Assignments: Popular Science

This assignment has five options. Please choose one.

Popular Science: Option 1

First, choose a resource (it could be a web site, a popular science magazine, the popular science section of a newspaper, the New York Times Tuesday science section for example, or academic journal) that serves as an outlet for popular science writing. I offer the following examples (but you can certainly select others):

Second, once you have chosen a specific resource, I would like you to develop a set of guidelines for an author that would like to publish an article in the resource that you selected. Here, you are assuming the persona of someone — an editor perhaps — that works at the resource (i.e., the specific web site, magazine or newspaper) who is providing guidelines so that the author can successfully publish their work. In the set of guidelines I would like you to include the following sections (but please feel free to include others or modify the existing sections) - the questions and observations I provide are merely for generating thought, you need not respond to them directly:

    Introduction: Address the purpose of the guidelines and offer an introduction to the resource you have selected;

    Subject Matter: What is the subject matter of the resource and of the articles in it that you have read?;

    Rhetorical Context: What is the purpose of the articles in this resource? What, specifically, is this resource trying to address in dealing with science? What should an author know about the context of this resource in writing an article for it?;

    Style and Structure: What is the style and structure of article that are submitted to this resource? You may want to provide specific examples (e.g., specific passages and sentences);

    Miscellaneous Items: What additional items should an author take in to account — use of visuals for example — in writing the article?

    Documentation: How are quotes used? What kinds of sources do authors usually cite?;

    Conclusion: Summarize the major point of the guidelines.

Requirements:

    • Due: 14 April
    • A 3-5 page (750-1250 words) set of guidelines;
    • A cover memo (document file) must be included;
    • Peer Review (document file) must be included.
    Grading Rubric
    • I will use this grading rubric (document file) to assess the proposal assignment.

Popular Science: Option 2

Please read this assignment carefully. It has two parts.

You have been asked to become a reviewer for the Science and Nature section of bookideas.com. The web site posts reviews of "popular science" books — ones readily found in bookstores aimed at explaining specific aspects of science or technology to the lay reader. Typically such books focus on a case study of a famous event, a personality, a scientific or technological breakthrough, or a governmental policy. Generally, the goal of these writers is to present a technically dense subject in an interesting or unique way to capture the imagination of the lay reader. In appealing to a mass audience, critics argue, popularizers water down the science so much as to be inaccurate and misleading. Moreover, authors have ideological axes to grind either pro- science and technology, or anti- science and technology. To give you a better idea of the kind of nature and science books that are reviewed, the Senior Editor, Danielle Thorne, asks you to take a look at some previous reviews.

However, Ms. Thorne explains, the reviews of popular science and nature books have been a bit, well, "uneven" -- occasionally too technical for a popular audience but occasionally too breezy for a sophisticated audience. In the future bookideas.com wants to send a template for book reviews to potential reviewers. Thus, the editor has two requests:

First, in a memorandum no longer than 250 words directed to Ms. Thorne, provide a critical analysis of the form bookideas.com popular science book reviews take. To help you along, the she suggests that you survey previous reviews.

The purpose of the memo is twofold:

    1. To map out the current model followed by book reviewers;

    2. To recommend a set of guidelines to future reviewers regarding what works in, and should be done to improve, book reviews in the Science and Nature section of bookideas.com

In analyzing previous book reviews Ms. Thorne asks you to consider the following questions (you need not answer them directly):

    • What is the superstructure of the typical review? Is there an order in which information is presented (introduction, personal orientation, analysis of quotes, examples, mentioning other or alternative texts, recommendation)?

    • What is the length of the review? (number of paragraphs, words)?

    • Does the review begin generally, providing, say, a history of the science or technology, or does it immediately address the issues in the book?

    • What assumptions does the writer make about the knowledge level of the reader? Do you considered these assumptions appropriate?

    • Does the review refer to other texts on the subject matter?

    • What is the style of the review? Does the reviewer use first-, second-, or third- person? Passive or active voice? Familiar tone? Jargon? Do you "connect" with the persona of the reviewer? Do you take their "side" regarding the book?

    • Does the reviewer offer explicit recommendations? What reasons are given for recommending or not recommending the book? Does the reviewer's reasoning seem plausible?

Second, provide a 750-1000 word review -- based on the current model you determine and improvements you suggest for future bookideas.com reviews -- of a popular science or nature book which you choose.

The following lists from Amazon Popular science books recommended by (some) scientists, Wikipedia (by author), and on the Popular Science Book Club at the University of British Columbia offer many possibilities for book to read and review. But Ms Thorne asks (read warns) that you not review a book already appearing on bookideas.com. If you do find a review on a book you have selected somewhere else, cite it properly if used as a reference.

Requirements:

    • Due: 14 April
    • A 250 word memo; a 750-1000 word review;
    • A cover memo (document file) must be included;
    • Peer Review (document file) must be included.
    Grading Rubric
    • I will use this grading rubric (document file) to assess the proposal assignment.

Popular Science: Option 3

We use metaphors to help define our natural and scientific world and explain our behavior and attitudes. As Anne Eisenberg says, "Once metaphors were the stuff of poetry not proteins — but no more. You are just as likely these days to turn across them in a scientific review as in a sonnet. Despite the 300-year effort by Hobbes, Locke and a legion of logical positivists to confine them to the English classroom, metaphors are suddenly inescapable in technical prose. From chemical scissors and solvent cage to optical molasses and squeezed light, from DNA fingerprints to read-only memory, metaphor is out of the scientific closet" (Scientific American, May 1992, p.144).

Ostensibly, metaphors in popular science writing, and more broadly, serve to convey the meaning of complex ideas or processes to a lay audience. In this 750-1250 word essay you identify, analyze and explain the function of metaphors in any of essays in The Best American Science Writing. You may choose to examine the use of different metaphors in one essay, compare and contrast the use of a common metaphor shared in two or more essays, compare and contrast the uses of different, related, metaphors in two or more essays, or thoroughly analyze the use of one metaphor in one essay. Whatever focus you choose, please be sure to perform a close reading of the use of metaphor(s) in the essay(s) by going to the text, quoting the requisite passages, and offering a detailed analysis.

Here are some thought questions (you are not required to answer them directly) to help focus your analysis:

    • What concepts or processes are the metaphors attempting to help define? Elaborate on the concept and how the metaphor helps, or hinders, how it is explained. Does the use of metaphor, in this instance, help explain a concept or process to a lay audience? Why or why not? Are metaphors regarding the concepts or processes used among specialists in the field?

    • Many people think that metaphors are only used in poetry and literature. We use them so much that we are not even aware we are doing so. What are some metaphors you use frequently? Do these metaphors appear in the readings? Give examples of them and elaborate on their meaning. Are you aware that you are using metaphors? Is the writer aware of using metaphors? Do they lose their meaning when they become clichés?

    • Can metaphors simplify concepts too much? Do they serve a necessary function even with their limitations? What might some of the dangers be in using metaphors? What might some of the advantages be? Give specific examples from the readings.

A few on-line resources:

Requirements:

    • Due: 14 April
    • A 750-1250 word essay;
    • A cover memo (document file) must be included;
    • Peer Review (document file) must be included.
    Grading Rubric
    • I will use this grading rubric (document file) to assess the proposal assignment.

* This assignment is adopted from Virginia Montecino at George Mason University.

Popular Science: Option 4

You have been asked to write a 750 to 1250 word process description of a technological artifact or of a scientific or technical process by Debra Beller, the online Editorial Director of HowStuffWorks.com. Ms. Beller asks you to consider the following steps in putting together, and submitting, your technical or process description.

    First, take a look at published "How ... Works" articles on HowStuffWorks.com. Through a close reading of sample articles identify the form of the article, the intended audience, the style employed, the level of technical discourse and jargon, and the use of visual images and hypertext links;

    Second, choose a technological artifact or scientific or technical process the web site's audience will find interesting and with which you are familiar. While the originality of your submission is highly valued, you may find articles on the site cover, to some degree, the same subject in which you are interested. No matter. If the artifact or process you choose has been described in a previous article, you can offer a unique approach or perspective not found in the article (e.g., describing more or less fully an aspect of the technology or the process than the article or adopting a different point of view). Ultimately, what qualifies as "unique" is left to your discretion;

    Third, write an article of 750 to 1250 words that could be published on HowStuffWorks.com.

Requirements:

    • Due: 14 April
    • A 750-1250 word article;
    • A cover memo (document file) must be included;
    • Peer Review (document file) must be included.
    Grading Rubric
    • I will use this grading rubric (document file) to assess the proposal assignment.

Popular Science: Option 5

Please read this assignment carefully. It has two parts.

Choose a piece of science writing intended for an expert audience. This piece of writing can be something you have produced or can be a scientific article that you have read. The length of the piece should be approximately 750-1250 words.

Next, choose a source (it could be a web site, a popular science magazine, the popular science section of a newspaper, the New York Times Tuesday science section for example, or an academic journal) that serves as an outlet for popular science writing. I offer the following examples (but you can certainly select others):

Part 1

Get a sense of the structure and style of the science writing in the source you selected. In a 250-300 word memo addressed to me, citing examples, I want you to clearly identify the structure and style of the resource you have selected. In your description, please develop a portrait of the audience for the outlet.

Part 2

I would like you to "translate" — write in the structure and style you have analyzed in the source and described in the memo — the piece of science writing you chose (above) for publication in the selected source.

Requirements:

    • Due: 14 April
    • The original piece of science writing you select;
    • A 250-300 word memo;
    • The translated piece of science writing;
    • A cover memo (document file) must be included;
    • Peer Review (document file) must be included.
    Grading Rubric
    • I will use this grading rubric (document file) to assess the proposal assignment.

Science Writing