Papers, Proposals, and Presentations. 3^rd/4^th edition. New York and Oxford: Oxford UP, 2017.

Additional Material on LEARN

• This course has a LEARN site. Detailed assignments, supplemental materials, and general course communications are primarily hosted on LEARN

2. Course Assignments and Requirements

Assignment and Evaluation Overview

Submitting Written Assignments

In this course, assignments can be submitted one of two ways:

• Paper format: handed in directly to me
• Electronic format: Microsoft Word .docx format or PDF, online through the appropriate LEARN Dropbox

Unless otherwise noted, assignments are due at the start of class on the due date. Assignments will be returned either in-class or via LEARN.

All use of sources must be documented correctly. Unless otherwise instructed, you may use either APA or ACS style.

Assignment Project Phases

Assignments in this course build on your project idea, and form four stages of how you would undertake a project in a professional capacity:

Assignment 4: Research Review Presentation (max. 10 minutes)

Proposals are a natural and necessary part of the research process. This usually involves some kind of presentation to stakeholders to explain the background of a topic, the unresolved problems with our understanding of the topic, a survey of other attempts to address and resolve one or more of those problems, and a proposed plan to investigate a problem in a realistic and promising way. In this presentation, you will convert your literature review into a concise presentation that demonstrates the motivation for a research project and then explains the current state of knowledge about this issue. You will explain the limitations of current knowledge and suggest some possible future activities that you or other researchers could do to advance scientific knowledge about your chosen issue. As colleagues, we will all make contributions to this process by asking sharing questions and observations to move the project forward.

Assignment 5: Scientific Research Literature Review

“Literature” here refers entirely to reporting past scientific research, not the study of “Literature.” In this assignment you will produce a clearly structured “literature review” consistent with course teaching. In this review you will provide a thorough and logical review of past scientific research, showing and evaluating the current state of knowledge about a research topic of your choice.

Assignment 6: Contributions to Learning (participation, reflections and responses, etc.)

Science is a collaborative and reflective effort, and scientists work in community to develop robust and sound methods, questions, and conclusions. You are expected to do the same. You are expected to participate in this training and learning through active and engaged presence and contribution. Your attendance matters, as does your preparation for involvement in the classroom environment. Contributions points will be evaluated and calculated in, but not limited to, the following ways:

• Class Participation: you participate regularly and consistently in the learning environment by volunteering responses, insights, and queries. You should assume each class offers a point for attendance, although participation can’t be reduced to this. We are all being more cautious with spreading respiratory viruses these days, and so we will work together to find ways to participate even when absences are necessary due to illness.
• Demonstrating Completed Reading: you are expected to thoughtfully complete the readings as scheduled, and may be asked to demonstrate this on short reading quizzes which I may assign at my discretion if it’s clear readings are not being completed.

• Professionalism: you demonstrate respect for your colleagues by allowing opportunity for others to share thoughts and ideas, and demonstrate kindness and courtesy towards others’ opinions or difficulties.
• Collaboration: you collaborate with colleagues through peer-review and group work, giving and receiving helpful ideas building on course content.
• Ethical Citizenship: you demonstrate a concern for others’ success. You include quiet or anxious group members. You don’t complete work for others, but empower their own success. You lead helpfully, not seizing control of a project or demonstrating condescension to other team members.

This sounds more complicated for you than it really is. Most of it boils down to being a strong colleague in this particular time and place. In general, these points will be generated through short and informal response papers, worksheets, rubrics, or artifacts generated in class. If at any point in the term you are concerned about your Contributions, please talk to me. I will do my best to express any concern I have to you, but it is ultimately your responsibility.

COVID Contingency

If the course cannot continue in person due to lockdown or other policies it will shift onto the LEARN platform. Assume synchronous meetings at the scheduled time. Some adjustments to the outline and assignments may be required.

3. Course Schedule

The following schedule is tentative and may change as needed. Additional readings may be posted to LEARN, and you are responsible for these.

Important Dates – Fall 2022

4. Course Policies

Equipment for Class

• Your preferred note-taking methods: paper/pens/pencils/laptops etc.
• Sustenance: our class meets right over the lunch hour. Please don’t eat full meals in class, but do feel free to have an unintrusive beverage/snack to stay energized

Professionalism

• Attendance: These lessons are designed to support your program and career. Treat attendance in this course like you would a job.
• Punctuality: Demonstrate care for your colleagues by being punctual, and if you do happen to late, please come … just slip in as quietly as possible. We want you here.
• Emergencies: things happen. Communicate them to me as soon as possible.
• Electronic devices: if you’re on a device, it should be for course work. I will do you the courtesy of having a private conversation with you if there is concern about this. Research shows you are not the only one affected by your device. No headphones in class unless I’ve explicitly directed otherwise.
• Email: all email must come from your official uwaterloo.ca address. Please put ENGL 193 in the subject line, and use this time to practice excellent professional communication (salutation, specific message, signature).

You should expect me to respond to emails within 24 hours Mon-Fri, and within 48 hours Sat-Sun.

Extensions and Late/Overdue Work

• Late Work: late work results in a 5% penalty per day (individual only)
• No Questions - Extension: unexpected things happen over the course of a term. To account for this, you may submit one assignment up to 72 hours late, no questions asked, and no penalty applied. All you need to do is inform me (in person when you hand it in, or in the LEARN Dropbox comment field) you are using your “72 Hour Extension.” (individual only)

Note: Extension-Exception – this does NOT apply to group work.

• Extenuating Circumstances: if you’ve already used your 72-hour extension and must request another, you must request it 48 hours or more before a due date, provide a reasonable justification for the extension and wait for my verification. (individual only)
• Late/Absent for Presentations: 5% per day while presentations are being delivered. Once all other presentations are complete you will not be able to submit the presentation for grading.
• Medical Documentation: the university has processes in place to document and account for absence due to illness or isolation (both for influenza-type illness and also for prolonged medical-related absences). You are responsible for completing the appropriate process. Both self-declaration processes and verification of illness processes are outlined on the Campus Wellness page: https://uwaterloo.ca/campus- wellness/

If absences are supported by the appropriate documentation, Contributions points will be adjusted accordingly.

• Grade Adjustments: I am open to questions or clarification about assigned grades, but only after you’ve had a chance to reflect on the returned assignment (48 hours). You may then re-submit an assignment for re-evaluation if you provide a detailed letter explaining why the concepts and criteria of the course and assignment justify a different grade.
• Rough Work: Keep all your rough work. Trust me. All of it. Date it, number it, file it in a shoebox… I don’t care. Just keep it until the final grades are uploaded to Quest. (Why? Because rough work is crucial to the drafting process, and because it can be the basis for accommodations or adjustments when necessary. Keep it all.)

​​​​​​​5. University Policies

Academic integrity: In order to maintain a culture of academic integrity, members of the University of Waterloo community are expected to promote honesty, trust, fairness, respect and responsibility. [Check the Office of Academic Integrity for more information.]

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.

Discipline: A student is expected to know what constitutes academic integrity to avoid committing an academic offence, and to take responsibility for their 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.

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 they have 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 AccessAbility Services at the beginning of each academic term.

Turnitin.com: Text matching software (Turnitin®) may be used to screen assignments in this course. Turnitin® is used to verify that all materials and sources in assignments are documented. Students' submissions are stored on a U.S. server, therefore students must be given an alternative (e.g., scaffolded assignment or annotated bibliography), if they are concerned about their privacy and/or security. Students will be given due notice, in the first week of the term and/or at the time assignment details are provided, about arrangements and alternatives for the use of Turnitin in this course.

It is the responsibility of the student to notify the instructor if they, in the first week of term or at the time assignment details are provided, wish to submit alternate assignment.

Cross-listed courses: Please note that a cross-listed course will count in all respective averages no matter under which subject code 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 subject code.

Intellectual Property: Students should be aware that this course contains the intellectual property of their instructor, TA, and/or the University of Waterloo.

Intellectual property includes items such as:

• Lecture content, spoken and written (and any audio/video recording thereof);
• Lecture handouts, presentations, and other materials prepared for the course (e.g., PowerPoint slides);
• Questions or solution sets from various types of assessments (e.g., assignments, quizzes, tests, final exams); and
• Work protected by copyright (e.g., any work authored by the instructor or TA or used by the instructor or TA with permission of the copyright owner).

Course materials and the intellectual property contained therein, are used to enhance a student’s educational experience. However, sharing this intellectual property without the intellectual property owner’s permission is a violation of intellectual property rights. For this reason, it is necessary to ask the instructor, TA and/or the University of Waterloo for permission before uploading and sharing the intellectual property of others online (e.g., to an online repository).

Permission from an instructor, TA or the University is also necessary before sharing the intellectual property of others from completed courses with students taking the same/similar courses in subsequent terms/years. In many cases, instructors might be happy to allow distribution of certain materials. However, doing so without expressed permission is considered a violation of intellectual property rights.

Please alert the instructor if you become aware of intellectual property belonging to others (past or present) circulating, either through the student body or online. The intellectual property rights owner deserves to know (and may have already given their consent).