Writing for the Sciences

English 21003 Section B Reg# 39086

  Spring 2019

City College of New York

Class Schedule: M-W 8:00-9:15

Classroom: NAC 4/125

 

Instructor: Brian Brennan

Email: [email protected]

Office: NAC 6/332B

Office Hours: M 11:00, and by appointment

Phone: 212-650-3146

 

Required Text:

Writing in the Life Sciences: A Critical Thinking Approach by Laurence Greene (Oxford University Press 2010)

Other Materials:

Blackboard – www.cuny.edu/portal-login.html

 

Course Description and Objectives: ​This course is designed to strengthen your reading, critical thinking, and writing skills for future academic and professional studies, specifically in the sciences. We will be building on a foundation of scientific knowledge by reading reports and studies from a variety of sources in different scientific fields to develop an appreciation of scientific thought and writing. You will become a stronger writer and thinker capable of entering a scientific discussion with a well-informed point of view. With a focus on examining different concepts and issues within science, this course will help you synthesize information, find answers, and present ideas to an audience in different genres. In particular, we will analyze various reports and critical reviews that have been recently published which will allow you to compose your own writing in these genres. Furthermore, this class asks that you analyze issues that you are thoroughly concerned about and/or impacted by

 

Course Learning Outcomes

Over the course of the semester, you will

1. acknowledge your and others’ range of linguistic differences as resources, and draw on those resources to develop a rhetorical sensibility
2. enhance strategies for reading, drafting, revising, editing, and self-assessment
3. negotiate your own writing goals and audience expectations regarding conventions of genre, medium, and rhetorical situation
4. develop and engage in the collaborative and social aspects of writing processes
5. engage in genre analysis and multimodal composing to explore effective writing across disciplinary contexts and beyond
6. formulate and articulate a stance through and in your writing
7. practice using various library resources, online databases, and the Internet to locate sources appropriate to your writing projects

8. strengthen your source use practices (including evaluating, integrating, quoting, paraphrasing, summarizing, synthesizing, analyzing, and citing sources)

 

Grading Policy:

• Intro Essay – 5%
• Abstract 10%
• Position Paper 20%
• Report on a Science Professional 20%
• Lab Report 20%
• Self-assessment essay 10%
• Online portfolio 15%

 

Attendance, Lateness & Participation: All students are expected to be in their seats, prepared to start class, at 12:30 PM. Attendance will be taken at the start of every class. If you are not in class by the time I have finished taking attendance, you are late. Three instances of lateness will be counted as one absence.

 

A dated attendance sheet will also be passed around during each class. This is a further guarantee that your attendance is recorded. It is your responsibility to ensure that your name is on the sheet. If you do not sign the sheet, you cannot claim to have been in class that day.

 

It is up to you to keep track of your absences and latenesses. I strongly suggest that you make a note of each instance.

 

It is important that you show up for class, with any assigned readings or assignments completed, so that you are ready to follow along and participate in any in-class activities.

 

You must not miss more than four classes, whether the absence is “excused” or not. More than four absences will be reflected in your grade.

 

This class’s policies follow those set forth by the CCNY Undergraduate Bulletin, which states: The instructor has the right to drop a student from a course for excessive absence…They should note that an instructor may treat lateness as equivalent to absence. No distinction is made between excused and unexcused absences.

 

In class discussions, during group activities, and in general, it is expected that you interact with your classmates in a mature and respectful manner.

Students are expected to remain in their seats for the entire class. Please do not get up to leave the classroom and then return..

Assignment Formats: Assignments are to be handed in typed, double-spaced, 12-point font.

Late Assignments: You are expected to hand assignments in on time. Failure to do so may result in a reduction in your grade. However, if you have a problem in your personal life that makes it difficult to hand something in on time, let me know.

Plagiarism: Plagiarism is using other people’s words without acknowledging or providing a proper citation. For a fuller definition, see the CUNY Policy on Academic Integrity here: http://web.cuny.edu/academics/info­central/policies/academic­integrity.pdf. Plagiarism has serious consequences, including the following: a failing grade for the assignment, a Z in the course (the college’s grade for failing due to academic dishonesty), a report with the college, and disciplinary action. In other words, it’s not worth it!

Technology: Any use of cellphones during class will not be tolerated. They are to be turned off and put away before the start of class. If you have a situation that requires you to keep your phone on, please notify me. If you are using a laptop, tablet, or other device for class activity, make sure that you use it for that activity only. Inappropriate use of your device (texting, using social media, etc) may be counted as a lateness.

Demeanor: Resting your head on your desk is inappropriate. Anyone discovered doing so during class with also be marked late that day.

Food and drinks: Beverages in the classroom are acceptable; food is not. Please do not leave any garbage behind when you leave the room after class.

The Writing Center: For assistance in writing your papers, I strongly encourage you to make use of this excellent resource. Anyone who provides proof that they have visited the center at least once during the semester will have their final grade for this class raised by one-third of a grade. To learn more, or to schedule an appointment, visit the center’s website: http://www1.ccny.cuny.edu/prospective/humanities/writingcenter/.

 

COURSE SCHEDULE

 

Date	In Class	Homework
1/28	Introductions	Send me an email. Write 1-2 page essay on how science enters into your educational and/or career goals.
1/30	Scientific terms.	Read Pennycook article “On the reception and detection of pseudo-profound bullshit” by 2/4 Read WITLS pages 1-25 by 2/6
2/4	Essays due
2/6	Approaching your writing assignments. Adopting a professional tone.	Read pages 175-178 WITLS for 2/11
2/11	The abstract	Abstract Read pages 25-57 WITLS by 2/20
2/13
2/18	President’s Day – College Closed	Read study TBD for 2/28  (with goals of pages 41-57 in mind)
2/20	Abstract Due Approaching Research Peer Review Position Paper Handout Developing a thesis	Position Paper Read “More than Skin Deep”, “Interview with Dr Staci Simonich” and “Talk to me! Top tips for conducting interviews with scientists” by 2/25 Read WITLS 203-210 by 2/25
2/25	Profile of a Science Professional Handout Approaching a scientist Citation Integrating quotations	Read WITLS pages 97-149 for 3/5.
2/27	Generating content/brainstorming ideas	Read Vivien Marx’s “Stop the Microbial Chatter” by 3/6
3/4	Sentence-level issues
3/6	Position Paper First Draft Due	Read WITLS pages 149-188 for 3/13
3/11	Structure
3/13	Organizing Your Paper	Read Toru Miyake and Raghu Kalluri’s “Cell Plasticity Helps Hearts to Repair” for 3/18 Read WITLS 211-248 by 3/20
3/18	Position Paper Final Draft Due
3/20	Revision Avoiding Murkiness and Argument Pitfalls	Read Ewen Callaway’s “The Black Death Decoded” and “Bronze Age skeletons were early plague victims” for 3/27
3/25	Strengthening Arguments
3/27	Science professional questions due (if you haven’t shown them to me already)	Read “HIV’s Patient Zero Exonerated”, “How Researchers Cleared the Name of HIV Patient Zero”, and “1970s and ‘Patient O’ HIV-1 genomes illuminate early HIV/AIDS history in North America” for 4/1
4/1	How attitudes can evolve	Read WITLS pages 257-313 for 4/8
4/3
4/8	Coherence and Cohesion	Read “” for 4/15 Read WITLS pages 315-378 by 4/17
4/10	Lab Report Handout	Make contact with your lab partners and begin to come up with ideas for an experiment. Read “Continuous Traumatic Situations in the Face of Ongoing Political Violence: The Relationship Between CTS and PTSD” for 4/15
4/15	Article discussion	Read the three robotic surgery articles for 4/17
4/17	Revising sentences and paragraphs	Read “Young. Talented and Fed-Up” for 4/29
4/29	Science careers	For 5/6, bring to class a hard copy of an article on the proposed Green New Deal and be ready to discuss it. Be ready to demonstrate a firm grasp of what it is, and to say whether you think it is good, and if it is implementable and has real solutions.
5/1	Profile of a Science Professional Due Clarity, word choice, and sentence strength
5/6	More on creating strong sentences Avoiding biased language (have textbook in class though there is no reading for today)
5/8	Active vs passive voice (have textbook in class though there is no reading for today)
5/13	Last Day of Class Lab Reports Due Lab Report Presentations
5/23	Self-Assessment Essay and Online Portfolio Due	All the best! Have a great summer and good luck in the future!