Hello, my name is Collin! Thanks for giving me the chance to introduce myself and my work.
I’m just finishing my sophomore year at Roger Williams University where I am a Marine Biology major and a Sustainability minor. This summer I am going to be working as an intern in the Freshwater Gallery at New England Aquarium before I head off to the Bermuda Institute of Oceanic Science for my fall semester abroad. Along with marine science I enjoy fishing, kayaking, camping, skiing, reading, music, travel, and cooking.
The following is intended to help guide you through the site and the various assignments that I completed for the course to give you a better sense of how all of the work comes together. Thanks for taking time to review my portfolio.
Minor assignments
These are formative assignments that are designed to help us prepare for major assignments. The following are the assignments completed for this course that meet this criteria.
Assignment 1: Read Chapters One ("Communicating Science" and Two ("The Language of Science") in Scott L. Montgomery's The Chicago Guide to Communicating Science. As you read, consider Montgomery's use of the term "rhetoric" and post a blog that identifies at least one passage in which Montgomery discusses scientific discourse in terms of rhetoric.
Assignment 2: Read Jack Selzer's "Rhetorical Analysis: Understanding How Texts Persuade Readers" and note how Selzer reads texts and contexts to determine how a text works rhetorically. Choose a text assigned to you in a course in your major and apply a few of the questions you identified to the task of rhetorically analyzing your text.
Assignment 3: Read "Chapter One: Rhetorical Analysis" in Alan C. Gross' The Rhetoric of Science, and pay attention to how he applies the stases, canons, and appeals as lenses through which to better understand "the ways in which rhetorical processes constitute science." Choose your own set of lenses to apply to a journal article in your field and show the rhetorical functions and features of the journal article and how they work.
Assignment 4: Read Charles Bazerman's "Speech Acts, Genres, and Activity Systems: How Texts Organize Activity and People"consider the guidelines for the Preliminary Analysis, and your own evolving ideas for this assignment. Write up an initial proposal for your preliminary analysis that attempts to answer the above. Use Bazerman whenever appropriate to explain how you're thinking through your study design.
Assignment 5: Read "Patents as Speech Acts and Legal Objects," from Charles Bazerman's The Languages of Edison's Light, and consider how the chapter functions of a case study in rhetorical genre analysis.
Assignment 6: Read "Introduction"and "I. Making Air: Our First Four Atmospheres" in Sam Kean's Caesar's Last Breath: Decoding the Secrets of the Air Around Us. Explain what the first part of Caesar's Last Breath is about, determine Kean's audience and purpose and consider what strategies you might leverage in writing your own final project.
Assignment 7: Read Chapter Five, "Writing Very Well: Opportunities for Creativity and Elegance," in Montgomery's Chicago Guide to Communicating Science and select a text to analyze in terms of the reading. Summarize your text and consider what strategies you might leverage in writing your own final project.
Assignment 8: Read Chapter 19, "Science Writing and Science Talks: Communicating with and for the Public," in Montgomery's The Chicago Guide to Communicating Science. Select a text to analyze in terms of the reading. Summarize your text and consider what strategies you might leverage in writing your own final project.
Assignment 9: Read Graham Smart's "Discourse Coalitions, Science Blogs, and the Global Debate Over Climate Change" and write about what concepts previously discussed in class resurface in his analysis. Determine if Smart's findings are relevant to your own final project.
Assignment 10: Read Zuleyka Zevallos' The March for Science Can't Figure Out How to Handle Diversity and then read the brief statements posted by scientists in Nature's How the March for Science Splits Researchers. Write about what course concepts or terms help to inform how you approach your own major project.
Major Assignments
There were two major semester-long assignments for this course that were intended to allow us to put into action all of the learning outcomes that came from the minor assignments, readings and class discussions. Because of the extensive nature of these assignments you will see that a dedicated section of this portfolio site has been created for each one.
Preliminary Analysis
One of two long-term, multi-part assignments for the course. This rhetorical genre analysis focused on teaching us how to uncover how the functions and features of particular genres shape scientific discourse within a particular activity system or discourse community. This section includes both an introductory reflection and the various drafts of the analysis itself.
Save the Bay Final Project
Our final project is assigned with the intention of providing us with an opportunity to work as a team to compose scientific discourse in one or more genres for a real rhetorical situation for a community partner. This section of the site includes an introductory reflection as well as a page dedicated to a description of the campaign deliverables with a link to Google drive where all of the final versions are posted.
I’m just finishing my sophomore year at Roger Williams University where I am a Marine Biology major and a Sustainability minor. This summer I am going to be working as an intern in the Freshwater Gallery at New England Aquarium before I head off to the Bermuda Institute of Oceanic Science for my fall semester abroad. Along with marine science I enjoy fishing, kayaking, camping, skiing, reading, music, travel, and cooking.
The following is intended to help guide you through the site and the various assignments that I completed for the course to give you a better sense of how all of the work comes together. Thanks for taking time to review my portfolio.
Minor assignments
These are formative assignments that are designed to help us prepare for major assignments. The following are the assignments completed for this course that meet this criteria.
Assignment 1: Read Chapters One ("Communicating Science" and Two ("The Language of Science") in Scott L. Montgomery's The Chicago Guide to Communicating Science. As you read, consider Montgomery's use of the term "rhetoric" and post a blog that identifies at least one passage in which Montgomery discusses scientific discourse in terms of rhetoric.
Assignment 2: Read Jack Selzer's "Rhetorical Analysis: Understanding How Texts Persuade Readers" and note how Selzer reads texts and contexts to determine how a text works rhetorically. Choose a text assigned to you in a course in your major and apply a few of the questions you identified to the task of rhetorically analyzing your text.
Assignment 3: Read "Chapter One: Rhetorical Analysis" in Alan C. Gross' The Rhetoric of Science, and pay attention to how he applies the stases, canons, and appeals as lenses through which to better understand "the ways in which rhetorical processes constitute science." Choose your own set of lenses to apply to a journal article in your field and show the rhetorical functions and features of the journal article and how they work.
Assignment 4: Read Charles Bazerman's "Speech Acts, Genres, and Activity Systems: How Texts Organize Activity and People"consider the guidelines for the Preliminary Analysis, and your own evolving ideas for this assignment. Write up an initial proposal for your preliminary analysis that attempts to answer the above. Use Bazerman whenever appropriate to explain how you're thinking through your study design.
Assignment 5: Read "Patents as Speech Acts and Legal Objects," from Charles Bazerman's The Languages of Edison's Light, and consider how the chapter functions of a case study in rhetorical genre analysis.
Assignment 6: Read "Introduction"and "I. Making Air: Our First Four Atmospheres" in Sam Kean's Caesar's Last Breath: Decoding the Secrets of the Air Around Us. Explain what the first part of Caesar's Last Breath is about, determine Kean's audience and purpose and consider what strategies you might leverage in writing your own final project.
Assignment 7: Read Chapter Five, "Writing Very Well: Opportunities for Creativity and Elegance," in Montgomery's Chicago Guide to Communicating Science and select a text to analyze in terms of the reading. Summarize your text and consider what strategies you might leverage in writing your own final project.
Assignment 8: Read Chapter 19, "Science Writing and Science Talks: Communicating with and for the Public," in Montgomery's The Chicago Guide to Communicating Science. Select a text to analyze in terms of the reading. Summarize your text and consider what strategies you might leverage in writing your own final project.
Assignment 9: Read Graham Smart's "Discourse Coalitions, Science Blogs, and the Global Debate Over Climate Change" and write about what concepts previously discussed in class resurface in his analysis. Determine if Smart's findings are relevant to your own final project.
Assignment 10: Read Zuleyka Zevallos' The March for Science Can't Figure Out How to Handle Diversity and then read the brief statements posted by scientists in Nature's How the March for Science Splits Researchers. Write about what course concepts or terms help to inform how you approach your own major project.
Major Assignments
There were two major semester-long assignments for this course that were intended to allow us to put into action all of the learning outcomes that came from the minor assignments, readings and class discussions. Because of the extensive nature of these assignments you will see that a dedicated section of this portfolio site has been created for each one.
Preliminary Analysis
One of two long-term, multi-part assignments for the course. This rhetorical genre analysis focused on teaching us how to uncover how the functions and features of particular genres shape scientific discourse within a particular activity system or discourse community. This section includes both an introductory reflection and the various drafts of the analysis itself.
Save the Bay Final Project
Our final project is assigned with the intention of providing us with an opportunity to work as a team to compose scientific discourse in one or more genres for a real rhetorical situation for a community partner. This section of the site includes an introductory reflection as well as a page dedicated to a description of the campaign deliverables with a link to Google drive where all of the final versions are posted.