ENGL 193 F22 Afrin

ENGL 193 Communication in the Sciences (Physical) Fall 2022

M/W 10-11:20, STC 3014

Instructor Information:

Instructor: Sadia Afrin (she/her) Office: PAS 1238

Office Hours: Wednesdays, 12 to 2p.m. in HH (Hagey Hall) 248 or by appointment Email: s5afrin@uwaterloo.ca

Territorial Acknowledgement: I acknowledge that we live and work 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 (the Cayuga, the Mohawk, the Oneida, the Onondaga, the Seneca, and the Tuscarora) that includes six miles on each side of the Grand River.

Course Description: In this course you will learn about effective written, oral, and visual communication in the sciences. You will have the opportunity to grow and shape these communication skills through design processes that emphasize attention to your audience, the purpose of your communications, and scientific argument based on student agency and ethical commitments. You will work individually and collaboratively to craft messages for different 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, and public talks. Overall, this course will help you enhance your capacity to conduct research and represent research findings, communicate rhetorically, and thereby initiate important changes.

Course Structure: Generally, our classes will follow a Flipped classroom structure. There will be a break (5 minutes) at 10:40a.m. The classes will vary in activities as they will have workshops, in-class writing, peer- review sessions, and discussions.

Course Objectives: The sciences expand our understanding of the world by posing questions and by collecting information and evidence to address these questions. In order to have an impact, the information and insights generated by scientific research also need to be effectively evaluated and communicated, whether to general public, responsible authorities, or to other scientists.

Course Outcomes:

• 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 strategic communication and 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 Texts:

Hofmann, Angelika H. Scientific Writing and Communication: Papers, Proposals, and Presentations, Fourth Edition. Oxford University Press, 2019.

Texts Available on LEARN:

Readings indicated on the schedule will be available on LEARN and UW Library/open source.

Grade Breakdown:

In this course a passing grade is 50%. You will need to complete the following assignments and activities. Assignments will be submitted and feedback will be provided through LEARN. Due to the importance of revision and process in writing and communication design, there is no exam.

Assignment Descriptions:

Contribution/Participation Assessment

Building strong writing skills demands frequent practice. In this class, that practice will often take the form of in-class activities, and it will require discussion of assignment goals and the interpretation and analysis of different written documents. Therefore, class participation is a significant part of your grade. I measure participation in several ways. I monitor your group work and your involvement in class discussions. This means that 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 group work in which you are engaged. Your attendance and work in-class, as well as assigned homework, will impact your contribution grade. For an example, there will be completion grades assigned to smaller activities in LEARN and in-class.

EDGE: Skills Identification and Articulation Workshop

Your participation in the EDGE Workshop will also be graded; the Skills Identification and Articulation Workshop helps students identify the skills they are developing throughout their undergraduate career. Students who complete this workshop will become better able to recognize their skills and develop strategies for expressing their ideas and research to target audiences (e.g. to potential employers in job interviews). The workshop is available online. However, it will be completed in a class. It has been tailored to the Science Communications course to help students gain a deeper understanding of how class activities and concepts can be applied in a variety of employment and professional contexts. Students who are actively pursuing the EDGE certificate, or who wish to pursue the program in the future, will receive a milestone for participation in the workshop.

Assignment 1: Report- Article Breakdown

Your first major assignment will be a report of an article that you will choose from a pool of articles. You will want to read and reread your article. You will need to know the general field, the topic of the article, and why that topic is important. Your report will contain the following sections:

Descriptive Abstract of the Research Article

You will write a descriptive abstract in your own words for the research article. Although the article will have its own abstract, your job is to understand the two different kinds of abstracts and write your own version of descriptive abstract. While there are general ideas to include, there is no one way to write an abstract.

Report on Article

Using the IMRaD format, summarize the findings of the article in 2 pages or 10/12 slides. You don’t need to use particular jargon. You want to explain in a complete and understandable way the key points for each section, so that your peers as general audience can understand your content.

Student Researcher Bio

Write yourself a biography. This should be no more than 120 words and should include your name, degree title, major (if any), and areas of research interest. Remember, a biography helps people identify you as an expert so it should be tailored to your field.

Assignment 2: Science Literature Review

Time to dive into your interests! The article that you used for Assignment-1, now will be extensively utilized for your Assignment 2: Literature Review. Your article will follow the IMRaD format. At the top of your review, provide the APA citation for the main 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 research/work is in conversation with.

In your article, the authors will have situated their work within that current research conversation. From their citation list, identify two to three key texts on which the authors either built their research or was challenged by them. Find those articles through the UWaterloo library system and download and read the articles. We will discuss reading strategies used by scientists.

Once you have identified the articles that you think are interesting and you can summarize in plain language, read through them and write short summaries about the research. Then, (this is the important part) write a few paragraphs about what those articles 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?

You should write your literature review in plain language. Imagine you are writing this report to a large committee who is assessing the feasibility of your research project. This committee will consist of professionals, but they may not necessarily be experts in your field. You need to use a formal tone, but not industry jargon or specific terminology. Rather, you’re trying to provide a general understanding of what material currently exists in this research area and how your research and your article would fit in. Remember also that your readers (probably) 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. Employ “narrative” technique in writing this Literature Review.

Finally, you need to provide a tentative assessment of those two-three articles in terms of their data quality, the arguments they make, the future research directions they provide, 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 is okay to be unclear initially because we are just beginning to learn how to do this work. We will talk about ways to evaluate research generally and how you can begin learning about specific techniques for your field by reviewing how research articles critique previous studies.

Assignment 3: Grant Proposal- Crowdfunding Your Research

For this assignment you will imagine that your Principle Investigator (PI) has asked you, as part of the research team, to create a grant crowdfunding proposal. Your proposal will use the research article you chose to base your Science Literature Review on. First choose an appropriate platform for the kind of work you’re doing. In most cases, if you want to fund a scientific project, you might use Experiment.com or similar platforms. Just be sure you have a good rationale for why you have chosen a particular platform to try to fund your research. Once you have chosen a platform, you should look at all the different components involved, including the proposal, images in the proposal, rewards, etc. However, in this scenario, you will imagine that the article hasn’t been published; to be specific, the experiment hasn’t been run and there are no results. Thus, you are asking for a significant amount of money (you can decide what amount is valid for your research project) to support the team’s research goals (i.e. to run the experiment and share your results). Since most funded proposals include a video, instead, you will create a storyboard for your proposal. The proposal needs to be rich with a story/stories that can appeal to your readers.

You don’t need to create your project on the platform you choose. Instead, you will create a draft in your word processor. Do your best to approximate the design, but it doesn’t need to look exactly as it would if you posted your materials online. You will also include a short paragraph identifying your audience and outlining a dissemination plan. How will you get folks to fund you? Include this paragraph on a separate title page in your submission, along with your name, platform decision, and any information you think I should have about why you chose the project or platform that you did (e.g., this is a project you are actually hoping to crowdfund).

Assignment 4: Public Communication (Oral)

This assignment assumes that by now, you have completed the initial research and now you are 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 story do you have to engage 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. If you would rather not use media to support your talk, that is okay, but you will 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.

You should be sure that your presentation is no more than 5 minutes long, polished and practiced, and aimed at a wide audience with different kinds of expertise.

Assignment 5: Poster Presentation (Group Assignment)

Did you know there are often (fiscal and otherwise) prizes for the best poster presentation by students at academic conferences? 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 or on the bench 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 5 students. In your group, choose one scientific article 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. You can imagine you are a research assistant tasked with presenting your PI’s research at an annual conference. In addition to the poster itself, you will write a short summary script of the research you will memorize and present when someone asks about your research on the poster. Each group member should be able to 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.

Each group member will write a ONE-page reflection about the collaborative process (to be handed in) on LEARN.

You should be sure that your poster is: written for a poster format and not a direct quote from your Research Report, focused on a particular issue in the research you are summarizing, includes graphics such as related images or visual representations of data, and polished and free of errors.

Attendance Policy

If you miss 5 or more classes without first discussing your situation with the instructor, you will receive a failing grade in the course overall. This is because much of the writing and revision process is conducted in- class, and you are also expected to participate in peer review and a group presentation.

Extensions and Late Policy

Many unexpected events can happen over the course of the term. To ensure all students are treated in the same way, requests for alternative assignment due dates must be accompanied by the appropriate documentation from a doctor or health care professional. I will not accept late assignments if you were not granted an extension. If you have a valid reason for requesting an extension, you must notify me 48 hours before deadline if at all possible. You must also submit documents that support your reason for missing the assignment. With a valid reason, you and I will agree on a new date, which will be firm. A student who contacts me after the due date or who does not set a new due date that is within two weeks of the original due date will not be permitted to submit the assignment. Please note that assignments will not be rescheduled for reasons of personal convenience.

Mental Health Support

All of us need a support system. The faculty encourage students to seek out mental health supports if they are needed.

On Campus

• Counselling Services: counselling.services@uwaterloo.ca / 519-888-4567 ext 32655
• MATES: one-to-one peer support program offered by Federation of Students (FEDS) and Counselling Services
• Health Services Emergency service: located across the creek form Student Life Centre

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 at 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

Electronic Device Policy

Electronic devices may be used to take notes and to enhance the classroom experience. However, using your devices for activities outside of the course will not be permitted. If a student is caught using a device for leisure (e.g. texting, gaming, etc.) this device will be removed for the duration of the class.

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. See the UWaterloo Academic Integrity webpage for more information.

Discipline: A student is expected to know what constitutes academic integrity, to avoid committing academic offences, 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 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 has a ground for an appeal should refer to Policy 72 - Student Appeals

Accommodation for Students with Disabilities:

Note for students with disabilities: The AccessAbility Services office, located on the first floor of the Needles Hall extension (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 the AS office at the beginning of each academic term.

Equity Services: The Equity Office provides services to all members of campus dealing with issues of equity, whether in class or outside of it. They are located in the Commissary Building on campus and can also be reached by phone at 519-888-4567 ext 49523 and email equity@uwaterloo.ca.

Inclusivity Statement: At the University of Waterloo, we seek to create an inclusive and respectful environment, in-class and online. This is expected of both instructors and students. I will uphold myself to the following principles and I expect you to as well: https://uwaterloo.ca/organizational-human-development/staff- workshops/inclusivity-ecertificate/principles-inclusivity.

Writing and Communication Services: The Writing and Communication Centre (WCC) is an excellent resource for writers at all levels. If you require any remedial help with your writing or need someone to proofread your assignment please feel free to book an appointment with them. They are located on the Second Floor of South Campus Hall and can be reached by phone at 519-888-4567 ext. 30436.

Course Schedule: