Transcript Thinking and Writing at JSGx

Support for Thinkers and Writers at the Jackson School
Adam Papendieck, Writer-in-Residence, Jackson School of Geosciences
[email protected]
Presentation and Resources: https://goo.gl/I2spJA
Apr 6, 2016
Thinking
• Thinking is mediated by “tools” (Vygotsky, 1978)
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brains, fingers, pencils, landmarks, whiteboards, computers
speech, language, pictures
concepts, hypotheses, theoretical frameworks
landmarks, monuments, books, papers
• But, we don’t think all alone in our heads
• We “externalize” and “internalize” stuff all the time
Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in society: the development of higher psychological processes. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Image: Shel Silverstein
Thinking together
• Thinking is social
• Infants think and create meaning by interacting with others
• Reaching becomes pointing (a meaningful gesture).
• Talking out loud guides play, thought, action. It gradually becomes “internal speech.”
• Adults still talk out loud, e.g. when confused, or when worried
• Externalization
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“Let me bounce a few ideas off you.”
“Try this on for size.”
“Let’s hash this out on the whiteboard.”
“Thanks for letting me vent.”
• Internalization
• “Let me digest.”
• “I need sleep on it.”
• “Her presentation really made me think.”
• Thinking is a social process of constructing meaning or knowledge.
Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in society: the development of higher psychological processes. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Image: Shel Silverstein
Writing
• Writing is an important way for you to think and construct knowledge
• Written texts are an important medium for scientific discourse, or the
critical and collaborative construction of knowledge
• Good scientific writing is social. It helps us think together and
construct knowledge together
Image: Shel Silverstein
Research
• “systematic, critical inquiry made public” (Stenhouse, 1981)
• “systematic study directed toward fuller scientific knowledge or
understanding of the subject studied.” (NSF, 2012)
• “creative work undertaken on a systematic basis in order to increase
the stock of knowledge, including knowledge of humans, culture and
society, and the use of this stock of knowledge to devise new
applications.” (OECD)
NSF. (2012). Chapter 6. Industry, Technology, and the Global Marketplace. In Science and Engineering Indicators 2012 Digest. Retrieved from
http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/digest12/
Stenhouse, L. (1981). What counts as research? British Journal of Educational Studies, 29(2), 103–114.
Good writing
• Helps you achieve your goals
• Forces you to internalize, organize, clarify thinking
• Allows you to push ideas out in the world and see what happens
• Allows you to push ideas out into the world to change the world
• Helps us achieve goals together
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Engages others
Builds on the work of others
Helps others work with you
Contributes to our ability to think well together (distributed cognition)
“Answers questions”
“Adds to our knowledge”
“Moves our science forward”
Facilitates “broad impacts”
Bad writing?
“Bad scientific writing involves more than stylistic negligence: it is often
the outward and visible form of an inward confusion of thought.”
“…the discipline of marshalling words into formal sentences, writing
them down, and examining the written statements is bound to clarify
thought.”
Woodford, 1967
Bad writing doesn’t help you or others think or construct.
Woodford, F. P. (1967). Sounder thinking through clearer writing. Science, 156(3776), 743–745.
General Writing Skills?
• Good advice:
• “Omit needless words.” (great!)
• “Place the emphatic words of a sentence at the
end.” (makes sense)
• “Write with nouns and verbs.” (OK)
• Misleading, outdated, simplistic advice:
• Avoid using “contact” as a verb. “As a transitive
verb, the word is vague and self-important.”
• Avoid the passive voice
Nice and passive!
• The subject is unknown:
• The cave paintings of Lascaux were made in the Upper Old Stone Age. [We don't know who made them.]
• The subject is irrelevant:
• An experimental solar power plant will be built in the Australian desert. [We are not interested in who is
building it.]
• You want to be vague about who is responsible:
• Mistakes were made. [Common in bureaucratic writing!]
• You are talking about a general truth:
• Rules are made to be broken. [By whomever, whenever.]
• You want to emphasize the person or thing acted on.
• Insulin was first discovered in 1921 by researchers at the University of Toronto.
• You are writing in a scientific genre that traditionally relies on passive voice (e.g. Materials and
Methods section of a lab report):
• The sodium hydroxide was dissolved in water. This solution was then titrated with hydrochloric acid.
Corson, T., & Smollett, R. (n.d.). Passive Voice: When to Use It and When to Avoid It. Retrieved April 6, 2016, from http://www.writing.utoronto.ca/advice/style-andediting/passive-voice
So, how do we get better?
“there is no autonomous, generalizable skill called ball-using or ballhandling that can be learned and then applied to all ball games.”
David Russell
Russell, D. (1995). Activity theory and its implications for writing instruction. Reconceiving Writing, Rethinking Writing Instruction, 51–77.
Research communities
• Disciplines, communities of practice, and
discourse communities have unique:
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Rules, norms, ways of dressing
Standards of evidence
Ways of perceiving the world
Ways of writing things: Genres
Write, read, and discuss important genres
Example genres in the geosciences:
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Proposals
Empirical research reports
Literature reviews
Commodity reports
Posters
• Productive disciplinary engagement (Eagle and Conant, 2002)
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Engage in critical discourse
Think and construct together
Read, evaluate, respond to the work of others
Participate in peer review and seek formative feedback
• Think and write iteratively and reflectively, focusing on:
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who documents are for
how they function in practice (how they are used and what they are supposed to do)
how your language and ideas should be organized and styled for best reception
what do you want your writing to change or do
Engle, R. A., & Conant, F. R. (2002). Guiding Principles for Fostering Productive Disciplinary Engagement: Explaining an Emergent Argument in a Community of
Learners Classroom. Cognition and Instruction, 20(4), 399–483. http://doi.org/10.1207/S1532690XCI2004_1
Campus resources for writers
• University Writing Center: http://uwc.utexas.edu
• beautiful new space in the PCL Learning Commons,
• over 70 writing consultants are available to undergraduates by appointment or on a drop-in basis.
• Sanger Learning Center: http://www.utexas.edu/ugs/slc/grad
• writing consultations for undergraduate and graduate students (fee-based)
• maintains a variety of digital resources and templates useful to writers of theses and dissertations.
• Walter Geology Library: http://www.lib.utexas.edu/geology
• Research advice, tools
• JSG Career Services: http://www.jsg.utexas.edu/careers
• CVs, resumes, cover letters, application materials, digital professional identity (LinkedIn etc.)
• JSG Writer-in-Residence (WiR): https://sites.utexas.edu/wir
• Specializing in your genres, goals, problems and worries
• WiR Scientific Communication Resource Lab (on Canvas): http://tinyurl.com/wir-lab
• Guidance and examples in key genres
https://sites.utexas.edu/wir
1. Consultations
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Masters theses
Dissertations
Class writing assignments
Research proposals
Personal statements and application materials
Academic job docs (research and teaching statements)
Draft publications
Reports and other technical communications
New media communications (web, social, digital)
Scholarly and professional identity on the web
Make an appointment!
• https://sites.utexas.edu/wir
• [email protected]
• JGB 2.112D
Adam
you
Adam
your buddy
you
Make an appointment!
• https://sites.utexas.edu/wir
• [email protected]
• JGB 2.112D
2. Core curriculum and classes
• Support writing and communication activities in courses
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Jack Sharp – Hydrogeology
Dan Breeker – Proposal Writing
Julia Clarke – Paleobiology Research Methods
Susan Pierce, Mary Poteet, Rich Kyle
3. Student-driven co-curriculum
Demand-driven workshops, seminars, classes, peer
writing and learning groups
Fall 2015:
NSF GRFP Proposal Writing Group
English Language Group
Poster Development Workshop (before AGU)
Spring 2016
Poster Development Workshop (before JSG Symposium)
Popular Scientific Communication Group
Digital Portfolio Program (TBD)
What would you like to do?
https://goo.gl/HV9iGc
https://earthscigradblog.wordpress.com
https://soundcloud.com/generation-anthropocene
Questions?
Ideas for activities, workshops,
groups?
Ideas for products or resource
collections?
Needs
that could be better met?
Photo Credit: Davidputhenry, CC 3.0