Tag: weekof8/16

Crediting your sources

One of the challenges of writing in non-academic styles is that your academic citation skills might need to flex a bit. In-text parenthetical citations and footnotes simply aren’t appropriate to all genres, but you are still ethically bound to provide information about your sources to your readers.

So how do you do this??

This is one of the reasons I’ve asked you to look for sample texts in the genre you plan to write. In reviewing those samples, please pay attention to how the authors handle sources–do they provide a list of references at the end? (and perhaps numbered footnotes throughout?) do they hyperlink to other articles they’re working with? do they rely on in-text attribution (the sort of “according to X….” phrases)?

There are some formats (i.e. PowerPoint) where fairly traditional academic-style footnotes are still the order of the day. In most cases, though, in these non-academic genres, you’ll see embedded links and in-text attribution as the norm. You need to look closely at some samples to see how authors handle it in these media outlets, and then act accordingly.

Why is this so important?

Well, this is a research course, after all, so we need to approach the particulars of citing research carefully, but this isn’t just some check-off on an assignment. Research-based writing lives and breathes beyond the university, too, so you’ll need to have a variety of tools at your disposal to employ in these situations. You probably won’t be using MLA or APA-style forever, but you will be researching and sharing what you’ve learned for the rest of your career.

It’s also worth considering the ethical implications, which run in two directions. You have an obligation to the authors of the sources you are working with to provide credit where credit is due. Furthermore, you have an obligation to your readers, who need to have ready access to the sources you’ve been using for their own purposes. You’re part of a larger discussion around your issue, remember, and that means that you need to honor those whose work you’re building upon, as well as facilitate those who will want to do more with this topic once you’re done with it.

Note that (as indicated in the assignment rubric on the unit 3 assignment sheet) you have 2 responsibilities–to provide in-text attribution of sources that you are relying upon in building your argument and providing a separate complete bibliography for the sources that have helped to shape your thinking (even if you have not quoted, paraphrased, or cited them in your actual text).

Because this work of figuring out how to cite your sources matters so much, please do your best to integrate these credits into your draft, so that I can give you some feedback on how well it’s working and what adjustments you might need to make. If you have any questions as you’re working, please don’t hesitate to contact me.

Response 8/18

My project will be directed at young people entering the workforce. The goal is to educate future employees on how to proactively identify and address issues of sexism and sexual assault in the work setting. 

The form of my project will be an infographic. The example I located explained how to stop the spread of germs (specifically respiratory diseases like COVID).  I like that infographic I located incorporated a combination texts with visual elements. This style can be very informative yet can be an easy and engaging read. However, this infographic has less text/facts than I would like to include. The content within this source has the ability to show more visually with pictures than my topic will.  I do like the conciseness and organizational components  of this graphic because it effectively gets the main points across. I also thought the color scheme worked well. I enjoy making infographics and am excited to see how mine turns out. 

https://www.tmcc.edu/sites/default/files/documents/ehs-coronavirus-infographic.pdf

(Mine was a PDF so it would not embed)

Discussion Week of 8/16

In this type of writing, its most influential and distinctive features would be stylized words that stand out over others. In this example, it would be, “Be An Ali”. The “A” in “ali” forms part of a wheelchair graphic. The poster demonstrates how to support those with disabilities and succumb to ableism and judgment. While stylized words look nice, the effective ones usually have a double meaning like this behind them. They are incorporated in a way that makes viewers remember the words and the special effects that go with them. In this specific example, this poster is linked for people to print out and put up as flyers, being pretty spot on when it comes to my desired genre.

This example works well because it is bold and clear and includes subtexts that encircle “Be An Ali”. To grab readers’ attention, there first needs to be the main subject displayed. When it comes to my topic, intersectionality and bias could get tricky since there are two. I am afraid readers won’t know where to look, become overwhelmed, and move on with their day, not retaining any information. So, my challenge will be to incorporate the two together and somehow display their co-existing features. Intersectionality and bias overlapped with my research, which I verbalized, which I now need to demonstrate graphically.

What I like about this poster the most is its simplicity. There is one main focus here, and subtext helps support it. Light graphics are an excellent addition, and I bet viewers would remember the poster more due to these. However, I do not believe this example is 100% successful. The simplicity is a little overdone, with words not very organized, just surrounding the poster’s title. Yes, they are categorized but with mini headings. For my poster, especially after viewing this one, I want to set up my words in a very strategic way. I am not sure yet what this entails, but I know graphics will be incorporated to tell a straightforward story to the viewer. Not only do I want this to be straightforward, but meaningful and impactful.

I also want certain subjects of text to bounce off of each other and connect. In this example, the text is written the same way bullet points would be. I want my bodies of text to co-exist with each other, presenting a cohesive overall body of text. There are a lot of design strategies that I have been brainstorming that I plan to experiment with. Being a design major myself, one of the most important things that I have learned and have continuously seen through successful design is that graphics have the power to spread a message sometimes more than words. With this graphic and text combination, I believe my poster could be compelling. I do not want to lose sight of one over the other but simultaneously incorporate the two to enhance each other.

ally_poster_finalDownload

https://www.nccsdclearinghouse.org/nccsd-posters–products.html

Discussions/Homework Week of 8/16

https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/browncenter_20161209_teachers_memo.pdf

The writing in this memo is conveying brief yet critical information quickly to multiple individuals at once. While it is not as formal as a business letter, it is professional since it includes action items for the intended recipient.  This particular memo is divided into three general sections: The situation, Recommendations and Conclusion.    

First the memo gives a quick introduction to the memo’s purpose. In my example it is talks about teachers being among our most valuable school resources for improving student learning.

My introduction would go something like this:

One in four individuals in the United States have a disability, which equates to 61 million people (CDC, 2021). For many of these individuals, disclosing an invisible disability in the work environment is an extremely complex dilemma. It can enable maintaining or obtaining employment, however disclosure can result in losing employment or to not being hired, due to of discrimination and stigma.

The next part of the memo is the situation. The situation gives an overview of the topic and provides the reader with a general outline about the overall purpose. The memo is clearly written by people in academic institutions with certain philosophies of education. The tone of the memo is polite and is written in a formal manner.

The memo says “In order for students to benefit from good teachers, school systems must recruit, prepare, improve, and retain excellent teachers and distribute these excellent teachers equitably across schools and communities. We currently face challenges across these areas.”

My situation might be:

The lack of disclosure by employees indicates they often feel the need to disguise their disability during the recruitment process as well as during the rest of their employment. Having a disability is different from the norm and thus obvious in a damaging way from others. With this potential stigma, individuals are afraid to disclose their disability, lest it adversely affect their employment relations and career prospects.

The next part is the recommendations. Recommendations are the point of the memo. Recommendations should be persuasive however all recommendations need support. As such the memo will encompass straightforward recommendations with support material immediately following or support for the recommendations, with data.

My recommendation might be:

The disclosure process is complicated, and the result is influenced by numerous factors.

For example, HR managers are an important stakeholder group who have mainly negative attitudes and behavior regarding disabilities. Since their job is to act on behalf of their organization, their attitudes and behavior may not change until organizations at the level of management change.

In the memo it starts out with “The federal government can increase the effectiveness of the teacher workforce through efforts to recruit, prepare, improve, retain, and more equally distribute excellent teachers. In keeping with the broader federal role in education, the federal role in teaching policy involves investments in capacity building and knowledge generation.”  After that a series of recommendations are listed.

The final part is the conclusion. This sums up the point of the memo. It is clear cut and succinct.

“Teachers are the most important school resource for improving educational opportunities for students. We recommend six steps for the federal government to improve the teacher workforce, particularly in the most difficult-to-staff schools:”

My conclusion might sound something like this.

People with invisible disabilities are in a susceptible position as they choose whether or not to disclose their diagnoses. If recipients of these disclosures are supportive, this could create a more positive experience for the individuals disclosing.

However, it should be noted that multiple studies have shown that disclosure during the hiring period resulted in fewer invitations for job interviews (Hipes et al, 2016).

Positive outcomes of disclosure include:

– Improved relationships with colleagues and supervisors

– Authenticity

– Work environment support

– Friendly culture

Negative outcomes of disclosure include:

– Facing stigma

– Discrimination

Overall, as I evaluated this memo, I envision something shorter and more succinct. However I want to make sure I include research as it is to be directed to professionals in the field.

References:

Disability Impacts All of Us Infographic | CDC. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2021). Retrieved 16 August 2021, from https://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/disabilityandhealth/infographic-disability-impacts-all.html.

Hipes, C., Lucas, J., Phelan, J.C., White, R. (2016) The stigma of mental illness in the labor market, Social Science Research, Volume 56, 2016, Pages 16-25, ISSN 0049-089X, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssresearch.2015.12.001.

Discussions / Homework Week of 8/16

I’ve decided to share an example of an online magazine article from the Harvard Business Review https://hbr.org/2021/08/how-to-work-with-someone-who-creates-unnecessary-conflict?ab=hero-main-text . What’s distinctive about this type of writing is that it offers advice and it’s written in the first person. So, although this piece is meant for anyone who works in or owns a business, and is published in a business magazine, the author makes it friendly and as though she were having a conversation with a colleague. She also breaks down her advice into chunks with explanatory headers. The author quotes experts, as well as the experiences of those in the workplace, and includes links to research and other relevant articles. I appreciate the conversational tone and, as I too plan on doing, the links to other articles. These links help to provide evidence to back up her statements without changing the flavor of the article into something more scholarly. This made me realize that what I’ve written for my project so far might need to be tweaked a little to sound more advisory and less explanatory. I also like how the author used several case studies to demonstrate the issue being discussed. I think I may lean on some examples of situations I’ve encountered as a union rep. as my own case studies. In the sample article, there are step-by-step instructions on how to tackle the stated problem. Later, the author offers best practices that are being used successfully by other companies. I probably won’t be able to offer step-by-step instructions, but I will be able to suggest what can help create the cultural change I want to see in organizations.

Discussion Questions Week of 8/16

The Employment and Discrimination Law Blog on Thompson Reuters is a good model for the genre I will be writing in for my AI in HR advocacy blog. The most recent blog post, “Managing cases of Long COVID: The Next Unknown,” is written in a peer-to-peer style that is conversational, easy to read, and similar to the tone I will aim for when I produce my text. I will try to put a little bit more energy into my writing because my goal is not only to share information about AI in HR but also to inspire people to join me in spreading awareness. The co-authors embed links to supporting material, which is how I plan to incorporate some of my research. I especially like that they end with a section of practical things readers can do to get involved, and I like how they use bullets and bold text to draw attention to the action items.

Some things that might have made this post more engaging for me would be a call out of an important quote or statistic, or possibly a relevant graphic such as an image of the cover of one of the reports they reference. Another thing this blog is missing is a way to build a community of advocates, which will be an important part of my blog. However, the sample blog does involve contributing writers, which is one of the ways I would grow content over time. And finally, this example doesn’t have any site navigation, so I will do some work on the structure of my site, creating a navigation and tags so readers with different interests (employees, employers, etc.) will be able to find content that is relevant.

Discussion Questions Wk 8/16

https://create.kahoot.it/share/explore-the-cardiovascular-system-with-soul/f78f1b2c-ba22-4877-95b7-03a6e20192ff

Initially I wanted to try and find a way that I could attach a word document to the kahoot that I create just so that when a professor goes to present this kahoot to the class, they would be able to further explain the correct answer. This was so the audience (college students) would not only be given the correct answer but they would also have an explanation for it. As I played around with Kahoot I found out that there is a way to integrate slides into the actual game as it is being presented. The image above is an example of a kahoot that was created to teach students about the cardiovascular system. After the actual question is asked and the correct answer is show, the following slide will explain the answer deeper and allow for the students to copy. This is the method I want to use because I think it will be very easy for the students to pay attention and also take notes from the slides in the game. I like the way this kahoot is set up and plan to follow this but I want to include a bit more information in the slides portion if I can. I also plan on possibly creating scenarios and then using it as a true or false question. This way I can explain why the question is true/false.

Writing in a conversational tone

This issue has popped up in a few of your posts/comments on the blog, so I wanted to follow up in a more visible way. Read on for some tips on how to produce a text in a conversational (as opposed to formal/academic) tone.

It’s not easy for many of us to write in a conversational tone–you’re not imagining that. In large measure, our writing style is the product of our education, and you’ve spent a lot of years being trained to write in a formal, academic style (and perhaps chastised when you produced something other than that). Furthermore, much of our writing lives have been defined by minimum word counts, which drive us to embellish our writing so we can inflate our word totals.

Conversational writing, therefore, means cutting against our habits and conducting ourselves in ways that are counter to our training. We need to develop new habits in order to do this effectively.

So, a few words of advice

  • as you try to figure out what you want to say and how to say it, talk it out–open up a voice memo or other audio recording on your phone, and pretend that you’re talking to someone about your topic. Prompt yourself with something casual like “what I’m really trying to say is….” and see what you come up with. The recording ensures you won’t lose the nuggets you come to.
  • freewrite–try not to edit as you compose, but rather let yourself keep writing for a set period of time (10-15 minutes is a good starting point). This helps you to maintain your chain of thought and to get more comfortable hearing your ‘voice’ on the subject.  Once you’ve written, then read your text aloud. Look for the key ideas, then …..
  • pull out the key ideas into a fresh file, and start building a text around them. This helps you to avoid feeling wedded to the first words you wrote, which are often just verbal treading-water as we try to get started on our thinking.
  • when you’ve got something to work with, take your time revising, and do so with a particular focus on
    • employing visual organization (section headings, lists where appropriate; brief, focused paragraphs)
    • leading with the big idea (in each paragraph and in the text as a whole)
    • using visual representations of information where appropriate (infographics, charts, graphs, etc.)–this allows readers to engage in the ways that are most comfortable for them

Note that the revising will take time and discipline. One of your tasks later this week will be working through a guided revision process. Check out the Review and Revision worksheet in the Unit 3 dropbox on Blackboard.

Discussion prompt week 8/16

https://www.forbes.com/sites/janicegassam/2018/10/16/how-to-increase-female-representation-in-the-stem-field – It could not embed the link for some reason, so I will attach pictures at the bottom. I apologize for the inconvenience.

As a part of one of her many contributions to Forbes Magazine, Janice Gassam Asare, a strategic provider for diversity, equity, and inclusion, published “How to Increase Female Representation in The STEM Field”. In this piece, Asare does a brilliant job at luring the reader into wanting to understand more about a select number of barriers that women face when pursuing careers in STEM. Her magazine article provided a unique structure that made her piece so successful. Her title begins by stating the intent of the writing, which is to provide insight into how to increase female representation. In other words, provide the reader a solution to the problem. After the title, the author gives her reasoning as to why she wrote the article at that current time. I thought this was useful because instead of just going straight into the problem and then presenting the solution, Asare stated that October 11 was the International Day of the Girl. She then went into the meaning of the day, a day to recognize all of the obstacles that young girls encounter. Asare then points out to the reader that the STEM industry, instead of breaking down barriers, has numerous barriers that make it difficult for women. Women have to exceed expectations to have a chance to enter the field. Asare makes her writing stand out because she seamlessly provides statistics, to where it does not seem like she is trying to force anything. I think this is a sign of a great writer because, as we all know from experience, it is sometimes difficult to blend thoughts with statistics or evidence. 

After providing some background information on the problem, Asare provides the problems to the subject at hand. She writes them out in a list, where each issue is in bold for the reader to easily notice if they are skimming. I think that this is unique and a great way to get the reader’s attention. Personally, if I am reading an article for fun and there are no bold headers or anything to grab my attention, I get lost and find it difficult to concentrate. Bold headings always seem to draw me back into the article, so I appreciate the author’s use of bold letters in this case. Along with the problem sections, solutions are provided in the same location. Often, writers split problems and solutions into two sections, so I thought this was unique.

What stands out to me most about reading this article is purely the format and the writing style that Asare uses. She uses more of an assertive tone with the reader but still manages to convey her message. It is not conversational as many other magazines are, as they often refer to the readers and themselves as we or us, rather, she addresses the issue as this issue. I thought that was interesting just because usually, writers try to ask: how can we fix this? 

Overall, I liked the format of this article. I believe that Asare played to her strengths and focused on things that she was passionate about herself. She was confident about the subject most likely due to her experience with the issue at hand, being a strategic provider for diversity, equity, and inclusion. Her tone helped illustrate this, as it was confident and efficiently conveyed the message. There are things that we can control to help women break into STEM-related careers. Her use of bold letters also stood out to me. Also, being the short article that it was, only a page or page and a half in length, it conveyed the message well and helped illustrate that you do not have to overcrowd your paper with statistics to be successful at giving your point. 

There were some things that I found might help create my article, others not so much. Although I found it interesting that she posed problems and solutions in the same paragraph, I did not like this format. I would rather keep the two separate, as I believe that is a cleaner, more easily understood format.

I did, however, like how she posed a solution in her title. I think that I will use that for my project. I also appreciated how she used bold letters for each of her sections that were on a new subject/solution, so I plan on using bold headings for my project as well. Her use of lists made it simple to scan through, so I plan on using a list for the reasons why the underrepresentation of women in STEM exists. I think this will make it easier for the reader and for me to plan through my writing. 

Summary of article: Tone- Assertive, trying to illustrate point. Length- Short, around a page. Graphics- One image of women in suits before writing in article begins. Style & Syntax- More descriptive about the issue at hand and solution than anything. Somewhat short, easily read sentences due to length and word choice (simple wording, no big words). Level of detail- Does not really dive into the subject deep, just gives the reader a glance into the subject. Formality- Not as formal as a scholarly article, but not conversational. It stands somewhere in the middle, but shifting more towards conversational/informal in my opinion.

I look forward to using this article to create my writing piece, as I feel I learned a lot from just analyzing this short article. 

Week of 8/16

This type of writing gets to the point quickly compared to a book or an article. It categorizes the information in ways that allow the reader to navigate the piece easily and understand information is trying to be passed on to them in a timely manner. The sample gets the information across clearly by sectioning off the piece. It has statistics, bullets, and bold and italicized text which when someone is scanning the memo or doing a quick read they can quickly go to the most important points of the piece. All of the things that make the sample work well are the things that I like about it and why I want to do a memo for my project. It contains features that make it a quick read but is still able to get its point across.

There are a few things about this particular memo that I plan to do differently when creating mine. I would like mine to be shorter and less wordy and I would like to make it more fun and colorful. I do not necessarily think that these things make or break a memo, but I do think that they could make it easier and even more fun to read. I am planning to take what I liked and disliked from this example of a memo and use it to either incorporate or stay clear of when crafting my own version of a memo.