Calderwood Seminars in Public Writing: Environmental Science JournalismE&ES 399 -- Fall 2018 (version 09/5/2018)

Professor: Suzanne OConnell E&ESOffice: Exley 431, Lab 419, ext. 2262 (860 685-2262)Best way to contact me = email soconnell@wesleyan.eduOffice Hours: Wednesday 9-10 am, Friday 10:00-11:00 am and by appointmentClass meets: Wednesdays, 7:00-9:50 pm Location: Exley 309

Why WritingAs a science major you know how fun and important science is. As a human you know

how critical the environment is to the future of humanity. This course is designed around writing and editing to help you to become a better communicator of science.

Writing is an essential component of almost any career. You can’t be a good scientist unless you can write. Why not also write so that you can communicate what you know and what you’ve done to the broader public? This course will provide practice in different styles of writing and emphasize editing and rewriting.

Required Books (Both books are available in paperback and available on Amazon)Carson, R., Silent Spring, 1962. Houghton Mifflin Company, NY, NYGoodell, J. The Water Will Come, 2017. Little, Brown & Co., NY, NY.

Suggested books (also available in paperback and available on Amazon)Green, A., 2013. Writing Science in Plain English & Zinssser, W. On Writing Well

Course Description & Goals (plagiarized from many other Calderwood seminar syllabi)

Learning Objectives:1) Find your voice as a science writer so that you can effectively communicate science to

non-scientists by teaching you how to synthesize and communicate environmental science research to a lay audience.

2) To provide you with the opportunity to practice existing writing and editing skills and to acquire new ones appropriate for non-academic audiences. Because the aim of the course is to produce written work for non-experts, course assignments will de-emphasize some academic writing habits. Keep it simple.

3) Develop the ability to discuss environmental science topics with colleagues and friends.4) Acquire the skill and discipline to develop your own writing practice.

Course OrganizationBy participating in this course, you are joining a learning community focused on public

writing and critical thinking. The course is organized around a series of writing assignments (see below). Roughly an hour of each class meeting will be devoted to class discussion related to the week’s reading. This will help to clarify information in the texts. The remainder of each class period will be dedicated to you discussing your work and the work of your classmates. Each

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assignment will be done in pairs with one student in the role of writer and the other in the role of editor.

The format of this class will be a collaborative writing workshop. Writing and editing exercises will be the centerpiece of the course. There will be five written assignments over the course of the semester, usually 700 to 1200 words in length. (Include word count with each submission.) These assignments will be due at regular intervals, pretty much every other week. And much of the time, you will alternate being a “Writer” and an “Editor.” Writers will submit drafts to editors for initial comments before submitting a revised draft to the entire class.

To keep the groups clear, the two groups will be identified as Penguins (PG) or Polar Bears (PB).

Course Requirements and LogisticsClass Attendance and Participation. We are a learning community. All participants are expected to come to class on time and prepared. Please DO NOT use your cell phone during class. We will have an official break for cell phones, bathroom, and food/beverage purchases. I expect that you will learn from each other as much as from me. The workshop format of the class sessions makes preparation and attendance imperative. In discussing public writing, we will draw upon and critique class members’ drafts. Please adhere to a high level of professionalism and kindness and make every effort to keep comments and criticisms constructive. Each week you should come prepared with extensive notes, suggestions, and ideas and reactions for the week’s assigned authors. Each participant must therefore read all of the essays posted before class.

Departmental Seminars. Speakers are invited to give seminars to the E&ES Department on some Thursdays, from 11:50-1:00. You are expected to attend these seminars. With the exception of Steve d’Hondt (October 11) and Kathryn Hansen (October 25), you may substitute attending a seminar in another science department for an E&ES seminar. We will briefly discuss the presenters techniques and skills in communicating their work.

Editing is not an easy job. Your job is to make the story better, even great. Like writing there’s no specific formula, but here’s a link to a brief article I found useful. https://www.writerscookbook.com/7-signs-of-a-great-editor/Mark Twain said, “I am not the editor of a newspaper and shall always try to do right and be good so that God will not make me one.”

Some Class Policies1. Extensions will not be granted in this course. Each student’s work is dependent upon every

other student faithfully completing the assignments according to the deadlines.2. For written work, full discussion of material and sharing of ideas with other students is

desirable before writing begins; however, the final written product should be done alone. 3. Formal references are not required. But I do want to know where information you use comes

from. If you use an outside source, please include a hyperlink to that source.4. E-Mailing: All non-personal questions about the course should be posted to the course

Moodle Discussion so all of the students can benefit from the information shared. I encourage you to try to answer each other’s questions about course content and information. Particularly with regard to content, explaining concepts to other people is the surest way to learn those concepts.

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Activity schedule as a tableEveryone reads assigned documentDraft #1 Writer sends to editor (recommend by Sunday noon)Editor sends comments, edits and original copy back writer & to Suzanne (recommend by Monday noon)Draft #2 post to Class Moodle by Tuesday, 9 am.Everyone reads all of the Draft #2 submissions and prepares commentsClass workshop Wednesday afternoon on Draft #2Draft #3 (Final) to Suzanne and Moodle Wednesday before class (one week after workshopping)

Activity schedule (from the point of view of the writer) as a Figure

Stand-alone submissionsMid-semester Reflection due to Moodle between 6 pm October 3 and noon October 6.End of Semester Reflection & Portfolio. At the end of the semester, you will turn in a portfolio of your work with Drafts #1 and #3.

Students with Disabilities: Wesleyan University is committed to ensuring that all qualified students with disabilities are afforded an equal opportunity to participate in, and benefit from, its programs and services. To receive accommodations, a student must have a disability as defined by the ADA. Since accommodations may require early planning and generally are not provided retroactively, please contact Accessibility Services as soon as possible. If you have a disability, or think that you might have a disability, please contact Accessibility Services in order to arrange an appointment to discuss your needs and the process for requesting accommodations.

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Accessibility Services is located in North College, rooms 021/022, or can be reached by email (accessibility@wesleyan.edu) or phone (860-685-5581).

Weekly Syllabus -- Brief

Wk Date Topic

Writer

Editor

1 Sept. 5 Introduction to Course, N. Oreskes assignment    2 Sept.12 Government Document - Precipitation PG PB3 Sept. 19 Government Document - Extreme Storms PB PG4 Sept. 26 Journal Article - King et al. 2018 PG PB5 Oct. 3 Journal Article - Beerling et al., 2018 PB PG

  Oct. 6 By noon, mid semester reflection due to Moodle    6 Oct. 10 Book - Carson, Silent Spring PG PB7 Oct. 13 Lamont Open House- required (Saturday)    8 Oct. 17 Public Lecture/ d’Hondt presentation PB PG9 Oct. 24 Kathryn Hansen - NASA    

10 Oct. 31 Public Lecture/Open House Report PG PB  Nov. 7 Suzanne @ GSA- no class    11 Nov. 14 Book – Goodell, The Water Will Come PB PG

  Nov. 21 Thanksgiving - no class    12 Nov. 28 Op Ed - Topic of your choice PG PB13 Dec. 5 Op Ed - Topic of your choice PB PG

  Dec. 15 Final reflection (cover memo) & portfolio due    

Notes on submitting documents All documents must be submitted as MS Word documents. (Between editor and writer

you may use any format you choose.) Use double spacing and include page numbers. All submissions except the OpEd may include a Figure. The figure must have a caption

that counts in your word count. If a single word count is given for an assignment, e.g. 800 words, it can by +/- 50 words

(e.g. 750-850). Unless it is common knowledge, facts or information from other sources should include a

hyperlink. See example in Moodle from “The Conversation.”

Details of Assignments

FIRST DAY Pre-class Assignment.Watch Naomi Oreskes TED talk: “Why we should trust scientists.”

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxyQNEVOElU). Bring to class and upload to Moodle by noon 9/5, an opening paragraph of a story that might appear in the NY Times about why we

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should trust scientists. You may write this jointly with another member of the class. If you do this, both of you should submit the same document.

GOVERNMENT DOCUMENT: Write an 800 word summary for your local newspaperhttps://science2017.globalchange.gov/

Climate Science Special Report: Fourth National Climate Assessment, Volume I. As a key part of the Fourth National Climate Assessment (NCA4), the U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP) oversaw the production of this stand-alone report of the state of science relating to climate change and its physical impacts.

The Climate Science Special Report (CSSR) is designed to be an authoritative assessment of the science of climate change, with a focus on the United States, to serve as the foundation for efforts to assess climate-related risks and inform decision-making about responses. In accordance with this purpose, it does not include an assessment of literature on climate change mitigation, adaptation, economic valuation, or societal responses, nor does it include policy recommendations.

Much of this report is written at a level more appropriate for a scientific audience, though the Executive Summary is intended to be accessible to a broader audience.

Executive summary – Read firstWuebbles, D.J., D.W. Fahey, K.A. Hibbard, B. DeAngelo, S. Doherty, K. Hayhoe, R. Horton, J.P. Kossin, P.C. Taylor, A.M. Waple, and C.P. Weaver, 2017: Executive Summary of the Climate Science Special Report: Fourth National Climate Assessment, Volume I [Wuebbles, D.J., D.W. Fahey, K.A. Hibbard, D.J. Dokken, B.C. Stewart, and T.K. Maycock (eds.)]. U.S. Global Change Research Program, Washington, DC, USA, 26 pp.

PrecipitationEasterlying, D.R., Kunkel, K.E., Arnold, J.R., Knutson,T., LaGrande, A.N, Leung, L.R., Vose, R.S., Waliser, D.E., and Wehner, M.F., Precipitation changes in the United States. In Climate Science Special Report: Fourth National Climate Assessment, Volume I [Wuebbles, D.J., D.W. Fahey, K.A. Hibbard, D.J. Dokken, B.C. Stewart, and T.K. Maycock (eds.)]. U.S. Global Change Research Program, Washington, DC, USA, pp.207-230, doi: 10.7930/J0H993CC.

Extreme StormsKossin, J.P., Hall, T., Knutson, T., Kunkel, K.E., Trapp, R.J., Waliser, D.E., and Wehner, M.F., 2017. Extreme Storms. In: Climate Science Special Report: Fourth National Climate Assessment, Volume I [Wuebbles, D.J., D.W. Fahey, K.A. Hibbard, D.J. Dokken, B.C. Stewart, and T.K. Maycock (eds.)]. U.S. Global Change Research Program, Washington, DC, USA, pp.257-276 doi: 10.7930/J07S7KXX.

JOURNAL ARTICLES: Write an 800 -1000 word summary of research to non-science funding agency.

Peer-reviewed articles, published in journals, represent a lot of work and are a primary way to communicate that work. Many journals are published by scientific societies (e.g. AAAS, AGU, GSA) others by for-profit companies, such as Elsevier. Some journals are extremely prestigious (e.g. Science and Nature) with high rejection rates, while others have a narrower

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focus and may be easier to get published in. For the first article, I have selected a focused, detailed article on an aspect of the cryosphere (ice) published in a respected journal. The second article takes a broader and hopeful look at a possible way to sequester carbon and mitigate climate change and is published in a more prestigious journal and for a broader audience.

King, O., Dehecq, A., Quincey, D., and Carrivick, J., 2018, Contrasting geometric and dynamic evolution of lake and land-terminating glaciers in the central Himalaya: Global and Planetary Change, v. 167, p. 46-60.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0921818117305854?via%3Dihub

Beerling, D.J., Leake, J.R., Long, S. P., Scholes, J. D., Ton, J., Nelson, P. N., Bird, M., Kantzas, E., Taylor, L. L., Sarkar, B., Kelland, M., DeLucia, E., Kantola, I., Muller, C., Rau, G., and Hansen, J., 2018. Farming with crops and rocks to address global climate, food and soil security, Nature Plants, 4, 138-14. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41477-018-0108-y.pdf

BOOK REVIEW: Books can change the world. In recent times, an important environmental book was: An

Inconvenient Truth. This is a classic and I recommend your reading it. In this class we will read two books, a classic (Silent Spring), written by a biologist and The Water Will Come, written by a journalist. Both are available in paperback from Amazon for under $18.

Rachel Carson, Silent Spring, 1962. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, I recommend the 50th edition. If you choose a different edition, the additional material from the 50th edition, introduction by Linda Lear and afterword by E.O. Wilson, will be posted on Moodle.

Goodell, Jeff, The Water Will Come, 2018. Black Inc.

OPEN HOUSE/Public LectureLamont Doherty Earth Observatory (LDEO) or Lamont, is part of Columbia University

and a premier earth science research center. Every year they sponsor an Open House, where the public is invited to visit research displays and attend public lectures. Some of you may have attended a previous Open House. We will spend about 4 hours at the open house during which time you are free to attend any lectures and displays you choose. For the writing assignment, you may choose to write about the entire experience or a single exhibit or lecture. If you are unable to attend, please let me know ASAP and we will identify an alternative public lecture/ communication assignment.

JOURNALIST VISITKathryn Hansen, a science journalist from NASA, will visit class on Wednesday, October

24.  Please come to class having read at least three of her posts at https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/. Before class post two questions to Moodle that you would like to ask her or discuss with her.  She will be giving the E&ES noon colloquium on Thursday, October 25 and you are expected to attend.

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Op-Ed topic of your choice OpEds are an opportunity to write an opinion piece about a topic you care about. There’s

a clear formula for writing an OpEd, which will be posted on Moodle and follows the instructions provided in the OpEd Project (http://www.theopedproject.org/ ) .

Before writing your OpEd read these three OpEds and come to class prepared to discuss what makes an effective OpEd.

King, M. L. 1963. Letter From a Birmingham Jail Steinem, G. 1978. If Men Could MenstruateMcKibben, B., 2018. Free California of Fossil Fuels

REFLECTIONS

Reflection 1, Due between October 3 @ 10 pm and October 6@ noon. This is a mid-point check to give you (and me) the opportunity to digest some of what you’ve learned as a writer, editor and conversationalist. Submit 400-800 words addressing the prompt: (You may address 1 or all 4 of the prompts.)

What have I gained as a public science writer from this course?What is the most meaningful thing I have learned to do?What are my goals for the remainder of the course?What would make this course a more effective learning experience for me?

Reflection 2 (cover memo) + Portfolio Due December 15, by 5 pm (End of exam period)Write a cover memo containing reflections on your work (700-1000 words). These

reflections might include thoughts on how your skills in E&ES developed and on how your writing skills improved over the semester and/or address the following questions:

1. How have your writing/editing skills developed over the semester?2. In what area did you improve the most? What improvement(s) did you make? 3. What do you consider your best piece of work and why? Or your biggest achievement

and why?4. How important was peer editing to the development of your writing skills?5. What suggestions do you have for the next offering of the course?

Please assemble the work you submitted this semester into one file. The first page(s) should be your cover memo (yes you'll be submitting it twice), then a Table of Contents, followed by your original draft (Draft #1 seen only by you and your editor) and your final draft (Draft #3), both without any comments for each of the assignments. Table of Contents should list the assignment, e.g. Journal Article, which article (just the topic, your don't have to write out the entire reference, and the dates they were due.  Please number the pages.

Let’s have a great semester!

http://www.trustees.org/see-polar-bears-in-the-wild/ https://www.travelandleisure.com/travel-news/penguins-awestruck-by-yoyo

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