UBC Wiki - User contributions [en]

Podcasts/Tutoring/Working with Students to Support Tutoring Sessions

2015-08-25T21:53:36Z

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Working with Students to Support Tutoring Sessions

Before students attend their first tutoring session, encourage them to:

#Gather examples of their writing (after it has been graded, and when it incorporates feedback if possible) that showcases the specific areas that they wish to work on.
#Speak to you (as their instructor) or to a TA to clarify any feedback and issues that may be present with their writing, so that they are clear on what they wish to develop (and why) before attending a session.
#Reflect on their writing process so that they are better able to explain any difficulties they have (e.g. do they struggle to develop a writing outline before starting to write, do they find it difficult to create an effective thesis, or do they need help to design a better editing method?)

After students have attended their first tutoring session, encourage them to:

#Write a brief summary of their session and share this with you as something of a battle plan. This will help you keep an eye out for specific elements of their writing that they are working on, so that you may give even more tailored feedback in future assignments. It will also create a form of accountability, which will encourage students to work on what they have agreed with their tutor(s).
#Book a follow-up session with their tutor(s) for the same reason. Adding extra motivation and accountability to the process will help students to continue developing their writing skills.

*If requested, provide students with examples of other work that is particularly strong in the areas that they are trying to improve, so that they can view examples while honing their skills. This need not be from the same class if you are worried about confidentiality or plagiarism issues.

Podcasts/Tutoring/Working with Students to Support Tutoring Sessions

2015-08-25T21:53:13Z

Anitar: Created page with "Working with Students to Support Tutoring Sessions Before students attend their first tutoring session, encourage them to: #Gather examples of their writing (a..."

Working with Students to Support Tutoring Sessions

Before students attend their first tutoring session, encourage them to:

#Gather examples of their writing (after it has been graded, and when it incorporates feedback if possible) that showcases the specific areas that they wish to work on.
#Speak to you (as their instructor) or to a TA to clarify any feedback and issues that may be present with their writing, so that they are clear on what they wish to develop (and why) before attending a session.
#Reflect on their writing process so that they are better able to explain any difficulties they have (e.g. do they struggle to develop a writing outline before starting to write, do they find it difficult to create an effective thesis, or do they need help to design a better editing method?)

After students have attended their first tutoring session, encourage them to:

#Write a brief summary of their session and share this with you as something of a battle plan. This will help you keep an eye out for specific elements of their writing that they are working on, so that you may give even more tailored feedback in future assignments. It will also create a form of accountability, which will encourage students to work on what they have agreed with their tutor(s).
#Book a follow-up session with their tutor(s) for the same reason. Adding extra motivation and accountability to the process will help students to continue developing their writing skills.

**If requested, provide students with examples of other work that is particularly strong in the areas that they are trying to improve, so that they can view examples while honing their skills. This need not be from the same class if you are worried about confidentiality or plagiarism issues.

Podcasts/Tutoring/Preparing Students for Tutoring Session

2015-08-25T21:49:59Z

Anitar: Created page with "Preparing Students for Tutoring Sessions Although the onus is firmly on the student to prepare for a tutoring session, you can help them do this effectively by providi..."

Preparing Students for Tutoring Sessions

Although the onus is firmly on the student to prepare for a tutoring session, you can help them do this effectively by providing feedback on areas of their writing that could be improved. Additionally, tutoring sessions are most effective when students target one or two areas, so encourage students to look over old writing assignments to try to build a picture of where their weaker areas lie.

Remind students that tutors will not proofread or edit their work, nor will they check over homework. They will help students become better writers by challenging them to think about how best to present their topics and by focusing on the writing process.

You should mention to students that generalist writing tutors will help them assess how well they develop pieces of writing (e.g. the logic of their arguments, the organisation of their writing). They will also help with general writing skills, such as grammar and the use of mechanics. Specialist science writing tutors will instead focus more on discipline-specific requirements, such as how to integrate sources (which is very different from the way non-scientists do this). They will also be able to help students identify different niche requirements for science writing. Whether students book tutoring time with generalist or specialist tutors depends on the goals they have for developing as writers.

Podcasts/Tutoring/Encouraging Students to Seek Tutoring Help

2015-08-25T21:47:56Z

Anitar: Created page with "Encouraging Students to Seek Tutoring Help Many students think tutoring for writing is only meant for those with major deficiencies in their writing, or for those who..."

Encouraging Students to Seek Tutoring Help

Many students think tutoring for writing is only meant for those with major deficiencies in their writing, or for those who are transitioning into a non-native language. In reality, tutoring is suitable for almost all students, including those who are strong writers. Writing centres and writing tutors work with postgraduate, undergraduate, domestic and international students who wish to improve specific elements of their writing.

A particularly good time to remind students that they can access writing tutoring is when you set new assignments or grade old ones. Students are often aware of elements of their writing that they can improve on, but there is nothing like a new challenge or the assessment of an old one to spur them on to address these issues.

At UBC, students are able to register and book appointments at the Writing Centre online, up to three weeks in advance. They can book up to one hour per week. Most other universities have their own writing centres and/or specialist support services.

Podcasts/Tutoring

2015-08-25T21:47:31Z

Anitar: Created page with "===Encouraging Students to Seek Tutoring Help=== {{:Podcasts/Tutoring/Encouraging Students to Seek Tutoring Help}} ===Preparing Students for Tutoring Session=== {{:Podcasts..."

===Encouraging Students to Seek Tutoring Help===

{{:Podcasts/Tutoring/Encouraging Students to Seek Tutoring Help}}

===Preparing Students for Tutoring Session===

{{:Podcasts/Tutoring/Preparing Students for Tutoring Session}}

===Working with Students to Support Tutoring Sessions===

{{:Podcasts/Tutoring/Working with Students to Support Tutoring Sessions}}

Podcasts/Grading and Providing Feedback/Training Teaching Assistants

2015-08-17T17:39:01Z

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Grading and Providing Feedback: Training Teaching Assistants – Calibration

A major concern when grading assignments in large classes/sections is the need to divide the grading load among instructors and teaching assistants, while maintaining consistency. This guide is designed to help you run a calibration workshop to achieve that consistency.

Before

1: Design a specific rubric

Design a rubric that provides an objective guide as to how every mark should be distributed. Start by stating what a student needs to include in their answer to obtain 1 mark in a question. Then, show specifically what additional material they need to include to obtain all variations in marks, up to the maximum available. Such an approach should leave a grader in no doubt as to what they should award any given answer.

If possible, do this for open-ended essay questions, as well as short-answer questions. Providing ambiguous criteria, such as '''''award between 5 marks (for exceptional transitions) and 0 marks (for no transitions or very weak transitions)''''' will result in very confused graders. Conversely, stating something quantifiable (such as '''''count the number of individual errors in transitions and deduct 1 mark for each from a starting 5 marks)''''' makes it easier for graders to be objective.

2: Select a handful of papers to be graded by everyone

If the assignment has been completed in previous years or terms, select a variety of papers that showcase a range of grades (some high, some low, and some in the middle). Try to choose 3-5 papers to give enough of a sample and provide variety without providing so many that graders are overworked before the real grading begins.

If the assignment is a new one, compile some fictional, expected answers that should obtain a range of grades when graded with your rubric.

Ask your graders to work alone and use your rubric to grade these assignments.

3: Hold a workshop where all graders discuss the grades they assigned

Go through each graded question with everyone, and discuss the grades that were assigned. Where these differ, discuss the reasons for such differences with the graders and troubleshoot the rubric (and graders’ interpretations) together until everyone is confident they would award the same grades for each question.

4: Revise rubric

It may be necessary to make changes to the rubric where graders provided different grades for certain questions. If the same answer to a given question sees a wide range of grades from graders, this is an indication that the rubric needs to be improved for this question.

Make sure all graders contribute to this process and leave with the new rubric, confident that they can use it objectively.

Although this stage seems like adding another big time commitment to the process, it can save a lot of time further down the line; you will need to spend considerably less time double-checking grading, answering questions about interpreting the rubric and/or results etc., if you tighten up the rubric before grading begins.

During

5: Encourage open discussion among graders as they grade

There will likely be ambiguities that only arise when students complete assignments due to a lack of clarity in certain sections of the rubric, or due to unforeseen – but not technically incorrect – answers arising.

If graders communicate these with one another (over email, in focus groups, or in class planning time), they will help to devise objective solutions much faster. Flagging troublesome answers with one another will draw in feedback from other graders, and a majority vote may prove helpful in deciding how to grade such responses.

After

6: Compare mean grades and variation around these for each grader

There will probably be inherent variation in grades (and in the mean grade and the variation around this) in different sections. However, when section sizes are large, this should be relatively minimal.

If one section does have a significantly higher mean grade, it would be wise to review a handful of papers graded from that section (perhaps even passing these out to graders from other sections). If these different graders grade the papers a little lower, it might be that a standardised adjustment needs to be made to all papers. At the least, some further investigation should take place to make sure these students have not received artificially high grades.

7: Compare random papers from each grader

Even if mean grades are similar between sections, it is good practice to compare papers from different graders to make sure there is close agreement between them. Some variation is to be expected, but if different graders differ greatly in the grades they provide for each assignment, then further investigation is merited.

General Tips

A: Consider randomly assigning papers to graders

Making all assignments anonymous to the grader removes any subjectivity in how they will approach their grading. It can also pay to split assignments up from different sections, or have graders only grade assignments that come from sections they don’t teach.

B: Eliminate all ambiguity/subjectivity from rubrics

Try to provide clear, non-ambiguous scales for all questions, so that every mark can be accounted for. Try to avoid framing subjective scales and instead provide a quantifiable means of grading every answer. For example, try not to ask graders to award 1 - 3 marks based on an answer being poor – excellent; instead ask the graders to award 3 marks for an answer with no mistakes, 2 for one with one or two mistakes, and 1 for an answer with more than two mistakes, for example.

C: Advise graders to grade the same question back-to-back

When grading an assignment, it will save time and enhance objectivity if graders work through the same question sequentially on different students’ assignments, rather than working through each assignment from Question ''A'' to Question ''X''. It is easier to memorize the specific grading criteria for a given question on the rubric than to work with different questions, one after another.

Podcasts/Grading and Providing Feedback/Training Teaching Assistants

2015-08-17T17:38:33Z

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Podcasts/Grading and Providing Feedback/Handy Hints

2015-08-12T23:54:19Z

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Grading and Providing Effective Feedback Handy Hints

The following two handy hints should help you provide effective feedback while saving as much time as possible when grading.

1: Use an Annotation Key

When providing feedback on open-ended questions and essays, you might wish to use an annotation key to highlight similar errors, rather than explaining them again and again in your written feedback (e.g. choose one shorthand symbol for grammatical issues, another for content weaknesses, and another for poor logical development or argumentation etc.).

Spend some time explaining each error that has its own symbol when it first occurs, but afterwards simply mark repeated errors with the same annotated symbol. For example, if you notice a student shifts tense repeatedly within his/her sentences, and this makes the writing hard to follow, you should explain why this is the case at the point in the writing where this first occurs. You may wish to then provide an edited version of the sentence to make it clear what you mean, but try to refrain from editing too much of a student’s work (this is very time consuming and isn’t your job). When the student next shifts tense inappropriately, simply use the same symbol to indicate this.

Consider using different coloured pens for different errors. Depending on the assignment and its length, this can be more trouble than it is worth, and it does make things more time consuming. However, if an assignment is relatively short or if you are only assessing skills relating to a few concepts, it may provide a quick and easy way to group similar errors and/or feedback for improvement together.

Always remember to include the annotation key so that students understand which specific error/weakness relates to each symbol and/or colour.

Use the same symbols and/or colours for the same errors/weaknesses for all assignments that you grade. This will help you save time and may also encourage students to work together to improve their own writing via peer review.

2: Provide a Brief Feedback Summary

When you provide a final summary of feedback, try to make comments that could be used to improve the piece of writing, rather than attempting to edit the writing or list each and every specific weakness, which your annotation key and its symbols should already do.

Focus your feedback on one or two key areas of improvement. If a student’s work needs discussion beyond this, consider asking/requiring them to addend office hours to go over feedback in person because this will often be quicker and easier for both parties. When choosing what to focus on, target higher-order concerns over lower-order concerns (see Table 1).

Table 1: Higher-order concerns are more important in dictating the quality of written work, whereas lower-order concerns can usually be addressed more easily in future writing assignments once students are aware of their specific areas of weakness.

{| class="wikitable" border="1"
|-
!Example Higher-Order Concerns
!Example Lower-Order Concerns
|-
|Lack of organization (paragraph issues)
|Overuse of jargon
|-
|Poor thesis and development statements
|Overuse of the passive voice
|-
|Weak evidence provided for any claims
|Use of inappropriate analogies
|-
|No citations, or errors in citations
|Lack of punctuation
|-
|Poor logical development/argumentation
|Inappropriate style for numbers and units
|-
|Poor grammar
|Spelling errors
|}

It is easy to overlook the need to praise students for things they do well, especially when time is limited, but it is important to let them know what they are good at. This not only encourages them but also makes sure they don’t spend time trying to improve something that is already satisfactory, so make sure you add positive elements to your feedback.

Encourage students to keep lists of the things they need to improve, so that they focus on these the next time it comes to completing a similar assignment. Suggest that they should read your feedback from past assignments when editing/revising their work to reduce the chance that they make similar errors again (this is common).

Podcasts/Grading and Providing Feedback/Handy Hints

2015-08-12T23:52:52Z

Anitar:

Grading and Providing Effective Feedback Handy Hints

The following two handy hints should help you provide effective feedback while saving as much time as possible when grading.

1: Use an Annotation Key

When providing feedback on open-ended questions and essays, you might wish to use an annotation key to highlight similar errors, rather than explaining them again and again in your written feedback (e.g. choose one shorthand symbol for grammatical issues, another for content weaknesses, and another for poor logical development or argumentation etc.).

Spend some time explaining each error that has its own symbol when it first occurs, but afterwards simply mark repeated errors with the same annotated symbol. For example, if you notice a student shifts tense repeatedly within his/her sentences, and this makes the writing hard to follow, you should explain why this is the case at the point in the writing where this first occurs. You may wish to then provide an edited version of the sentence to make it clear what you mean, but try to refrain from editing too much of a student’s work (this is very time consuming and isn’t your job). When the student next shifts tense inappropriately, simply use the same symbol to indicate this.

Consider using different coloured pens for different errors. Depending on the assignment and its length, this can be more trouble than it is worth, and it does make things more time consuming. However, if an assignment is relatively short or if you are only assessing skills relating to a few concepts, it may provide a quick and easy way to group similar errors and/or feedback for improvement together.

Always remember to include the annotation key so that students understand which specific error/weakness relates to each symbol and/or colour.

Use the same symbols and/or colours for the same errors/weaknesses for all assignments that you grade. This will help you save time and may also encourage students to work together to improve their own writing via peer review.

2: Provide a Brief Feedback Summary

When you provide a final summary of feedback, try to make comments that could be used to improve the piece of writing, rather than attempting to edit the writing or list each and every specific weakness, which your annotation key and its symbols should already do.

Focus your feedback on one or two key areas of improvement. If a student’s work needs discussion beyond this, consider asking/requiring them to addend office hours to go over feedback in person because this will often be quicker and easier for both parties. When choosing what to focus on, target higher-order concerns over lower-order concerns (see Table 1).

Table 1: Higher-order concerns are more important in dictating the quality of written work, whereas lower-order concerns can usually be addressed more easily in future writing assignments once students are aware of their specific areas of weakness.

{| class="wikitable" border="1"
|-
!Example Higher-Order Concerns
!Example Lower-Order Concerns
|-
|Lack of organization (paragraph issues)
|Poor thesis and development statements
|Weak evidence provided for any claims
|No citations, or errors in citations
|Poor logical development/argumentation
|Poor grammar
|-
|Overuse of jargon
|Overuse of the passive voice
|Use of inappropriate analogies
|Lack of punctuation
|Inappropriate style for numbers and units
|Spelling errors
|}

It is easy to overlook the need to praise students for things they do well, especially when time is limited, but it is important to let them know what they are good at. This not only encourages them but also makes sure they don’t spend time trying to improve something that is already satisfactory, so make sure you add positive elements to your feedback.

Encourage students to keep lists of the things they need to improve, so that they focus on these the next time it comes to completing a similar assignment. Suggest that they should read your feedback from past assignments when editing/revising their work to reduce the chance that they make similar errors again (this is common).

Podcasts/Grading and Providing Feedback/Introduction

2015-08-12T23:44:17Z

Anitar: Created page with "Grading student papers with efficiency is a vital skill for instructors to hone, but providing effective feedback on these papers is every bit as important. Without detailed,..."

Grading student papers with efficiency is a vital skill for instructors to hone, but providing effective feedback on these papers is every bit as important. Without detailed, personal feedback, students may feel as though their efforts have gone unnoticed, and, more importantly, they may not know how to address conceptual weaknesses in future work. However, instructors and TA's have limited time available for grading, especially when teaching large classes.

In this podcast, we hear from two instructors with experience in balancing the grading load and providing feedback effectively and efficiently. They pass on their own tips to adopt or adapt, and also discuss other best-practice ideas to help plan how to provide feedback after grading different types of assignment.

We have created two complementary resources that include useful, summary tips that may prove helpful in shaping your grading and feedback plans, and in designing and calibrating rubrics to limit grading queries when the papers are already piled high on your desk. These are both available to download once you have contacted a site administrator here. Once you have provided your details (including a verifiable academic institution email address) you will receive a password that will enable you to download the materials.

Podcasts/Grading and Providing Feedback/Training Teaching Assistants

2015-08-12T23:42:18Z

Anitar: Created page with "Grading and Providing Feedback: Training Teaching Assistants – Calibration A major concern when grading assignments in large classes/sections is the need to divide t..."

Podcasts/Grading and Providing Feedback/Handy Hints

2015-08-12T23:41:27Z

Anitar: Created page with "Grading and Providing Effective Feedback Handy Hints The following two handy hints should help you provide effective feedback while saving as much time as possible whe..."

Grading and Providing Effective Feedback Handy Hints

The following two handy hints should help you provide effective feedback while saving as much time as possible when grading.

Podcasts/Grading and Providing Feedback

2015-08-12T23:40:45Z

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===Introduction===

{{:Podcasts/Grading and Providing Feedback/Introduction}}

===Grading and Providing Effective Feedback Handy Hints===

{{:Podcasts/Grading and Providing Feedback/Handy Hints}}

===Grading and Providing Feedback: Training Teaching Assistants - Calibration===

{{:Podcasts/Grading and Providing Feedback/Training Teaching Assistants}}

Podcasts/Grading and Providing Feedback

2015-08-12T23:40:22Z

Anitar: Created page with "===Introduction=== {{:Podcasts/Grading and Providing Feedback/Introduction}} ===Grading and Providing Effective Feedback Handy Hints=== {{:Podcasts/Grading and Providing Fe..."

===Introduction===

{{:Podcasts/Grading and Providing Feedback/Introduction}}

===Grading and Providing Effective Feedback Handy Hints===

{{:Podcasts/Grading and Providing Feedback/Handy Hints}}

===Grading and Providing Feedback: Training Teaching Assistants - Calibration}}

{{:Podcasts/Grading and Providing Feedback/Training Teaching Assistants}}

Podcasts/Peer Review

2015-08-12T23:37:32Z

Anitar: Created page with "===In-Class Practice Session=== {{:Peer Review/Introduction}} {{:Peer Review/Session Timeframe}} ===The Giving Effective Feedback - Peer Review - Student Handout=== {{:Usin..."

===In-Class Practice Session===
{{:Peer Review/Introduction}}

{{:Peer Review/Session Timeframe}}

===The Giving Effective Feedback - Peer Review - Student Handout===

{{:Using Peer Review/Giving Effective Feedback Student Handout}}

===Essay For Feedback - Peer Review Exercise===

{{:Using Peer Review/Essay For Feedback Peer Review Exercise}}

===Peer Review Rubric===

{{:Using Peer Review/Peer Review Rubric}}

Science:Science Writing Resources/Podcasts

2015-08-12T23:28:38Z

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==Peer Review==

{{:Podcasts/Peer Review}}

==Grading and Providing Feedback==

{{:Podcasts/Grading and Providing Feedback}}

==Tutoring==

{{:Podcasts/Tutoring}}

[[Category:Science Student Resources]]

Science:Science Writing Resources/Podcasts

2015-08-12T23:26:33Z

Anitar: Created page with "Category:Science Student Resources"

[[Category:Science Student Resources]]

Lessons and Workshops/Peer Review

2015-07-15T21:55:33Z

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{{:Peer Review/Introduction}}

===Session Timeframe===

{{:Peer Review/Session Timeframe}}

Peer Review/Lower-Order Concerns

2015-07-15T21:55:11Z

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Peer Review/High-Order Concerns

2015-07-15T21:54:52Z

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Researching and Drafting/Drafting

2015-07-13T23:00:51Z

Anitar: Created page with "Drafting 1. Again, set aside sufficient time to complete your first draft, and try to do so in one sitting if possible. By using your writing outline and the summaries..."

Drafting

1. Again, set aside sufficient time to complete your first draft, and try to do so in one sitting if possible. By using your writing outline and the summaries you created for each piece of literature you found, you should find this easier than you might fear. Remember that your first draft is about getting all of your ideas onto paper in some logical structure, but it doesn’t need to be perfect at this stage. You will edit at a later stage.

2. Try to make sure that whatever you write is balanced in terms of the content depth and length. For example, if you are asked to assess the strengths and weaknesses of something, try not to draft an answer that focuses on one side considerably more than the other.

3. Don’t worry about your grammar and the little mechanics of your writing at this stage, but do worry about the content and the logic. You will find that editing will be significantly easier if the logical structure of your piece is already well defined after you have completed your first draft. Don’t be afraid to explain what seems to be obvious to make sure a reader will understand why you are introducing certain points when you do.

4. Make sure you use citations when drafting that appropriately represent the sources you have used. Even if you devise some abbreviated style of referencing for this first draft, it is important that you include this information rather than leaving it for later edits. It will take more time in the long-run if you leave it for the edit, and you will also risk misrepresenting sources as you tweak certain phrasing as part of the natural editing process.

5. Take at least 24 hours off after completing your first draft so that you can begin the editing and redrafting process with a fresh mind. Remember that it is common to produce multiple drafts before settling on a version that you will hand in, and that the biggest key to success is allowing enough time to get through each revision.

Researching and Drafting/After Researching But Before Drafting

2015-07-13T22:45:56Z

Anitar: Created page with "After Researching But Before Drafting There is a very important intermediate step before you set about drafting your piece of writing; this is to create a writing outl..."

After Researching But Before Drafting

There is a very important intermediate step before you set about drafting your piece of writing; this is to create a writing outline that will help guide your drafting. We have created a specific resource for this ([[Guidelines for Effective Writing- Writing Process/Writing Outlines|see here]]), as well as a [[Writing Outlines/Video Resource|video]] that summarises some of the main concepts.

Once you have created your writing outline, you should use it to help you draft your initial piece of writing.

Researching and Drafting/Researching

2015-07-13T22:40:53Z

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Researching

1. Set aside plenty of time to research your topic in detail, but split your research into manageable chunks. For example, set yourself a goal of finding four or five useful primary sources each time you perform a literature search and then take a break. You are likely to be more successful this way than trying to find all you need in one mammoth session online.

2. Try to only look for (and use) the most recent sources to answer the assignment question. This is a golden tip in all forms of science writing, and even more so in popular writing such as newspaper articles, blog posts and press releases. Scientific thinking changes over time as knowledge builds and opinions shift, so it is important to be sure you are working with the latest material. When performing literature searches, you should start off by searching only in the last few years, before expanding that time if required.

3. It is often fine to use tertiary sources such as Wikipedia to help give you general background information, just as long as you then find the original sources and check your facts before assuming everything you have read is accurate. Lists of sources appear at the end of Wikipedia articles, and these are often of use when researching topics.

4. Use your writing centre tutors and/or librarians * to help you draw up a research plan and then use the services available to find your information. Bear in mind that if your assignment is going to be completed by a large number of classmates, your graders are likely to read similar answers again and again. By using a wider range of search facilities, you are likely to find extra information from sources that others will miss, and this should help your writing stand out.

:* Note that writing tutors are a great first port of call to help you get your ideas in order, and to help you decide what it is you want to research. However, librarians are the masters of research, so booking an appointment with one who has expertise in science-related materials is a great idea. This [http://help.library.ubc.ca/planning-your-research/tutorials/subject-specific-tutorials/ UBC library resource] contains other helpful hints for research.

5. Make short, annotated summaries of all the sources you find, as you find them. This will help you hugely when it comes to the next stages of writing, and will save you re-reading the same sources again and again to remember exactly what information each one contained. It is very difficult to recall which sources contain specific information once you have read a few, but it only takes a few minutes to write a little summary for each useful one you find.

Researching and Drafting/Researching

2015-07-13T22:40:01Z

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Researching

1. :Set aside plenty of time to research your topic in detail, but split your research into manageable chunks. For example, set yourself a goal of finding four or five useful primary sources each time you perform a literature search and then take a break. You are likely to be more successful this way than trying to find all you need in one mammoth session online.

2. :Try to only look for (and use) the most recent sources to answer the assignment question. This is a golden tip in all forms of science writing, and even more so in popular writing such as newspaper articles, blog posts and press releases. Scientific thinking changes over time as knowledge builds and opinions shift, so it is important to be sure you are working with the latest material. When performing literature searches, you should start off by searching only in the last few years, before expanding that time if required.

#It is often fine to use tertiary sources such as Wikipedia to help give you general background information, just as long as you then find the original sources and check your facts before assuming everything you have read is accurate. Lists of sources appear at the end of Wikipedia articles, and these are often of use when researching topics.
#Use your writing centre tutors and/or librarians * to help you draw up a research plan and then use the services available to find your information. Bear in mind that if your assignment is going to be completed by a large number of classmates, your graders are likely to read similar answers again and again. By using a wider range of search facilities, you are likely to find extra information from sources that others will miss, and this should help your writing stand out.
#* Note that writing tutors are a great first port of call to help you get your ideas in order, and to help you decide what it is you want to research. However, librarians are the masters of research, so booking an appointment with one who has expertise in science-related materials is a great idea. This [http://help.library.ubc.ca/planning-your-research/tutorials/subject-specific-tutorials/ UBC library resource] contains other helpful hints for research.
#Make short, annotated summaries of all the sources you find, as you find them. This will help you hugely when it comes to the next stages of writing, and will save you re-reading the same sources again and again to remember exactly what information each one contained. It is very difficult to recall which sources contain specific information once you have read a few, but it only takes a few minutes to write a little summary for each useful one you find.

Researching and Drafting/Researching

2015-07-13T22:37:31Z

Anitar:

Researching

#Set aside plenty of time to research your topic in detail, but split your research into manageable chunks. For example, set yourself a goal of finding four or five useful primary sources each time you perform a literature search and then take a break. You are likely to be more successful this way than trying to find all you need in one mammoth session online.
#Try to only look for (and use) the most recent sources to answer the assignment question. This is a golden tip in all forms of science writing, and even more so in popular writing such as newspaper articles, blog posts and press releases. Scientific thinking changes over time as knowledge builds and opinions shift, so it is important to be sure you are working with the latest material. When performing literature searches, you should start off by searching only in the last few years, before expanding that time if required.
#It is often fine to use tertiary sources such as Wikipedia to help give you general background information, just as long as you then find the original sources and check your facts before assuming everything you have read is accurate. Lists of sources appear at the end of Wikipedia articles, and these are often of use when researching topics.
#Use your writing centre tutors and/or librarians * to help you draw up a research plan and then use the services available to find your information. Bear in mind that if your assignment is going to be completed by a large number of classmates, your graders are likely to read similar answers again and again. By using a wider range of search facilities, you are likely to find extra information from sources that others will miss, and this should help your writing stand out.
#* Note that writing tutors are a great first port of call to help you get your ideas in order, and to help you decide what it is you want to research. However, librarians are the masters of research, so booking an appointment with one who has expertise in science-related materials is a great idea. This [http://help.library.ubc.ca/planning-your-research/tutorials/subject-specific-tutorials/ UBC library resource] contains other helpful hints for research.
#Make short, annotated summaries of all the sources you find, as you find them. This will help you hugely when it comes to the next stages of writing, and will save you re-reading the same sources again and again to remember exactly what information each one contained. It is very difficult to recall which sources contain specific information once you have read a few, but it only takes a few minutes to write a little summary for each useful one you find.

Researching and Drafting/Researching

2015-07-13T22:32:43Z

Anitar:

Researching

:1. Set aside plenty of time to research your topic in detail, but split your research into manageable chunks. For example, set yourself a goal of finding four or five useful primary sources each time you perform a literature search and then take a break. You are likely to be more successful this way than trying to find all you need in one mammoth session online.

:2. Try to only look for (and use) the most recent sources to answer the assignment question. This is a golden tip in all forms of science writing, and even more so in popular writing such as newspaper articles, blog posts and press releases. Scientific thinking changes over time as knowledge builds and opinions shift, so it is important to be sure you are working with the latest material. When performing literature searches, you should start off by searching only in the last few years, before expanding that time if required.

:3. It is often fine to use tertiary sources such as Wikipedia to help give you general background information, just as long as you then find the original sources and check your facts before assuming everything you have read is accurate. Lists of sources appear at the end of Wikipedia articles, and these are often of use when researching topics.

:4. Use your writing centre tutors and/or librarians * to help you draw up a research plan and then use the services available to find your information. Bear in mind that if your assignment is going to be completed by a large number of classmates, your graders are likely to read similar answers again and again. By using a wider range of search facilities, you are likely to find extra information from sources that others will miss, and this should help your writing stand out.

::* Note that writing tutors are a great first port of call to help you get your ideas in order, and to help you decide what it is you want to research. However, librarians are the masters of research, so booking an appointment with one who has expertise in science-related materials is a great idea. This [http://help.library.ubc.ca/planning-your-research/tutorials/subject-specific-tutorials/ UBC library resource] contains other helpful hints for research.

:5. Make short, annotated summaries of all the sources you find, as you find them. This will help you hugely when it comes to the next stages of writing, and will save you re-reading the same sources again and again to remember exactly what information each one contained. It is very difficult to recall which sources contain specific information once you have read a few, but it only takes a few minutes to write a little summary for each useful one you find.

Researching and Drafting/Researching

2015-07-13T22:31:52Z

Anitar:

Researching

#Set aside plenty of time to research your topic in detail, but split your research into manageable chunks. For example, set yourself a goal of finding four or five useful primary sources each time you perform a literature search and then take a break. You are likely to be more successful this way than trying to find all you need in one mammoth session online.
#Try to only look for (and use) the most recent sources to answer the assignment question. This is a golden tip in all forms of science writing, and even more so in popular writing such as newspaper articles, blog posts and press releases. Scientific thinking changes over time as knowledge builds and opinions shift, so it is important to be sure you are working with the latest material. When performing literature searches, you should start off by searching only in the last few years, before expanding that time if required.
#It is often fine to use tertiary sources such as Wikipedia to help give you general background information, just as long as you then find the original sources and check your facts before assuming everything you have read is accurate. Lists of sources appear at the end of Wikipedia articles, and these are often of use when researching topics.
#Use your writing centre tutors and/or librarians * to help you draw up a research plan and then use the services available to find your information. Bear in mind that if your assignment is going to be completed by a large number of classmates, your graders are likely to read similar answers again and again. By using a wider range of search facilities, you are likely to find extra information from sources that others will miss, and this should help your writing stand out. ::* Note that writing tutors are a great first port of call to help you get your ideas in order, and to help you decide what it is you want to research. However, librarians are the masters of research, so booking an appointment with one who has expertise in science-related materials is a great idea. This [http://help.library.ubc.ca/planning-your-research/tutorials/subject-specific-tutorials/ UBC library resource] contains other helpful hints for research.
#Make short, annotated summaries of all the sources you find, as you find them. This will help you hugely when it comes to the next stages of writing, and will save you re-reading the same sources again and again to remember exactly what information each one contained. It is very difficult to recall which sources contain specific information once you have read a few, but it only takes a few minutes to write a little summary for each useful one you find.

Researching and Drafting/Researching

2015-07-13T22:31:19Z

Anitar: Created page with "Researching #Set aside plenty of time to research your topic in detail, but split your research into manageable chunks. For example, set yourself a goal of finding fou..."

Researching

#Set aside plenty of time to research your topic in detail, but split your research into manageable chunks. For example, set yourself a goal of finding four or five useful primary sources each time you perform a literature search and then take a break. You are likely to be more successful this way than trying to find all you need in one mammoth session online.
#Try to only look for (and use) the most recent sources to answer the assignment question. This is a golden tip in all forms of science writing, and even more so in popular writing such as newspaper articles, blog posts and press releases. Scientific thinking changes over time as knowledge builds and opinions shift, so it is important to be sure you are working with the latest material. When performing literature searches, you should start off by searching only in the last few years, before expanding that time if required.
#It is often fine to use tertiary sources such as Wikipedia to help give you general background information, just as long as you then find the original sources and check your facts before assuming everything you have read is accurate. Lists of sources appear at the end of Wikipedia articles, and these are often of use when researching topics.
#Use your writing centre tutors and/or librarians * to help you draw up a research plan and then use the services available to find your information. Bear in mind that if your assignment is going to be completed by a large number of classmates, your graders are likely to read similar answers again and again. By using a wider range of search facilities, you are likely to find extra information from sources that others will miss, and this should help your writing stand out.
:* Note that writing tutors are a great first port of call to help you get your ideas in order, and to help you decide what it is you want to research. However, librarians are the masters of research, so booking an appointment with one who has expertise in science-related materials is a great idea. This [http://help.library.ubc.ca/planning-your-research/tutorials/subject-specific-tutorials/ UBC library resource] contains other helpful hints for research.
#Make short, annotated summaries of all the sources you find, as you find them. This will help you hugely when it comes to the next stages of writing, and will save you re-reading the same sources again and again to remember exactly what information each one contained. It is very difficult to recall which sources contain specific information once you have read a few, but it only takes a few minutes to write a little summary for each useful one you find.

Researching and Drafting/Introduction

2015-07-13T22:23:19Z

Anitar: Created page with "Researching and Drafting Devoting sufficient time to researching and drafting is an essential part of an Guidelines for Effective Writing- Writing Process/Developing..."

Researching and Drafting

Devoting sufficient time to researching and drafting is an essential part of an [[Guidelines for Effective Writing- Writing Process/Developing Effective Writing Process|effective writing process]]. Depending on the assignment, you might need to spend a lot of time searching for relevant literature as part of your research. We have created specific guides on [[Finding Sources and Literature Searches|Finding Sources and Literature Searches]] and [[Identifying Different Types of Sources|Identifying Different Types of Sources]] that will help you in these instances.

In this resource, we outline a few other tips to help you research and then draft your material most effectively.

Guidelines for Effective Writing- Writing Process/Researching and Drafting

2015-07-13T22:10:21Z

Anitar:

{{:Researching and Drafting/Introduction}}

{{:Researching and Drafting/Researching}}

{{:Researching and Drafting/After Researching But Before Drafting}}

{{:Researching and Drafting/Drafting}}

Guidelines for Effective Writing- Writing Process/Researching and Drafting

2015-07-13T22:09:52Z

Anitar: Created page with "{{:Researching and Drafting/Introduction}} {{:Researching and Drafting/After Researching But Before Drafting}} {{:Researching and Drafting/Drafting}}"

{{:Researching and Drafting/Introduction}}

{{:Researching and Drafting/After Researching But Before Drafting}}

{{:Researching and Drafting/Drafting}}

Science:Science Writing Resources/Guidelines for Effective Writing-Writing Process

2015-07-13T22:04:28Z

Anitar:

==Writing Outlines==
{{:Guidelines for Effective Writing- Writing Process/Writing Outlines}}

==Researching and Drafting==
{{:Guidelines for Effective Writing- Writing Process/Researching and Drafting}}

==Organizing==
{{:Guidelines for Effective Writing- Writing Process/Organizing}}

==Editing, Succinctness, and Jargon==
===Editing, Succinctness, and Dealing with Jargon===
{{:Guidelines for Effective Writing- Writing Process/Editing- Succinctness- and Jargon}}

==Avoiding Plagiarism==
===Avoiding Plagiarism===
{{:Guidelines for Effective Writing- Writing Process/Avoiding Plagiarism}}

==Developing Effective Writing Process==
===The Writing Process===
{{:Guidelines for Effective Writing- Writing Process/Developing Effective Writing Process}}

[[Category:Science Student Resources]]

Using Quotations and Paraphrasing in Journalistic Writing/Post-Class Activities/Version 3

2015-06-14T00:14:16Z

Anitar:

<center>'''Using Quotations and Paraphrasing: Student Post-Class Activities'''</center>

These activities will build on the skills you learned previously. You will be working with another interview transcript to gain more practice in selecting quotes and paraphrasing material, but will begin by considering how to re-order quotes from an interview to make the resultant article more engaging.

Recall that it is acceptable, and often necessary, to re-order quotes to make them slot in better with the story you are telling; it is very rare that you will receive good, coherent quotes in the order you need when interviewing somebody and/or you might decide to write your story from a different angle based on what your interviewee tells you. The important thing is to make sure you do not misrepresent your source.

'''Questions 1 and 2 (4 marks each, 8 marks total)'''

For each of the following two questions, try to first choose the most effective opening to the story (1 mark) before ordering the three related quotes in the most effective way possible (3 marks) to make your story interesting and engaging. Copy and paste the opening to the story you like best, and then copy and paste the quotes in the order you think they should appear.

'''Q1:''' For the opening, ''choose either '''A''' or '''B''':''

'''A:''' Each and every one of us can make a difference when it comes to recycling materials that are harmful to the planet. 
That is the message that sprung from a recent research project performed by undergraduate students at the University of British Columbia (UBC). 
'''B:''' Undergraduate students at the University of British Columbia (UBC) recently performed a research project focusing on recycling. 
Their results suggest that everyone can make a big difference in this area as we collectively seek to minimize the damage we cause our planet. 

'''Now select the order''' that the following three quotes (all taken from the lead researcher, Duncan Galloway) should appear in the story:

'''1:''' “It was shocking to note that only one in four people actually put their recyclable containers in green bins.” 
'''2:''' “Initially, we wanted to quantify the proportion of UBC students who recycle their lunch boxes every day.” 
'''3:''' “It’s frustrating because it’s so easy to recycle. And if we all did this one simple act, UBC would produce 30,000 tons less garbage every year.” 

'''Q2:''' For the opening, ''choose either '''A''' or '''B''':''

'''A:''' Lack of sleep can hinder performance in the classroom, but only if you are ''really'' tired. 
Students at the University of British Columbia (UBC) found that if they slept for at least six hours each night then their exam performance was not diminished. 
'''B:''' Performance in the classroom is dependent on the number of hours sleep that you get each night. 
However, students from the University of British Columbia (UBC) found that they only started to perform less well if they slept less than six hours each night. 

'''Now select the order''' that the following three quotes (all taken from lead researcher, Amy Weatherburn) should appear in the story:

'''1:''' “If students slept for just five hours a night, they were toast in an exam situation. Yet if they got six hours snooze, they performed as well as if they had much more.” 
'''2:''' “In my next study, I am going to see whether different mental stimulation before sleep has any effect on exam performance. For example, will it make a difference whether students watch 30 minutes of TV, or if they read class notes before turning out the light?” 
'''3:''' “What was interesting is that these students said they felt very tired and sluggish if they didn’t get at least six hours sleep.” 

'''Writing an Interesting, Relevant Article'''

Read the interview transcript entitled ‘[http://wiki.ubc.ca/Using_Quotations_and_Paraphrasing_in_Journalistic_Writing/Post-Class_Activities/Exercise_Motivation_Interview Exercise Motivation Interview]’. A pdf copy of this is available for you to download [http://wiki.ubc.ca/File:Exercise_Motivation_Interview.pdf here]. As you read it, try to think what makes the research '''interesting''', and how you should write your article about it (after all, there is no point writing a boring article or one with little relevance to the research that was done).

The questions that follow will give you more practice in using interview material to select an effective angle to take with your article, as well as in extracting quotations and paraphrasing material.

'''Question 3 (5 marks)'''

Consider the five following angles that could be taken when you write an entire article about this research. Try to rank these from '''most''' interesting to '''least''' interesting. ''Hint: Imagine reading an article framed entirely around each one of these revelations. This should help you decide which angles are more newsworthy, novel, and interesting.''

'''A:''' It is important to track motivation changes in follow-up studies to see if people have maintained their commitment to exercise. 
'''B:''' You must commit more than six months to an exercise regime to change your attitude towards being active. 
'''C:''' Some people do not enjoy exercise and only do it because they feel they should. 
'''D:''' A high proportion of Canadians do not exercise. 
'''E:''' Five different studies were analyzed to assess attitudes to exercise. 

'''Question 4 (3 marks)'''

Imagine that your editor has asked you to produce a very short article explaining ('''to the general public''') how the researchers measured motivation. Read the first response given by Wendy Rogers in this transcript when she was asked this question. Try to paraphrase how researchers measured motivation. Try to remove '''all''' jargon and complex, potentially ambiguous words (1 mark). Do not write more than '''60''' words (1 mark), but make sure you explain the important elements of the research and do not change the meaning (1 mark).

'''Question 5 (3 marks)'''

Now read the second response given by Wendy Rogers in this transcript (when she was asked about how many people were studied, and how they were studied). Try to paraphrase this material and remove '''all''' jargon, and complex, potentially ambiguous words (1 mark). Do not write more than '''50''' words (1 mark), but make sure you explain the important elements of the research and do not change the meaning (1 mark).

'''Question 6 (1 mark)'''

Imagine that you have just paraphrased the third and fourth responses given by Wendy Rogers (when asked how she defines long-term exercisers, and how many people fit into these categories in Canada) as:

'''''Wendy Rogers explained that ‘long-term exercisers’ are people who exercise at least three times a week, and who have done so for at least a year.''''' 
'''''Worryingly, a small proportion of Canadians fit into this category.''''' 
'''''Rogers said: “…''''' 

Choose '''one''' quote to incorporate into the writing above (1 mark).

'''Critiquing Other Articles'''

Now you have had a good amount of practice in writing interesting articles, selecting quotations, and paraphrasing material succinctly, you should be able to critique articles written by other people. The final activities in this post-class set will require you to this when referring to the mythical summary article (below) of a recent science discovery that was published in a university newspaper.

'''''Students who run at least twice a week are less likely to suffer from stress, according to a recent study published on a Kilberry University Science blog by graduate student Lily Maeve.''''' 
'''''Maeve gave previously non-exercising students a survey designed to ‘rank’ stress levels from non-existent to very high, both before and after a six-month period in which they either ran at least twice a week or maintained doing little to no regular exercise.''''' 
'''''She found that the ‘runners’ decreased their stress levels by a great amount whereas the ‘non-runners’ were just as stressed at the end of the experiment as they were at the beginning.''''' 

'''''QUOTE 1: ''“We thought that we would consider two groups of students: those who decided to take up running, and those who decided not to,” explained Maeve.''''' 
'''''QUOTE 2: ''“Most students said they expected to see these results yet other data shows that less than a quarter of these same students actually run twice a week, so I think it’s time to stop making excuses and get that running gear on!”''''' 
'''''QUOTE 3: ''“I think the results are very reliable because we used a survey that was previously validated in other experiments; values from this survey were compared with medical data from the same people whose stress hormones in the blood were measured. The survey was found to be a very accurate predictor of the real stress levels.”''''' 

'''Question 7 (1 mark)'''

Which quote should be used as it is in the article?

'''A:''' Quote 1 
'''B:''' Quote 2 
'''C:''' Quote 3 

'''Question 8 (1 mark)'''

Which of the three quotes should not be used in any way in the article? ''Hint: this one should not even be paraphrased.''

'''A:''' Quote 1 
'''B:''' Quote 2 
'''C:''' Quote 3 

'''Question 9 (1 mark)'''

Which quote is the best choice to paraphrase instead of using as a direct quote?

'''A:''' Quote 1 
'''B:''' Quote 2 
'''C:''' Quote 3 

'''Question 10 (2 marks)'''

Explain your answer to Q9. Briefly state why this quote should be paraphrased (1 mark) and then succinctly paraphrase it yourself (1 mark).

Using Quotations and Paraphrasing in Journalistic Writing/Post-Class Activities/Version 2

2015-06-14T00:14:05Z

Anitar:

<center>'''Using Quotations and Paraphrasing: Student Post-Class Activities'''</center>

These activities will build on the skills you learned previously. You will be working with another interview transcript to gain more practice in selecting quotes and paraphrasing material, but will begin by considering how to re-order quotes from an interview to make the resultant article more engaging.

Recall that it is acceptable, and often necessary, to re-order quotes to make them slot in better with the story you are telling; it is very rare that you will receive good, coherent quotes in the order you need when interviewing somebody, and/or you might decide to write your story from a different angle based on what your interviewee tells you. The important thing is to make sure you do not misrepresent your source.

'''Questions 1 and 2 (4 marks each, 8 marks total)'''

For each of the following two questions, try to first choose the most effective opening to the story (1 mark) before ordering the three related quotes in the most effective way possible (3 marks) to make your story interesting and engaging. Copy and paste the opening to the story you like best, and then copy and paste the quotes in the order that you think they should appear.

'''Q1:''' For the opening, ''choose either '''A''' or '''B''':''

'''A:''' Astronomers used a high-tech new telescope to take a peek at the coldest place in the universe and were surprised when they found it looks like a ghost. 
At -458° Fahrenheit, they originally thought it looked like a bow tie before the greater resolution provided by the new telescope showed a ghost-like shape. 
'''B:''' Astronomers were shocked to find that the coldest place in the universe (the Boomerang Nebula) looks like a ghost when viewed through a high-resolution telescope. 
The Boomerang Nebula, which is about 5,000 light years away from Earth and is in its final stages of life as a star, has a temperature of just -458° Fahrenheit. 

'''Now select the order''' that the following three quotes (all taken from the lead researcher, Duncan Galloway) should appear in the story:

'''1:''' “They’re not just cold at this late stage though as they also emit lots of UV radiation, which is what allows us to see them from so far away.” 
'''2:''' “What remains of a star at this stage of its life cycle is just the very central component of the original star. They aren’t burning now, which is why they are so cold.” 
'''3:''' “We’ve seen some funny images over the years, but the ghostly spectre of the Boomerang Nebula was a real shock.” 

'''Q2:''' For the opening, ''choose either '''A''' or '''B''''':

'''A:''' Students at the University of St. Andrews have designed a new app that helps schedule the time they keep in hand ahead of their assignments. 
Project developer Andrew Stephen explained that the idea sprung from an unhappy classmate who complained about having three essays due in the space of four days. 
'''B:''' Failing to manage time spent on coursework effectively could be a thing of the past after students from the University of St. Andrews developed an app to help time scheduling. 
Project developer Andrew Stephen explained that he hopes the invention will prove useful to fellow students all over the world. 

'''Now select the order''' that the following three quotes (all taken from Andrew Stephen) should appear in the story:

'''1:''' “The basic idea is to help students plan ahead more effectively.” 
'''2:''' “Although we have road-tested the app, it’ll be a few weeks yet before it’s ready.” 
'''3:''' “Without good planning, deadlines can often creep up on you and you’ll find yourself with too little time to devote to an assignment worth a lot of marks.” 

'''Writing an Interesting, Relevant Article'''

Read the interview transcript entitled ‘[http://wiki.ubc.ca/Using_Quotations_and_Paraphrasing_in_Journalistic_Writing/Post-Class_Activities/Exercise_Motivation_Interview Exercise Motivation Interview]’. A pdf copy of this is available for you to download [http://wiki.ubc.ca/File:Exercise_Motivation_Interview.pdf here]. As you read it, try to think what makes the research '''interesting''', and how you should write your article about it (after all, there is no point writing a boring article or one with little relevance to the research that was done).

The questions that follow will give you more practice in using interview material to select an effective angle to take with your article, as well as in extracting quotations and paraphrasing material.

'''Question 3 (5 marks)'''

Consider the five following angles that could be taken when you write an entire article about this research. Try to rank these from '''most''' interesting to '''least''' interesting. ''Hint: Imagine reading an article framed entirely around each one of these revelations. This should help you decide which angles are more newsworthy, novel, and interesting.''

'''A:''' It is important to track motivation changes in follow-up studies to see if people have maintained their commitment to exercise. 
'''B:''' You must commit more than six months to an exercise regime to change your attitude towards being active. 
'''C:''' Some people do not enjoy exercise and only do it because they feel they should. 
'''D:''' A high proportion of Canadians do not exercise. 
'''E:''' Five different studies were analyzed to assess attitudes to exercise. 

'''Question 4 (3 marks)'''

Imagine that your editor has asked you to produce a very short article explaining ('''to the general public''') how the researchers measured motivation. Read the first response given by Wendy Rogers in this transcript when she was asked this question. Try to paraphrase how researchers measured motivation. Try to remove '''all''' jargon and complex, potentially ambiguous words (1 mark). Do not write more than '''60''' words (1 mark), but make sure you explain the important elements of the research and do not change the meaning (1 mark).

'''Question 5 (3 marks)'''

Now read the second response given by Wendy Rogers in this transcript (when she was asked about how many people were studied, and how they were studied). Try to paraphrase this material and remove '''all''' jargon, and complex, potentially ambiguous words (1 mark). Do not write more than '''50''' words (1 mark), but make sure you explain the important elements of the research and do not change the meaning (1 mark).

'''Question 6 (1 mark)'''

Imagine that you have just paraphrased the third and fourth responses given by Wendy Rogers (when asked how she defines long-term exercisers, and how many people fit into these categories in Canada) as:

'''''Wendy Rogers explained that ‘long-term exercisers’ are people who exercise at least three times a week, and who have done so for at least a year.''''' 
'''''Worryingly, a small proportion of Canadians fit into this category.''''' 
'''''Rogers said: “…''''' 

Choose '''one''' quote to incorporate into the writing above (1 mark).

'''Critiquing Other Articles'''

Now you have had a good amount of practice in writing interesting articles, selecting quotations, and paraphrasing material succinctly, you should be able to critique articles written by other people. The final activities in this post-class set will require you to do this when referring to the fictional summary article (below) of a recent science discovery that was published in a university newspaper.

'''''Students who spend at least one hour a day reading for pleasure are more likely to sleep better at night, according to a recent study published on a Navan University science blog by graduate student Lily Maeve.''''' 
'''''Maeve asked students who never previously read non-course-related books to wear sleep monitors for a three-month period in which they agreed to read such material before bed, before comparing their sleep patterns with those of students who only read course notes.''''' 
'''''She found that the ‘readers’ slept for longer, and enjoyed less broken sleep than the ‘non-readers’. She also noted from qualitative responses that the ‘readers’ said they felt more awake in class and were better able to relax at night.''''' 

'''QUOTE 1: ''“We thought that we would consider two groups of students: those who agreed to read for pleasure, and those who either only read course notes or did not want to read other things.” ''''' 
'''QUOTE 2: ''“Most students said afterwards that they weren’t surprised by the results, which makes me wonder why more people don’t read for pleasure all the time.”''''' 
'''QUOTE 3: ''“I think the results are very reliable because we used sleep monitors that were previously validated in other experiments; values from these were compared with data that people personally recorded about their sleep patterns, such as when they went to bed and got up, and when they woke up at night. The sleep monitor data was very reliable when correlated with these personal observations.”''''' 

'''Question 7 (1 mark)'''

Which quote should be used as it is in the article?

'''A:''' Quote 1 
'''B:''' Quote 2 
'''C:''' Quote 3 

'''Question 8 (1 mark)'''

Which of the three quotes should not be used in any way in the article? ''Hint: this one should not even be paraphrased.''

'''A:''' Quote 1 
'''B:''' Quote 2 
'''C:''' Quote 3 

'''Question 9 (1 mark)'''

Which quote is the best choice to paraphrase instead of using as a direct quote?

'''A:''' Quote 1 
'''B:''' Quote 2 
'''C:''' Quote 3 

'''Question 10 (2 marks)'''

Explain your answer to Q9. Briefly state why this quote should be paraphrased (1 mark) and then succinctly paraphrase it yourself (1 mark).

Using Quotations and Paraphrasing in Journalistic Writing/Post-Class Activities/Version 1

2015-06-14T00:13:53Z

Anitar:

<center>'''Using Quotations and Paraphrasing: Student Post-Class Activities'''</center>

These activities will build on the skills you have already learned. You will be working with another interview transcript to gain more practice in selecting quotes and paraphrasing material, but will begin by considering how to re-order quotes from an interview to make the resultant news article more engaging.

Recall that it is acceptable, and often necessary, to re-order quotes to make them slot in better with the story you are telling; it is very rare that you will receive good, coherent quotes in the order you need when interviewing somebody, and/or you might decide to write your story from a different angle based on what your interviewee tells you. The important thing is to make sure that you do not misrepresent your source.

'''Questions 1 and 2 (4 marks each, 8 marks total)'''

For each of the following two questions, try to first choose the most effective opening to the story (1 mark) before ordering the three related quotes in the most effective way possible (3 marks) to make your story interesting and engaging. Copy and paste the opening to the story you like best, and then copy and paste the quotes in the order you think they should appear.

'''Q1:''' For the opening, ''choose either '''A''' or '''B''':''

'''A:''' Astronomers used a high-tech new telescope to take a peek at the coldest place in the universe and were surprised when they found it looks like a ghost. 
At -458° Fahrenheit, they originally thought it looked like a bow tie before the greater resolution provided by the new telescope showed a ghost-like shape. 
'''B:''' Astronomers were shocked to find that the coldest place in the universe (the Boomerang Nebula) looks like a ghost when viewed through a high-resolution telescope. 
The Boomerang Nebula, which is about 5,000 light years away from Earth and is in its final stages of life as a star, has a temperature of just -458° Fahrenheit. 

'''Now select the order''' that the following three quotes (all taken from the lead researcher, Duncan Galloway) should appear in the story:

'''1:''' “They’re not just cold at this late stage though as they also emit lots of UV radiation, which is what allows us to see them from so far away.” 
'''2:''' “What remains of a star at this stage of its life cycle is just the very central component of the original star. They aren’t burning now, which is why they are so cold.” 
'''3:''' “We’ve seen some funny images over the years, but the ghostly spectre of the Boomerang Nebula was a real shock.” 

'''Q2:''' For the opening, ''choose either '''A''' or '''B''':''

'''A:''' Students at the University of St. Andrews have designed a new app that helps schedule the time they keep in hand ahead of their assignments. 
Project developer Andrew Stephen explained that the idea sprung from an unhappy classmate who complained about having three essays due in the space of four days. 
'''B:''' Failing to manage time spent on coursework effectively could be a thing of the past after students from the University of St. Andrews developed an app to help time scheduling. 
Project developer Andrew Stephen explained that he hopes the invention will prove useful to fellow students all over the world. 

'''Now select the order''' that the following three quotes (all taken from Andrew Stephen) should appear in the story:

'''1:''' “The basic idea is to help students plan ahead more effectively.” 
'''2:''' “Although we have road-tested the app, it’ll be a few weeks yet before it’s ready.” 
'''3:''' “Without good planning, deadlines can often creep up on you and you’ll find yourself with too little time to devote to an assignment worth a lot of marks.” 

'''Writing an Interesting, Relevant Article'''

Read the interview transcript entitled ‘[http://wiki.ubc.ca/Using_Quotations_and_Paraphrasing_in_Journalistic_Writing/Post-Class_Activities/BC_Dinosaur_Interview BC Dinosaur Interview]’. A pdf copy of this is available for you to download [http://wiki.ubc.ca/File:BC_Dinosaur_Interview.pdf here]. As you read it, try to think what makes the research '''interesting''', and how you should write your article about it (after all, there is no point writing a boring article or one with little relevance to the research that was done).

The questions that follow will give you more practice in using interview material to select an effective angle to take with your article, as well as in extracting quotations and paraphrasing material.

'''Question 3 (5 marks)'''

Consider the five following angles that could be taken when you write an entire article about this research. Try to rank these from '''most''' interesting to '''least''' interesting and remember not to misrepresent the interviewee (Victoria Arbour). ''Hint: Imagine reading an article framed entirely around each one of these revelations. This should help you decide which angles are more newsworthy, novel, and interesting.''

'''A:''' It took a long time to work out what sort of animal the fossil came from. 
'''B:''' There was controversy over the finding and the original collector was very angry. 
'''C:''' This is the first time a pterosaur fossil has been found in BC. 
'''D:''' This is the first time a dinosaur fossil has been found in Canada. 
'''E:''' There should be some dinosaur fossils to find in the area nearby. 

'''Question 4 (3 marks)'''

Imagine that your editor has asked you to produce a very short article explaining ('''to the general public''') how the researchers figured out that the fossil belonged to a pterosaur. Read the fourth response (at the bottom of the first page) given by Victoria Arbour in this transcript when she was asked this question. Try to '''paraphrase''' this. Try to remove '''all''' jargon and complex, potentially ambiguous words (1 mark). Do not write more than '''50''' words (1 mark), but make sure you explain the important elements of Victoria’s answer without misrepresenting her original meaning (1 mark). '''Make sure you include a word count at the end of your answer.'''

'''Question 5 (3 marks)'''

Now read the ninth response (at the bottom of the second page) given by Victoria Arbour in this transcript (when she was asked about what the finding said about the kind of environment, or about what else existed there at the time). Try to '''paraphrase''' this. Try to remove '''all''' jargon, and complex, potentially ambiguous words (1 mark). Do not write more than '''50''' words (1 mark), but make sure you explain the important elements of Victoria’s answer without misrepresenting her original meaning (1 mark). '''Make sure you include a word count at the end of your answer.'''

'''Question 6 (1 mark)'''

Choose '''one''' quote to incorporate into the paraphrased information you have just written to answer Question 5 (1 mark). ''Hint: There is only one quote that is personable and succinct that you could add to make the article more engaging.''

'''Critiquing Other Articles'''

Now you have had a good amount of practice in writing interesting articles, selecting quotations, and paraphrasing material succinctly, you should be able to critique articles written by other people. The final activities in this post-class set will require you to do this when referring to the summary article (below) of a recent science discovery that was published in a university newspaper. ''Hint: All three quotes came from the same person, who was a lead researcher involved in the discovery.''

'''''Research involving scientists from Trinity College Dublin has discovered a ground-breaking new technique that will make determining cell membrane protein structure up to 20 times more efficient.''''' 
'''''Making use of a highly specialized syringe, researchers will be able to place protein crystals into the path of X-rays at precisely the right speeds to produce diffraction patterns from which the 3-D structures can be interpreted.''''' 
'''''This discovery will have major implications for drug research because over 50% of the drugs currently on the market target cell membrane proteins. But scientists can only hope to design new drugs that act effectively if they have accurate protein structure ‘roadmaps’ from which to work from.''''' 

'''Quote 1: “The key is in being able to present the protein crystals at exactly the right speeds, which is what the syringe enabled us to do.”''' 
'''Quote 2: “It’s a tremendously exciting breakthrough. Instead of waiting for six months to decode a specific protein structure, researchers might now only need to wait for 10 days.”''' 
'''Quote 3: “We showed in our research how quickly we were able to decode a known protein structure, treating the process as though we were working from scratch and had no idea how this particular membrane protein looked structurally. It was important to work this way because if we had determined an unknown protein structure using a new technique, people might have wondered how accurate our findings were because they had no blueprint to confirm it against.”''' 

'''Question 7 (1 mark)'''

Which quote should be used as it is in the article?

'''A:''' Quote 1 
'''B:''' Quote 2 
'''C:''' Quote 3 

'''Question 8 (1 mark)'''

Which of the three quotes should not be used in any way in the article? ''Hint: this one should not even be paraphrased.''

'''A:''' Quote 1 
'''B:''' Quote 2 
'''C:''' Quote 3 

'''Question 9 (1 mark)'''

Which quote is the best choice to paraphrase instead of using as a direct quote?

'''A:''' Quote 1 
'''B:''' Quote 2 
'''C:''' Quote 3 

'''Question 10 (2 marks)'''

Explain your answer to Q9. Briefly state why this quote should be paraphrased (1 mark) and then succinctly paraphrase it yourself (1 mark).

Using Quotations and Paraphrasing in Journalistic Writing/Post-Class Activities

2015-06-14T00:13:41Z

Anitar:

===Post-Class Activities===

====Version 1====
{{:Using Quotations and Paraphrasing in Journalistic Writing/Post-Class Activities/Version 1}}

====Version 2====
{{:Using Quotations and Paraphrasing in Journalistic Writing/Post-Class Activities/Version 2}}

====Version 3====
{{:Using Quotations and Paraphrasing in Journalistic Writing/Post-Class Activities/Version 3}}

{{:Using Quotations and Paraphrasing in Journalistic Writing/Post-Class Activities/BC Dinosaur Interview}}

{{:Using Quotations and Paraphrasing in Journalistic Writing/Post-Class Activities/Exercise Motivation Interview}}

Using Quotations and Paraphrasing in Journalistic Writing/Pre-Class Activities/Version 3

2015-06-14T00:13:01Z

Anitar:

<center>'''Using Quotations and Paraphrasing: Student Pre-Class Activities'''</center>

'''Using Quotations in (Journalistic) Science Writing'''

Quotations appear in almost every good news story because they add an extra level of interest for the readers. However, as you have learned throughout this course, writing concisely and telling a story as simply as possible is of vital importance. For this reason, a ‘good story’ only ever contains ‘good quotes’; simply filling space with quotes will put your readers off, rather than encouraging them to absorb the tale you are telling.

As ever, when writing you should try to make your story accessible to the audience to which it is targeted. For example, suppose you had spent three years in a genetics lab and discovered how a gene functioned to protect fruit from pests. When it came to communicating your research, you would write two very different articles to a specialist science magazine and a newspaper that would be read by more diverse audiences.

However, in both cases, you would likely add quotations to help make the article more engaging. Although you might include more jargon in the specialist version, there is a fairly standard set of guidelines for choosing quotes that you would be able to apply to both articles.

In general, the following elements will all be present in a '''good''' quote:

#The information contained in it will '''add to, expand, and/or personalize''' the story.
#It will be easy to understand, even if it contains '''metaphors'''.
#It will be attributed to a '''relevant''' source, who has something meaningful to say.
#Although not always the case, impact tends to be higher if the word count is '''small'''.

In contrast, the following elements tend to be present in a '''bad''' quote:

#The information contained in it is '''boring, redundant, repeats information, contains jargon''' or is '''incoherent''' and hard to follow.
#It is taken from a source who has '''not''' been introduced earlier in the article, or from a source who has nothing of importance to add to the story.
#It is '''not concise''' and/or hard to interpret.

'''Questions 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10 (1 mark each, 10 marks total)'''

For each of the following 10 questions, you are given one quote. Scenario A applies to questions 1–3, Scenario B applies to questions 4–7, and Scenario C applies to questions 8–10. Your task is to decide whether each quote falls into category '''i, ii, or iii''' (listed below). ''Hint: More than one quote might fall into the same category in each scenario.''

'''i:''' Good quote that would add to the quality of the story. 
'''ii:''' Quote with relevance, but not suitable for this audience. 
'''iii:''' Bad quote that would reduce the quality of the story. 

'''Scenario A (questions 1, 2 and 3)''': You are writing a '''facts-based article for a popular nature magazine''' about the endangered Vancouver Island Marmot.

'''Q1''': “The main problem is that these marmots are more selective of their habitat than other marmot species tend to be, and this... I guess what I mean is... well, they’re not like red squirrels, which are getting rarer because the greys are more dominant... it’s just that there aren’t many suitable meadows for them to make their burrows in... but they are just as endangered as the red squirrel for example,” said conservation officer Andy Stephen. 
'''Q2''': “They are very photogenic and I always feel happy when I see them,” added Stephen. 
'''Q3''': “I remember seeing them fairly regularly only 20 years ago but now a sighting is very rare. The official data backs that up too,” said Stephen. 

'''Scenario B (questions 4, 5, 6 and 7)''': You are writing an article for a '''popular science blog (aimed at undergraduate students at UBC)''' about gene therapy research trials.

'''Q4''': “You can think of it as hand-delivering a good gene to replace a bad gene,” said Lily Chen, a clinical researcher. 
'''Q5''': “You can also try a homing endonuclease generated from an appropriate cell effector,” said Florence Murphy, another clinical researcher. 
'''Q6''': “We also hope to use modified somatic receptors in germ line therapy,” added Murphy, “but right now there are too many ethical issues with that.” 
'''Q7''': “It’s a difficult procedure, but when it works it really changes lives,” said Dr. Phelps, who has spent the last 20 years of his career developing the procedure. 

'''Scenario C (questions 8, 9 and 10)''': You are writing an article for a '''daily newspaper''' about the ‘non-ending’ of the world on December 21, 2012 ''(note: many people thought the world was going to end on this date based on interpretations of the Mayan calendar)''.

'''Q8''': “I’ve always been interested in Doomsday predictions and have done loads of research on them over the years; I usually find the strangest ones to be the most intriguing,” said Mitchell Jones, who admitted to worrying that we would not see December 22 last year. 
'''Q9''': “Is it any wonder that we struggled to comprehend the nuances of a multi-faceted calendar system that is believed to have been first inscribed by the unknowable spiritual deity Itzamna?” said Prof. Reilly, who has studied Mayan mythology for 40 years. 
'''Q10''': “The world might not have ended but the Mayans never actually said it would; that prediction was only based on our interpretation of their calendar,” said Prof. Roberts, a colleague of Prof. Reilly. 

'''Question 11 (5 marks)'''

This question is designed to give you further practice in selecting certain quotes for use in your writing. Read the following introduction to a science-based news story, and then consider the five quotes and descriptions that appear in the table below it. Your task is to correctly match each quote to the description of it (each description should be used only once).

'''''Medicines could soon become more effective thanks to the development of a new technique that makes drugs more resistant to being broken down inside the body.''''' 
'''''Enzymes found in the liver typically break down drugs within a few hours, rendering them useless to treat whatever illness is affecting the patient.''''' 
'''''However, researchers at Navan University have found that using a man-made enzyme to replace specific atoms with fluorine ones makes drugs much more stable, and, therefore, the drugs have longer to treat patients once they enter the body.''''' 

'''''Professor Stewart, lead researcher on the project, said: “...” '''''

'''Table 1: Quotes (numbers 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5) that must be matched to descriptions (A, B, C, D and E).'''

{| class="wikitable" border="1"
|-
!Quote (all taken from the lead researcher, Prof. Stewart)
!Description of quote
|-
|1. “We worked with a very reliable set of equipment.”
|A. Good quote.
|-
|2. “The man-made enzyme is a lot like cytochrome-450.”
|B. Redundant quote.
|-
|3. “For a long time we... It was difficult. But then success.”
|C. Jargon-heavy quote.
|-
|4. “This is exciting because it should have multiple benefits.”
|D. Boring quote.
|-
|5. “Fluorine atoms just make the molecule more resistant.”
|E. Non-coherent quote.
|}

'''The Importance of Paraphrasing'''

Sometimes you will have access to a quote from a relevant source but there will be a problem with it that prevents you using it word for word. For example, perhaps the quote contains too much jargon for your audience, or maybe it makes a good point but is too long-winded. In either of these instances, it would be a shame not to use the information in the quote if it could improve the quality of your article, but using the quote itself would have the opposite effect. So what do you do?

The answer is that you should '''paraphrase''' the information. You can think of this loosely as citing it in the way you would in a lab report. In other words, you are going to attribute it to the source, but only include the information that is relevant to your audience. For example, imagine Prof. Stewart provided the following quote:

'''“We found that with the fluorine atoms added in place of certain hydrogen atoms, the drug molecules remained intact for an average of 11 hours as opposed to six when they were unaltered and kept in the same environments. This is a major difference and could allow the drugs to be much more effective in treating diseases.”'''

Rather than using the (whole) quote, which contains admittedly interesting information in a long-winded, rather boring way, you could paraphrase it like this:

'''Professor Stewart explained that swapping the hydrogen atoms for fluoride atoms kept drug molecules intact for almost twice as long.'''

Because the second part of the original quote is concise and interesting, you could also think about including it after your initial paraphrased sentence, like this:

'''Professor Stewart explained that swapping the hydrogen atoms for fluoride atoms kept drug molecules intact for almost twice as long. “This is a major difference and could allow the drugs to be much more effective in treating diseases,” she said.'''

'''Re-ordering Transcripts (and Quotes)'''

When you interview somebody as a source for your articles, you will probably produce a transcript of information ordered in a way that does not tell the most interesting story possible; in spoken conversations about complicated subjects people rarely explain themselves smoothly or without backtracking.

As a result, you will often have to re-order things when incorporating quotes into your article. This might mean paraphrasing parts of a quote and including other parts of it as a direct quote, or it might mean swapping the order of quotes so that the story follows more logical sense. '''Although this is a common, and necessary action, you must be careful not to take quotes out of context when doing this.''' Make sure that when you read the original transcript and compare it to the re-ordered quotes in your article, you are satisfied that you have not misrepresented your source in any way!

'''Questions 12, 13, 14, 15 and 16 (2 marks each, 10 marks total)'''

You are given one quote for each of the following five questions. You should copy and paste the whole quote and bold the part/parts that should be paraphrased (1 mark) before re-writing it ('''if necessary''') to include paraphrased information and/or a part of the original quote (1 mark). In some cases you will not need to make any changes; in others you will need to identify the part (or whole quote) that needs paraphrasing by bolding it before re-writing that specific part.

'''Q12''': “We worked on average 12 hours per day for six months before we made any sort of breakthrough but we were always hopeful that we were on the right track because we had occasional highlights that made us believe there was mileage in the project even when things were largely unsuccessful,” said Prof. Stewart.

'''Q13''': “It is important to incorporate the fluoride atoms at specific sites. It depends on where they are placed as to whether or not they are effective at preventing the liver enzymes from breaking the drugs down,” said Prof. Stewart.

'''Q14''': “This could be huge. If this works for all drugs, diseases should be far easier to treat,” said Prof. Stewart.

'''Q15''': “Not only is the potential application of this discovery extremely exciting, but this research is exciting for chemists because nobody had ever managed to successfully transform molecular bonds in the way that we have here and that opens up doors to other possibilities further down the line,” said Prof. Stewart.

'''Q16''': “Using fluorine gas can be very difficult because it is not very predictable or stable and it can even be explosive in the wrong environment when you are working with it. Thankfully, we can use extremely stable fluorine salts as a base, so there will be no explosions in my lab,” said Prof. Stewart.

Using Quotations and Paraphrasing in Journalistic Writing/Pre-Class Activities/Version 2

2015-06-14T00:12:46Z

Anitar:

<center>'''Using Quotations and Paraphrasing: Student Pre-Class Activities'''</center>

'''Using Quotations in (Journalistic) Science Writing'''

Quotations appear in almost every good news story because they add an extra level of interest for the readers. However, as you have learned throughout this course, writing concisely and telling a story as simply as possible is of vital importance. For this reason, a ‘good story’ only ever contains ‘good quotes’; simply filling space with quotes will put your readers off, rather than encouraging them to absorb the tale you are telling.

As ever, when writing you should try to make your story accessible to the audience to which it is targeted. For example, suppose you had spent three years in a genetics lab and discovered how a gene functioned to protect fruit from pests. When it came to communicating your research, you would write two very different articles to a specialist science magazine and a newspaper that would be read by more diverse audiences.

However, in both cases, you would likely add quotations to help make the article more engaging. Although you might include more jargon in the specialist version, there is a fairly standard set of guidelines for choosing quotes that you would be able to apply to both articles.

In general, the following elements will all be present in a '''good''' quote:

#It will be attributed to a '''relevant''' source with something meaningful to say.
#The information contained in it will '''add to, expand, and/or personalize''' the story.
#It will be easy to understand, even if it contains '''comparisons/descriptions'''.
#Although not always the case, impact tends to be higher if the word count is '''small'''.

In contrast, the following elements tend to be present in a '''bad''' quote:

#The information contained in it is '''boring, redundant, repetitive, contains jargon, overly complex words''', or is '''incoherent''' and hard to follow.
#It is taken from a source that was '''not''' introduced earlier in the article, or from a non-relevant source with nothing of importance to add to the story.
#It is '''not concise''' and/or is hard to interpret.

'''Question 1 (5 marks)'''

Read the five quotes provided by different sources, all of which apply to the scenario below. Your task is to decide whether each one is worthy of inclusion in a news-based article or not. ''Hint: Base your decision on some of the elements listed above that determine whether a quote is good or bad (or somewhere in between). Show your decisions by writing either “Good quote” or “Bad quote” next to each one (1 mark each).''

'''Scenario''': You are writing a '''facts-based article for a popular nature magazine''' about the current dilemma in the UK and Ireland as to whether wild badgers should be culled in a bid to prevent the spread of bovine TB in these countries.

:'''A:''' “I don’t think they should be culling the badgers at all because they are wild animals and deserve to live in the countryside,” said wildlife enthusiast Jonny Nolan. 
:'''B:''' “I always feel happy when I see them,” said tourist, Claire Commins. 
:'''C:''' “The science behind the cull is sketchy at best. There is, instead, plenty of evidence to suggest that regular mixing of cattle is responsible for the increase in TB cases,” said Lily Reilly, an environmental scientist. 
:'''D:''' “Badgers are just, well… I mean, they are just bad, you know… bad news. Farmers know how to farm so people from the towns shouldn’t tell them, you know… I just don’t think they should be involved,” said local farmer Alex Gist. 
:'''E:''' “Episodic outbreaks of TB are commonplace on the periphery of market towns. Contracting the malaise shouldn’t necessarily be terminal for cattle, though, so this seems a bit of a storm in a teacup,” said vet Alanna O’Sullivan. 

'''Question 2 (5 marks)'''

Read the five quotes provided by different sources, all of which apply to the scenario below. Your task is to rank the five quotes in order from best to worst. ''Hint: Base your decision on some of the elements listed above that determine whether a quote is good or bad (or somewhere in between).''

'''Scenario:''' You are writing an '''article for a science journal''' about whether funding should be preferentially allocated to applied research (such as work on developing pest-resistant crops), instead of basic, theoretical research.

:'''A:''' Government science adviser Toby Hamilton said: “It is vital that we continue to fund theoretical research; although it might seem less of an immediate gain, many of the greatest breakthroughs have come from such work.” 
:'''B:''' Science communication instructor Matthew Willis said: “I think we should be focusing just on applied science now. I wouldn’t focus on theoretical science at all. Let’s just fund applied research. I think we should do it to the exclusion of other types.” 
:'''C:''' Undergraduate physics society treasurer Suzy Wang said: “This is a very interesting debate. I believe, based on current need, we should preferentially fund applied research but that doesn’t mean it should be 100%.” 
:'''D:''' Physiotherapist Justin Dylan said: “Let us ponder for a moment how we will provide sustenance and nourishment to a skyrocketing population. The answer can only lie in novel solutions being uncovered by our most brilliant minds. I sometimes wonder where we will be in 50 years time with warmer climates but unspeakably grand technological advances to offset these apparent barriers to human progress.” 
:'''E:''' Farmer Alex Gist said: “I’m not sure how we’ll feed the world in the future. Maybe if we put all of our money into applied research, our scientists will know how to do it.” 

'''Question 3 (5 marks)'''

This question is designed to give you further practice in selecting certain quotes for use in your writing. Read the following introduction to a science-based news story, and then consider the five quotes and descriptions that appear in the table below it. Your task is to correctly match each quote with the description of it as if you were considering why it should or should not be included in the news-story introduction below:

'''''Bees are worth billions of dollars to the global economy thanks to the pollination service they provide to farmers growing food crops.''''' 
'''''That is according to a new study in which researchers compared crop yield when bees were and were not permitted to access flowers.''''' 
'''''Crops such as canola, which are being grown in greater amounts than ever before due to a demand for biofuel, produced almost 40% more yield when pollinated by bees than when they were pollinated by wind.''''' 
'''''Professor Stewart, lead researcher on the project, said: “…”''''' 

'''Table 1: Quotes (numbers 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5) that must be matched to descriptions (A, B, C, D and E).'''

{| class="wikitable" border="1"
|-
!Quote (all taken from the lead researcher, Prof. Stewart)
!Description of quote
|-
|1. “We worked with a great team of researchers here.”
|A. Good quote.
|-
|2. “Bees improved the yield by 39.4%.”
|B. Redundant quote.
|-
|3. “For a long time we… It was not clear. But now proof.”
|C. Jargon-heavy quote.
|-
|4. “This shows just how important looking after our bees is.”
|D. Boring quote.
|-
|5. “Fuel from canola is produced via transesterification.”
|E. Incoherent quote.
|}

'''The Importance of Paraphrasing'''

Sometimes you will have access to a quote from a relevant source but there will be a problem with it that prevents you using it word for word. For example, perhaps the quote contains too much jargon for your audience, or maybe it makes a good point but is too long-winded. In either of these instances, it would be a shame not to use the information in the quote if it could improve the quality of your article, but using the quote itself would have the opposite effect. So what do you do?

The answer is that you should '''paraphrase''' the information. You can think of this loosely as citing it in the way you would in a lab report. In other words, you are going to attribute it to the source, but only include the information that is relevant to your audience. For example, imagine Prof. Stewart provided the following quote:

'''“We had the feeling that crops would be considerably less valuable if they were solely wind-pollinated, but it had never been shown experimentally before. Now we know for sure just how valuable these bees are in terms of boosting yield, we hope it will give us the power to convince governments to step up their efforts of conserving them. The bees help us, so we need to repay the favour!”'''

Rather than using the (whole) quote, which contains admittedly interesting information in a long-winded, rather boring way, you could paraphrase it like this:

'''Professor Stewart explained that she hopes governments will help conserve bees now it has been shown how valuable their pollination service is.'''

Because the second part of the original quote is concise and interesting, you could also think about including it after your initial paraphrased sentence, like this:

'''Professor Stewart explained that she hopes governments will help conserve bees now it has been shown how valuable their pollination service is. She said: “The bees help us, so we need to repay the favour!”'''

'''Re-ordering Transcripts (and Quotes)'''

When you interview somebody as a source for your article, you will probably produce a transcript of information ordered in a way that does not tell the most interesting story possible; in spoken conversations about complicated subjects people rarely explain themselves smoothly or without backtracking.

As a result, you will often have to re-order things when incorporating quotes into your article. This might mean paraphrasing parts of a quote and including other parts of it as a direct quote (as you have gained some experience with), or it might mean swapping the order of quotes so that the story follows a more logical development. '''Although this is a common, and necessary action, you must be careful not to take quotes out of context when doing this.''' Make sure that when you read the original transcript and compare it to the re-ordered quotes in your article, you are satisfied that you have not misrepresented your source in any way!

'''Question 4 (6 marks)'''

For each of the following six quotes ('''Q1-Q6'''), your job is to decide whether:

('''A''') the quote should be incorporated into an article as a quote (exactly as it appears here), or ('''B''') all of the quoted information should be paraphrased, or ('''C''') part of the quote should be used as a quote (exactly as it appears here), and the rest of the information should be paraphrased (1 mark each). ''Hint: Show your decisions by stating whether each quote ('''Q1-Q6''') should be treated as an '''A, B''', or '''C'''.''

'''Q1''': “We worked on average 12 hours per day for six months before we made any sort of breakthrough but we were always hopeful that we were on the right track because we had occasional highlights that made us believe there was mileage in the project even when things were largely unsuccessful,” said Prof. Stewart. 
'''Q2''': “This is such a fantastic discovery! We’ve finally shown what so many people thought would be true,” said Prof. Stewart. 
'''Q3''': “The netting procedures were tough. We used XF20 specialist netting equipment to make sure that no bees could get to the flowers we were exposing only to the wind, but a few were able to get through, which meant we lost a whole season of the project before we got the right ones,” said Prof. Stewart. 
'''Q4''': “What was really great was that we estimated there were a lot more bees than we had expected to see, based on other reports. Lots of research led us to believe that there might only be 5 – 10 colonies in each field but our data makes it look as though there are probably as much as 10 times that number, which is great news,” said Prof Stewart. 
'''Q5''': “The real goal now must of course be to lobby governments to make laws that ban the use of neo-nicotinoidal agents,” said Prof. Stewart. 
'''Q6''': “Sometimes conservation efforts are hard to find support for, but when there is a financial benefit, things usually move quicker,” said Prof. Stewart. 

'''Question 5 (4 marks)'''

Read the transcript excerpt below, which contains four sentences that were spoken by Prof. Stewart when she answered a reporter’s question. Your task is to paraphrase this material effectively. ''Hint: Try to be concise and accurate (2 marks), and look out for at least one part of the transcript that should be included exactly as it is, as a quote (2 marks).''

'''Reporter''': Why should governments be concerned about neo-nicotinoid pesticides?

'''Prof. Stewart''': “Well, there are a number of reasons that we should worry about the use of neo-nicotinoid pesticides, and these are even more… you know, they’re more worrying than other pesticides. Studies initially indicated that they were not toxic to bees, and that they were safe because they didn’t kill bees when applied to crops that they visited for pollen. But that’s not the whole story, and the bees know it too well. You see, when bees are exposed to large volumes of these pesticides, their nervous systems can become overwhelmed, and although they don’t die, they then start doing weird things that they wouldn’t normally do, like flying off and eating pollen instead of returning it to the hive to support the larvae.”

Using Quotations and Paraphrasing in Journalistic Writing/Pre-Class Activities/Version 1

2015-06-14T00:12:32Z

Anitar:

<center>'''Using Quotations and Paraphrasing: Student Pre-Class Activities'''</center>

'''Using Quotations in (Journalistic) Science Writing'''

Quotations appear in almost every good news story because they add an extra level of interest for the readers. However, as you have learned throughout this course, writing concisely and telling a story as simply as possible is of vital importance. For this reason, a ‘good story’ only ever contains ‘good quotes’; simply filling space with quotes will put your readers off, rather than encouraging them to absorb the tale you are telling.

As ever, when writing you should try to make your story accessible to the audience to which it is targeted. For example, suppose you had spent three years in a genetics lab and discovered how a gene functioned to protect fruit from pests. When it came to communicating your research, you would write two very different articles to a specialist science magazine and a newspaper that would be read by more diverse audiences.

However, in both cases, you would likely add quotations to help make the article more engaging. Although you might include more jargon in the specialist version, there is a fairly standard set of guidelines for choosing quotes that you would be able to apply to both articles.

In general, and in order of importance, the following elements will all be present in a '''good''' quote:

#It will be attributed to a '''relevant''' source with something meaningful to say.
#The information contained in it will '''add to, expand, and/or personalize''' the story.
#It will be easy to understand, even if it contains '''comparisons/descriptions'''.
#Although not always the case, impact tends to be higher if the word count is '''small'''.

In contrast, the following elements tend to be present in a '''bad''' quote:

#The information contained in it is '''boring, redundant, repetitive, contains jargon, overly complex words''', or is '''incoherent''' and hard to follow.
#It is taken from a source that was '''not''' introduced earlier in the article, or from a non-relevant source with nothing of importance to add to the story.
#It is '''not concise''' and/or is hard to interpret.

'''Question 1 (5 marks)'''

Read the five quotes provided by different sources, all of which apply to the scenario below. Your task is to decide whether each one is worthy of inclusion in a news-based article. ''Hint: Base your decision on some of the elements listed above that determine whether a quote is good or bad (or somewhere in between). Show your decisions by writing either “Good quote” or “Bad quote” next to each one (1 mark each).''

'''Scenario''': You are writing a '''facts-based article for a popular nature magazine''' about the recent discovery that fertilizer is responsible for destabilizing grassland communities and negatively impacting ecosystem services all over the world.

'''A:''' “This is really worrying news because so many different species rely on grasslands, and of course, they also sequester carbon and nitrogen that is fixed from the atmosphere,” said wildlife enthusiast Jonny Nolan. 
'''B:''' “Some of these grasslands are just stunningly beautiful,” said tourist, Claire Commins. 
'''C:''' “Given that the same patterns found in the Tanzanian Serengeti are also seen in the alpine grasslands of the tundra, I think it is safe to suggest that fertilizer really is having a very damaging effect,” said Lily Reilly, an environmental scientist. 
'''D:''' “Fertilizer is just, well… I mean, they are all just bad, you know… bad news. But then again, farmers know how to farm so people from the towns shouldn’t tell them, you know… I just don’t think they should all get involved,” said local farmer Alex Gist. 
'''E:''' “My issue with these correlational data is that they are all observational in nature. Studies without bona fide roots in controlled, manipulated experiments have produced a plethora of falsely interpreted results previously,” said statistician Alanna O’Sullivan. 

'''Question 2 (5 marks)'''

Read the five quotes provided by different sources, all of which apply to the scenario below. Your task is to rank the five quotes in order from best to worst. ''Hint: Base your decision on some of the elements listed above that determine whether a quote is good or bad (or somewhere in between). ''

'''Scenario''': You are writing an '''article for a science journal''' about the importance of a recent breakthrough that will allow more efficient determination of protein structures.

'''A:''' English teacher Sam Mendes said: “I think this could be one of the biggest impacts we see from a science discovery in the last decade or so, purely because it has applications in so many other important industries and research themes, such as medicine, drug development, biochemistry and engineering, and as always, I think it is very important that we give due consideration to the impact a science breakthrough can have on as many people as possible.” 
'''B:''' Science communication instructor Matthew Willis said: “This is truly ground-breaking stuff. It will mean we generate much faster and more accurate data to help drug development.” 
'''C:''' Physiotherapist Justin Dylan said: “Let us ponder for a moment how this development will provide immeasurable benefit to a skyrocketing population. Such a grandiose accomplishment is sure to allow more targeted research to be conducted by our brightest and best young medical researchers, whose ability to produce specific medicinal treatments for problematic protein-affected disorders is already second to none.” 
'''D:''' Undergraduate physics society treasurer Suzy Wang said: “The LCP Injector that the researchers developed will help place the protein crystals where they need to be at exactly the right speeds to allow far more accurate structural data to be generated. It will greatly help related research.” 
'''E:''' Government science adviser Toby Hamilton said: “The real triumph was creating the LCP injector, which will ultimately help generate structural data that is much more accurate.” 

'''Question 3 (5 marks)'''

This question is designed to give you further practice in selecting certain quotes for use in your writing. Read the following introduction to a science-based news story, and then consider the five quotes and descriptions that appear in the table below it. Your task is to correctly match each quote with the description of it as if you were considering why it should or should not be included in the news-story introduction below:

'''''Bees are worth billions of dollars to the global economy thanks to the pollination service they provide to farmers growing food crops.''''' 
'''''That is according to a new study in which researchers compared crop yield when bees were and were not permitted to access flowers.''''' 
'''''Crops such as canola, which are being grown in greater amounts than ever before due to a demand for biofuel, produced almost 40% more yield when pollinated by bees than when they were pollinated by wind.''''' 
'''''Professor Stewart, lead researcher on the project, said: “…”''''' 

'''Table 1: Quotes (numbers 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5) that must be matched to descriptions (A, B, C, D and E).'''

{| class="wikitable" border="1"
|-
!Quote (all taken from the lead researcher, Prof. Stewart)
!Description of quote
|-
|1. “Working with bees is sometimes difficult but important.”
|A. Good quote.
|-
|2. “Bees improved the yield by 39.4%.”
|B. Redundant quote.
|-
|3. “For a long time we looked at different flower types as being important. They are more efficient than wind though.”
|C. Jargon-heavy quote.
|-
|4. “This shows why we should all take care of our bees.”
|D. Boring quote.
|-
|5. “Canola is a good model species for these mixed-effects, randomized-plot experiments because it is so economically important and it can be cultivated easily.”
|E. Incoherent quote.
|}

'''The Importance of Paraphrasing'''

Sometimes you will have access to a quote from a relevant source but there will be a problem with it that prevents you using it word for word. For example, perhaps the quote contains too much jargon for your audience, or maybe it makes a good point but is too long-winded. In either of these instances, it would be a shame not to use the information in the quote if it could improve the quality of your article, but using the quote itself would have the opposite effect. So what do you do?

The answer is that you should '''paraphrase''' the information. You can think of this loosely as citing it in the way you would in a lab report. In other words, you are going to attribute it to the source, but only include the information that is relevant to your audience. For example, imagine Prof. Stewart provided the following quote:

'''“We had the feeling that crops would be considerably less valuable if they were solely wind-pollinated, but it had never been shown experimentally before. Now we know for sure just how valuable these bees are in terms of boosting yield, we hope it will give us the power to convince governments to step up their efforts of conserving them. The bees help us, so we need to repay the favour!”'''

Rather than using the (whole) quote, which contains admittedly interesting information in a long-winded, rather boring way, you could paraphrase it like this:

'''Professor Stewart explained that she hopes governments will help conserve bees now it has been shown how valuable their pollination service is.'''

Because the second part of the original quote is concise and interesting, you could also think about including it after your initial paraphrased sentence, like this:

'''Professor Stewart explained that she hopes governments will help conserve bees now it has been shown how valuable their pollination service is. She said: “The bees help us, so we need to repay the favour!”'''

'''Re-ordering Transcripts (and Quotes)'''

When you interview somebody as a source for your article, you will probably produce a transcript of information ordered in a way that does not tell the most interesting story possible; in spoken conversations about complicated subjects people rarely explain themselves smoothly or without backtracking.

As a result, you will often have to re-order things when incorporating quotes into your article. This might mean paraphrasing parts of a quote and including other parts of it as a direct quote (as you have gained some experience with), or it might mean swapping the order of quotes so that the story follows a more logical development. '''Although this is a common, and necessary action, you must be careful not to take quotes out of context when doing this.''' Make sure that when you read the original transcript and compare it to the re-ordered quotes in your article, you are satisfied that you have not misrepresented your source in any way!

'''Question 4 (6 marks)'''

For each of the following six quotes ('''Q1-Q6'''), your job is to decide whether:

('''A''') The quote should be incorporated into an article as a quote (exactly as it appears here), or ('''B''') all of the quoted information should be paraphrased, or ('''C''') part of the quote should be used as a quote (exactly as it appears here), and the rest of the information should be paraphrased (1 mark each). ''Hint: Show your decisions by stating whether each quote ('''Q1-Q6''') should be treated as an '''A, B,''' or '''C'''.''

'''Q1:''' “We worked on average 12 hours per day for six months before we made any sort of breakthrough but we were always hopeful that we were on the right track because we had occasional highlights that made us believe there was mileage in the project even when things were largely unsuccessful,” said Prof. Stewart. 
'''Q2:''' “This is such a fantastic discovery! We’ve finally shown what so many people thought would be true,” said Prof. Stewart. 
'''Q3:''' “The netting procedures were tough. We used XF20 specialist netting equipment to make sure that no bees could get to the flowers we were exposing only to the wind, but a few were able to get through, which meant we lost a whole season of the project before we got the right ones,” said Prof. Stewart. 
'''Q4:''' “What was really great was that we estimated there were a lot more bees than we had expected to see, based on other reports. Lots of research led us to believe that there might only be 5 – 10 colonies in each field but our data makes it look as though there are probably as much as 10 times that number, which is great news,” said Prof Stewart. 
'''Q5:''' “The real goal now must of course be to lobby governments to make laws that ban the use of neo-nicotinoidal agents,” said Prof. Stewart. 
'''Q6:''' “Sometimes conservation efforts are hard to find support for, but when there is a financial benefit, things usually move quicker,” said Prof. Stewart. 

'''Question 5 (4 marks)'''

Read the transcript excerpt below, which contains four sentences spoken by Prof. Stewart when she answered a reporter’s question. Your task is to '''paraphrase''' this material effectively. Hint: Try to be concise and accurate (2 marks), and look out for at least one part of the transcript that should be included exactly as it is, as a quote (2 marks).

Reporter: Why should governments be concerned about neo-nicotinoid pesticides?

Prof. Stewart: “Well, there are a number of reasons that we should worry about the use of neo-nicotinoid pesticides, because these horrible pesticides… well, I suppose I shouldn’t say ‘horrible’, these strong pesticides are more potent than their older versions. LD-50 studies initially indicated that they were not toxic to bees, but that unfortunately myopic view led many famers to believe that they were safe because they wouldn’t kill bees when applied to crops that they visited for pollen. But that’s not the whole story, and the bees know it too well. You see, when bees are exposed to large volumes of these pesticides, their nervous systems can become overwhelmed, and although they don’t die, they then start doing weird things that they wouldn’t normally do, like flying off and eating pollen instead of returning it to the hive to support the larvae, which then suffer from a lack of food as a result.”

Using Quotations and Paraphrasing in Journalistic Writing/Pre-Class Activities

2015-06-14T00:12:13Z

Anitar:

===Pre-Class Activities===

====Version 1====
{{:Using Quotations and Paraphrasing in Journalistic Writing/Pre-Class Activities/Version 1}}

====Version 2====
{{:Using Quotations and Paraphrasing in Journalistic Writing/Pre-Class Activities/Version 2}}

====Version 3====
{{:Using Quotations and Paraphrasing in Journalistic Writing/Pre-Class Activities/Version 3}}

Using Quotations and Paraphrasing in Journalistic Writing/Pre-Class Activities/Version 3

2015-06-14T00:11:19Z

Anitar:

====Version 3====

<center>'''Using Quotations and Paraphrasing: Student Pre-Class Activities'''</center>

'''Using Quotations in (Journalistic) Science Writing'''

Quotations appear in almost every good news story because they add an extra level of interest for the readers. However, as you have learned throughout this course, writing concisely and telling a story as simply as possible is of vital importance. For this reason, a ‘good story’ only ever contains ‘good quotes’; simply filling space with quotes will put your readers off, rather than encouraging them to absorb the tale you are telling.

As ever, when writing you should try to make your story accessible to the audience to which it is targeted. For example, suppose you had spent three years in a genetics lab and discovered how a gene functioned to protect fruit from pests. When it came to communicating your research, you would write two very different articles to a specialist science magazine and a newspaper that would be read by more diverse audiences.

However, in both cases, you would likely add quotations to help make the article more engaging. Although you might include more jargon in the specialist version, there is a fairly standard set of guidelines for choosing quotes that you would be able to apply to both articles.

In general, the following elements will all be present in a '''good''' quote:

#The information contained in it will '''add to, expand, and/or personalize''' the story.
#It will be easy to understand, even if it contains '''metaphors'''.
#It will be attributed to a '''relevant''' source, who has something meaningful to say.
#Although not always the case, impact tends to be higher if the word count is '''small'''.

In contrast, the following elements tend to be present in a '''bad''' quote:

#The information contained in it is '''boring, redundant, repeats information, contains jargon''' or is '''incoherent''' and hard to follow.
#It is taken from a source who has '''not''' been introduced earlier in the article, or from a source who has nothing of importance to add to the story.
#It is '''not concise''' and/or hard to interpret.

'''Questions 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10 (1 mark each, 10 marks total)'''

For each of the following 10 questions, you are given one quote. Scenario A applies to questions 1–3, Scenario B applies to questions 4–7, and Scenario C applies to questions 8–10. Your task is to decide whether each quote falls into category '''i, ii, or iii''' (listed below). ''Hint: More than one quote might fall into the same category in each scenario.''

'''i:''' Good quote that would add to the quality of the story. 
'''ii:''' Quote with relevance, but not suitable for this audience. 
'''iii:''' Bad quote that would reduce the quality of the story. 

'''Scenario A (questions 1, 2 and 3)''': You are writing a '''facts-based article for a popular nature magazine''' about the endangered Vancouver Island Marmot.

'''Q1''': “The main problem is that these marmots are more selective of their habitat than other marmot species tend to be, and this... I guess what I mean is... well, they’re not like red squirrels, which are getting rarer because the greys are more dominant... it’s just that there aren’t many suitable meadows for them to make their burrows in... but they are just as endangered as the red squirrel for example,” said conservation officer Andy Stephen. 
'''Q2''': “They are very photogenic and I always feel happy when I see them,” added Stephen. 
'''Q3''': “I remember seeing them fairly regularly only 20 years ago but now a sighting is very rare. The official data backs that up too,” said Stephen. 

'''Scenario B (questions 4, 5, 6 and 7)''': You are writing an article for a '''popular science blog (aimed at undergraduate students at UBC)''' about gene therapy research trials.

'''Q4''': “You can think of it as hand-delivering a good gene to replace a bad gene,” said Lily Chen, a clinical researcher. 
'''Q5''': “You can also try a homing endonuclease generated from an appropriate cell effector,” said Florence Murphy, another clinical researcher. 
'''Q6''': “We also hope to use modified somatic receptors in germ line therapy,” added Murphy, “but right now there are too many ethical issues with that.” 
'''Q7''': “It’s a difficult procedure, but when it works it really changes lives,” said Dr. Phelps, who has spent the last 20 years of his career developing the procedure. 

'''Scenario C (questions 8, 9 and 10)''': You are writing an article for a '''daily newspaper''' about the ‘non-ending’ of the world on December 21, 2012 ''(note: many people thought the world was going to end on this date based on interpretations of the Mayan calendar)''.

'''Q8''': “I’ve always been interested in Doomsday predictions and have done loads of research on them over the years; I usually find the strangest ones to be the most intriguing,” said Mitchell Jones, who admitted to worrying that we would not see December 22 last year. 
'''Q9''': “Is it any wonder that we struggled to comprehend the nuances of a multi-faceted calendar system that is believed to have been first inscribed by the unknowable spiritual deity Itzamna?” said Prof. Reilly, who has studied Mayan mythology for 40 years. 
'''Q10''': “The world might not have ended but the Mayans never actually said it would; that prediction was only based on our interpretation of their calendar,” said Prof. Roberts, a colleague of Prof. Reilly. 

'''Question 11 (5 marks)'''

This question is designed to give you further practice in selecting certain quotes for use in your writing. Read the following introduction to a science-based news story, and then consider the five quotes and descriptions that appear in the table below it. Your task is to correctly match each quote to the description of it (each description should be used only once).

'''''Medicines could soon become more effective thanks to the development of a new technique that makes drugs more resistant to being broken down inside the body.''''' 
'''''Enzymes found in the liver typically break down drugs within a few hours, rendering them useless to treat whatever illness is affecting the patient.''''' 
'''''However, researchers at Navan University have found that using a man-made enzyme to replace specific atoms with fluorine ones makes drugs much more stable, and, therefore, the drugs have longer to treat patients once they enter the body.''''' 

'''''Professor Stewart, lead researcher on the project, said: “...” '''''

'''Table 1: Quotes (numbers 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5) that must be matched to descriptions (A, B, C, D and E).'''

{| class="wikitable" border="1"
|-
!Quote (all taken from the lead researcher, Prof. Stewart)
!Description of quote
|-
|1. “We worked with a very reliable set of equipment.”
|A. Good quote.
|-
|2. “The man-made enzyme is a lot like cytochrome-450.”
|B. Redundant quote.
|-
|3. “For a long time we... It was difficult. But then success.”
|C. Jargon-heavy quote.
|-
|4. “This is exciting because it should have multiple benefits.”
|D. Boring quote.
|-
|5. “Fluorine atoms just make the molecule more resistant.”
|E. Non-coherent quote.
|}

'''The Importance of Paraphrasing'''

Sometimes you will have access to a quote from a relevant source but there will be a problem with it that prevents you using it word for word. For example, perhaps the quote contains too much jargon for your audience, or maybe it makes a good point but is too long-winded. In either of these instances, it would be a shame not to use the information in the quote if it could improve the quality of your article, but using the quote itself would have the opposite effect. So what do you do?

The answer is that you should '''paraphrase''' the information. You can think of this loosely as citing it in the way you would in a lab report. In other words, you are going to attribute it to the source, but only include the information that is relevant to your audience. For example, imagine Prof. Stewart provided the following quote:

'''“We found that with the fluorine atoms added in place of certain hydrogen atoms, the drug molecules remained intact for an average of 11 hours as opposed to six when they were unaltered and kept in the same environments. This is a major difference and could allow the drugs to be much more effective in treating diseases.”'''

Rather than using the (whole) quote, which contains admittedly interesting information in a long-winded, rather boring way, you could paraphrase it like this:

'''Professor Stewart explained that swapping the hydrogen atoms for fluoride atoms kept drug molecules intact for almost twice as long.'''

Because the second part of the original quote is concise and interesting, you could also think about including it after your initial paraphrased sentence, like this:

'''Professor Stewart explained that swapping the hydrogen atoms for fluoride atoms kept drug molecules intact for almost twice as long. “This is a major difference and could allow the drugs to be much more effective in treating diseases,” she said.'''

'''Re-ordering Transcripts (and Quotes)'''

When you interview somebody as a source for your articles, you will probably produce a transcript of information ordered in a way that does not tell the most interesting story possible; in spoken conversations about complicated subjects people rarely explain themselves smoothly or without backtracking.

As a result, you will often have to re-order things when incorporating quotes into your article. This might mean paraphrasing parts of a quote and including other parts of it as a direct quote, or it might mean swapping the order of quotes so that the story follows more logical sense. '''Although this is a common, and necessary action, you must be careful not to take quotes out of context when doing this.''' Make sure that when you read the original transcript and compare it to the re-ordered quotes in your article, you are satisfied that you have not misrepresented your source in any way!

'''Questions 12, 13, 14, 15 and 16 (2 marks each, 10 marks total)'''

You are given one quote for each of the following five questions. You should copy and paste the whole quote and bold the part/parts that should be paraphrased (1 mark) before re-writing it ('''if necessary''') to include paraphrased information and/or a part of the original quote (1 mark). In some cases you will not need to make any changes; in others you will need to identify the part (or whole quote) that needs paraphrasing by bolding it before re-writing that specific part.

'''Q12''': “We worked on average 12 hours per day for six months before we made any sort of breakthrough but we were always hopeful that we were on the right track because we had occasional highlights that made us believe there was mileage in the project even when things were largely unsuccessful,” said Prof. Stewart.

'''Q13''': “It is important to incorporate the fluoride atoms at specific sites. It depends on where they are placed as to whether or not they are effective at preventing the liver enzymes from breaking the drugs down,” said Prof. Stewart.

'''Q14''': “This could be huge. If this works for all drugs, diseases should be far easier to treat,” said Prof. Stewart.

'''Q15''': “Not only is the potential application of this discovery extremely exciting, but this research is exciting for chemists because nobody had ever managed to successfully transform molecular bonds in the way that we have here and that opens up doors to other possibilities further down the line,” said Prof. Stewart.

'''Q16''': “Using fluorine gas can be very difficult because it is not very predictable or stable and it can even be explosive in the wrong environment when you are working with it. Thankfully, we can use extremely stable fluorine salts as a base, so there will be no explosions in my lab,” said Prof. Stewart.

Using Quotations and Paraphrasing in Journalistic Writing/Pre-Class Activities/Version 2

2015-06-14T00:08:10Z

Anitar:

====Version 2====

<center>'''Using Quotations and Paraphrasing: Student Pre-Class Activities'''</center>

'''Using Quotations in (Journalistic) Science Writing'''

Quotations appear in almost every good news story because they add an extra level of interest for the readers. However, as you have learned throughout this course, writing concisely and telling a story as simply as possible is of vital importance. For this reason, a ‘good story’ only ever contains ‘good quotes’; simply filling space with quotes will put your readers off, rather than encouraging them to absorb the tale you are telling.

As ever, when writing you should try to make your story accessible to the audience to which it is targeted. For example, suppose you had spent three years in a genetics lab and discovered how a gene functioned to protect fruit from pests. When it came to communicating your research, you would write two very different articles to a specialist science magazine and a newspaper that would be read by more diverse audiences.

However, in both cases, you would likely add quotations to help make the article more engaging. Although you might include more jargon in the specialist version, there is a fairly standard set of guidelines for choosing quotes that you would be able to apply to both articles.

In general, the following elements will all be present in a '''good''' quote:

#It will be attributed to a '''relevant''' source with something meaningful to say.
#The information contained in it will '''add to, expand, and/or personalize''' the story.
#It will be easy to understand, even if it contains '''comparisons/descriptions'''.
#Although not always the case, impact tends to be higher if the word count is '''small'''.

In contrast, the following elements tend to be present in a '''bad''' quote:

#The information contained in it is '''boring, redundant, repetitive, contains jargon, overly complex words''', or is '''incoherent''' and hard to follow.
#It is taken from a source that was '''not''' introduced earlier in the article, or from a non-relevant source with nothing of importance to add to the story.
#It is '''not concise''' and/or is hard to interpret.

'''Question 1 (5 marks)'''

Read the five quotes provided by different sources, all of which apply to the scenario below. Your task is to decide whether each one is worthy of inclusion in a news-based article or not. ''Hint: Base your decision on some of the elements listed above that determine whether a quote is good or bad (or somewhere in between). Show your decisions by writing either “Good quote” or “Bad quote” next to each one (1 mark each).''

'''Scenario''': You are writing a '''facts-based article for a popular nature magazine''' about the current dilemma in the UK and Ireland as to whether wild badgers should be culled in a bid to prevent the spread of bovine TB in these countries.

:'''A:''' “I don’t think they should be culling the badgers at all because they are wild animals and deserve to live in the countryside,” said wildlife enthusiast Jonny Nolan. 
:'''B:''' “I always feel happy when I see them,” said tourist, Claire Commins. 
:'''C:''' “The science behind the cull is sketchy at best. There is, instead, plenty of evidence to suggest that regular mixing of cattle is responsible for the increase in TB cases,” said Lily Reilly, an environmental scientist. 
:'''D:''' “Badgers are just, well… I mean, they are just bad, you know… bad news. Farmers know how to farm so people from the towns shouldn’t tell them, you know… I just don’t think they should be involved,” said local farmer Alex Gist. 
:'''E:''' “Episodic outbreaks of TB are commonplace on the periphery of market towns. Contracting the malaise shouldn’t necessarily be terminal for cattle, though, so this seems a bit of a storm in a teacup,” said vet Alanna O’Sullivan. 

'''Question 2 (5 marks)'''

Read the five quotes provided by different sources, all of which apply to the scenario below. Your task is to rank the five quotes in order from best to worst. ''Hint: Base your decision on some of the elements listed above that determine whether a quote is good or bad (or somewhere in between).''

'''Scenario:''' You are writing an '''article for a science journal''' about whether funding should be preferentially allocated to applied research (such as work on developing pest-resistant crops), instead of basic, theoretical research.

:'''A:''' Government science adviser Toby Hamilton said: “It is vital that we continue to fund theoretical research; although it might seem less of an immediate gain, many of the greatest breakthroughs have come from such work.” 
:'''B:''' Science communication instructor Matthew Willis said: “I think we should be focusing just on applied science now. I wouldn’t focus on theoretical science at all. Let’s just fund applied research. I think we should do it to the exclusion of other types.” 
:'''C:''' Undergraduate physics society treasurer Suzy Wang said: “This is a very interesting debate. I believe, based on current need, we should preferentially fund applied research but that doesn’t mean it should be 100%.” 
:'''D:''' Physiotherapist Justin Dylan said: “Let us ponder for a moment how we will provide sustenance and nourishment to a skyrocketing population. The answer can only lie in novel solutions being uncovered by our most brilliant minds. I sometimes wonder where we will be in 50 years time with warmer climates but unspeakably grand technological advances to offset these apparent barriers to human progress.” 
:'''E:''' Farmer Alex Gist said: “I’m not sure how we’ll feed the world in the future. Maybe if we put all of our money into applied research, our scientists will know how to do it.” 

'''Question 3 (5 marks)'''

This question is designed to give you further practice in selecting certain quotes for use in your writing. Read the following introduction to a science-based news story, and then consider the five quotes and descriptions that appear in the table below it. Your task is to correctly match each quote with the description of it as if you were considering why it should or should not be included in the news-story introduction below:

'''''Bees are worth billions of dollars to the global economy thanks to the pollination service they provide to farmers growing food crops.''''' 
'''''That is according to a new study in which researchers compared crop yield when bees were and were not permitted to access flowers.''''' 
'''''Crops such as canola, which are being grown in greater amounts than ever before due to a demand for biofuel, produced almost 40% more yield when pollinated by bees than when they were pollinated by wind.''''' 
'''''Professor Stewart, lead researcher on the project, said: “…”''''' 

'''Table 1: Quotes (numbers 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5) that must be matched to descriptions (A, B, C, D and E).'''

{| class="wikitable" border="1"
|-
!Quote (all taken from the lead researcher, Prof. Stewart)
!Description of quote
|-
|1. “We worked with a great team of researchers here.”
|A. Good quote.
|-
|2. “Bees improved the yield by 39.4%.”
|B. Redundant quote.
|-
|3. “For a long time we… It was not clear. But now proof.”
|C. Jargon-heavy quote.
|-
|4. “This shows just how important looking after our bees is.”
|D. Boring quote.
|-
|5. “Fuel from canola is produced via transesterification.”
|E. Incoherent quote.
|}

'''The Importance of Paraphrasing'''

Sometimes you will have access to a quote from a relevant source but there will be a problem with it that prevents you using it word for word. For example, perhaps the quote contains too much jargon for your audience, or maybe it makes a good point but is too long-winded. In either of these instances, it would be a shame not to use the information in the quote if it could improve the quality of your article, but using the quote itself would have the opposite effect. So what do you do?

The answer is that you should '''paraphrase''' the information. You can think of this loosely as citing it in the way you would in a lab report. In other words, you are going to attribute it to the source, but only include the information that is relevant to your audience. For example, imagine Prof. Stewart provided the following quote:

'''“We had the feeling that crops would be considerably less valuable if they were solely wind-pollinated, but it had never been shown experimentally before. Now we know for sure just how valuable these bees are in terms of boosting yield, we hope it will give us the power to convince governments to step up their efforts of conserving them. The bees help us, so we need to repay the favour!”'''

Rather than using the (whole) quote, which contains admittedly interesting information in a long-winded, rather boring way, you could paraphrase it like this:

'''Professor Stewart explained that she hopes governments will help conserve bees now it has been shown how valuable their pollination service is.'''

Because the second part of the original quote is concise and interesting, you could also think about including it after your initial paraphrased sentence, like this:

'''Professor Stewart explained that she hopes governments will help conserve bees now it has been shown how valuable their pollination service is. She said: “The bees help us, so we need to repay the favour!”'''

'''Re-ordering Transcripts (and Quotes)'''

When you interview somebody as a source for your article, you will probably produce a transcript of information ordered in a way that does not tell the most interesting story possible; in spoken conversations about complicated subjects people rarely explain themselves smoothly or without backtracking.

As a result, you will often have to re-order things when incorporating quotes into your article. This might mean paraphrasing parts of a quote and including other parts of it as a direct quote (as you have gained some experience with), or it might mean swapping the order of quotes so that the story follows a more logical development. '''Although this is a common, and necessary action, you must be careful not to take quotes out of context when doing this.''' Make sure that when you read the original transcript and compare it to the re-ordered quotes in your article, you are satisfied that you have not misrepresented your source in any way!

'''Question 4 (6 marks)'''

For each of the following six quotes ('''Q1-Q6'''), your job is to decide whether:

('''A''') the quote should be incorporated into an article as a quote (exactly as it appears here), or ('''B''') all of the quoted information should be paraphrased, or ('''C''') part of the quote should be used as a quote (exactly as it appears here), and the rest of the information should be paraphrased (1 mark each). ''Hint: Show your decisions by stating whether each quote ('''Q1-Q6''') should be treated as an '''A, B''', or '''C'''.''

'''Q1''': “We worked on average 12 hours per day for six months before we made any sort of breakthrough but we were always hopeful that we were on the right track because we had occasional highlights that made us believe there was mileage in the project even when things were largely unsuccessful,” said Prof. Stewart. 
'''Q2''': “This is such a fantastic discovery! We’ve finally shown what so many people thought would be true,” said Prof. Stewart. 
'''Q3''': “The netting procedures were tough. We used XF20 specialist netting equipment to make sure that no bees could get to the flowers we were exposing only to the wind, but a few were able to get through, which meant we lost a whole season of the project before we got the right ones,” said Prof. Stewart. 
'''Q4''': “What was really great was that we estimated there were a lot more bees than we had expected to see, based on other reports. Lots of research led us to believe that there might only be 5 – 10 colonies in each field but our data makes it look as though there are probably as much as 10 times that number, which is great news,” said Prof Stewart. 
'''Q5''': “The real goal now must of course be to lobby governments to make laws that ban the use of neo-nicotinoidal agents,” said Prof. Stewart. 
'''Q6''': “Sometimes conservation efforts are hard to find support for, but when there is a financial benefit, things usually move quicker,” said Prof. Stewart. 

'''Question 5 (4 marks)'''

Read the transcript excerpt below, which contains four sentences that were spoken by Prof. Stewart when she answered a reporter’s question. Your task is to paraphrase this material effectively. ''Hint: Try to be concise and accurate (2 marks), and look out for at least one part of the transcript that should be included exactly as it is, as a quote (2 marks).''

'''Reporter''': Why should governments be concerned about neo-nicotinoid pesticides?

'''Prof. Stewart''': “Well, there are a number of reasons that we should worry about the use of neo-nicotinoid pesticides, and these are even more… you know, they’re more worrying than other pesticides. Studies initially indicated that they were not toxic to bees, and that they were safe because they didn’t kill bees when applied to crops that they visited for pollen. But that’s not the whole story, and the bees know it too well. You see, when bees are exposed to large volumes of these pesticides, their nervous systems can become overwhelmed, and although they don’t die, they then start doing weird things that they wouldn’t normally do, like flying off and eating pollen instead of returning it to the hive to support the larvae.”

Using Quotations and Paraphrasing in Journalistic Writing/Pre-Class Activities/Version 1

2015-06-14T00:04:52Z

Anitar:

====Version 1====

<center>'''Using Quotations and Paraphrasing: Student Pre-Class Activities'''</center>

'''Using Quotations in (Journalistic) Science Writing'''

Quotations appear in almost every good news story because they add an extra level of interest for the readers. However, as you have learned throughout this course, writing concisely and telling a story as simply as possible is of vital importance. For this reason, a ‘good story’ only ever contains ‘good quotes’; simply filling space with quotes will put your readers off, rather than encouraging them to absorb the tale you are telling.

As ever, when writing you should try to make your story accessible to the audience to which it is targeted. For example, suppose you had spent three years in a genetics lab and discovered how a gene functioned to protect fruit from pests. When it came to communicating your research, you would write two very different articles to a specialist science magazine and a newspaper that would be read by more diverse audiences.

However, in both cases, you would likely add quotations to help make the article more engaging. Although you might include more jargon in the specialist version, there is a fairly standard set of guidelines for choosing quotes that you would be able to apply to both articles.

In general, and in order of importance, the following elements will all be present in a '''good''' quote:

#It will be attributed to a '''relevant''' source with something meaningful to say.
#The information contained in it will '''add to, expand, and/or personalize''' the story.
#It will be easy to understand, even if it contains '''comparisons/descriptions'''.
#Although not always the case, impact tends to be higher if the word count is '''small'''.

In contrast, the following elements tend to be present in a '''bad''' quote:

#The information contained in it is '''boring, redundant, repetitive, contains jargon, overly complex words''', or is '''incoherent''' and hard to follow.
#It is taken from a source that was '''not''' introduced earlier in the article, or from a non-relevant source with nothing of importance to add to the story.
#It is '''not concise''' and/or is hard to interpret.

'''Question 1 (5 marks)'''

Read the five quotes provided by different sources, all of which apply to the scenario below. Your task is to decide whether each one is worthy of inclusion in a news-based article. ''Hint: Base your decision on some of the elements listed above that determine whether a quote is good or bad (or somewhere in between). Show your decisions by writing either “Good quote” or “Bad quote” next to each one (1 mark each).''

'''Scenario''': You are writing a '''facts-based article for a popular nature magazine''' about the recent discovery that fertilizer is responsible for destabilizing grassland communities and negatively impacting ecosystem services all over the world.

'''A:''' “This is really worrying news because so many different species rely on grasslands, and of course, they also sequester carbon and nitrogen that is fixed from the atmosphere,” said wildlife enthusiast Jonny Nolan. 
'''B:''' “Some of these grasslands are just stunningly beautiful,” said tourist, Claire Commins. 
'''C:''' “Given that the same patterns found in the Tanzanian Serengeti are also seen in the alpine grasslands of the tundra, I think it is safe to suggest that fertilizer really is having a very damaging effect,” said Lily Reilly, an environmental scientist. 
'''D:''' “Fertilizer is just, well… I mean, they are all just bad, you know… bad news. But then again, farmers know how to farm so people from the towns shouldn’t tell them, you know… I just don’t think they should all get involved,” said local farmer Alex Gist. 
'''E:''' “My issue with these correlational data is that they are all observational in nature. Studies without bona fide roots in controlled, manipulated experiments have produced a plethora of falsely interpreted results previously,” said statistician Alanna O’Sullivan. 

'''Question 2 (5 marks)'''

Read the five quotes provided by different sources, all of which apply to the scenario below. Your task is to rank the five quotes in order from best to worst. ''Hint: Base your decision on some of the elements listed above that determine whether a quote is good or bad (or somewhere in between). ''

'''Scenario''': You are writing an '''article for a science journal''' about the importance of a recent breakthrough that will allow more efficient determination of protein structures.

'''A:''' English teacher Sam Mendes said: “I think this could be one of the biggest impacts we see from a science discovery in the last decade or so, purely because it has applications in so many other important industries and research themes, such as medicine, drug development, biochemistry and engineering, and as always, I think it is very important that we give due consideration to the impact a science breakthrough can have on as many people as possible.” 
'''B:''' Science communication instructor Matthew Willis said: “This is truly ground-breaking stuff. It will mean we generate much faster and more accurate data to help drug development.” 
'''C:''' Physiotherapist Justin Dylan said: “Let us ponder for a moment how this development will provide immeasurable benefit to a skyrocketing population. Such a grandiose accomplishment is sure to allow more targeted research to be conducted by our brightest and best young medical researchers, whose ability to produce specific medicinal treatments for problematic protein-affected disorders is already second to none.” 
'''D:''' Undergraduate physics society treasurer Suzy Wang said: “The LCP Injector that the researchers developed will help place the protein crystals where they need to be at exactly the right speeds to allow far more accurate structural data to be generated. It will greatly help related research.” 
'''E:''' Government science adviser Toby Hamilton said: “The real triumph was creating the LCP injector, which will ultimately help generate structural data that is much more accurate.” 

'''Question 3 (5 marks)'''

This question is designed to give you further practice in selecting certain quotes for use in your writing. Read the following introduction to a science-based news story, and then consider the five quotes and descriptions that appear in the table below it. Your task is to correctly match each quote with the description of it as if you were considering why it should or should not be included in the news-story introduction below:

'''''Bees are worth billions of dollars to the global economy thanks to the pollination service they provide to farmers growing food crops.''''' 
'''''That is according to a new study in which researchers compared crop yield when bees were and were not permitted to access flowers.''''' 
'''''Crops such as canola, which are being grown in greater amounts than ever before due to a demand for biofuel, produced almost 40% more yield when pollinated by bees than when they were pollinated by wind.''''' 
'''''Professor Stewart, lead researcher on the project, said: “…”''''' 

'''Table 1: Quotes (numbers 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5) that must be matched to descriptions (A, B, C, D and E).'''

{| class="wikitable" border="1"
|-
!Quote (all taken from the lead researcher, Prof. Stewart)
!Description of quote
|-
|1. “Working with bees is sometimes difficult but important.”
|A. Good quote.
|-
|2. “Bees improved the yield by 39.4%.”
|B. Redundant quote.
|-
|3. “For a long time we looked at different flower types as being important. They are more efficient than wind though.”
|C. Jargon-heavy quote.
|-
|4. “This shows why we should all take care of our bees.”
|D. Boring quote.
|-
|5. “Canola is a good model species for these mixed-effects, randomized-plot experiments because it is so economically important and it can be cultivated easily.”
|E. Incoherent quote.
|}

'''The Importance of Paraphrasing'''

Sometimes you will have access to a quote from a relevant source but there will be a problem with it that prevents you using it word for word. For example, perhaps the quote contains too much jargon for your audience, or maybe it makes a good point but is too long-winded. In either of these instances, it would be a shame not to use the information in the quote if it could improve the quality of your article, but using the quote itself would have the opposite effect. So what do you do?

The answer is that you should '''paraphrase''' the information. You can think of this loosely as citing it in the way you would in a lab report. In other words, you are going to attribute it to the source, but only include the information that is relevant to your audience. For example, imagine Prof. Stewart provided the following quote:

'''“We had the feeling that crops would be considerably less valuable if they were solely wind-pollinated, but it had never been shown experimentally before. Now we know for sure just how valuable these bees are in terms of boosting yield, we hope it will give us the power to convince governments to step up their efforts of conserving them. The bees help us, so we need to repay the favour!”'''

Rather than using the (whole) quote, which contains admittedly interesting information in a long-winded, rather boring way, you could paraphrase it like this:

'''Professor Stewart explained that she hopes governments will help conserve bees now it has been shown how valuable their pollination service is.'''

Because the second part of the original quote is concise and interesting, you could also think about including it after your initial paraphrased sentence, like this:

'''Professor Stewart explained that she hopes governments will help conserve bees now it has been shown how valuable their pollination service is. She said: “The bees help us, so we need to repay the favour!”'''

'''Re-ordering Transcripts (and Quotes)'''

When you interview somebody as a source for your article, you will probably produce a transcript of information ordered in a way that does not tell the most interesting story possible; in spoken conversations about complicated subjects people rarely explain themselves smoothly or without backtracking.

As a result, you will often have to re-order things when incorporating quotes into your article. This might mean paraphrasing parts of a quote and including other parts of it as a direct quote (as you have gained some experience with), or it might mean swapping the order of quotes so that the story follows a more logical development. '''Although this is a common, and necessary action, you must be careful not to take quotes out of context when doing this.''' Make sure that when you read the original transcript and compare it to the re-ordered quotes in your article, you are satisfied that you have not misrepresented your source in any way!

'''Question 4 (6 marks)'''

For each of the following six quotes ('''Q1-Q6'''), your job is to decide whether:

('''A''') The quote should be incorporated into an article as a quote (exactly as it appears here), or ('''B''') all of the quoted information should be paraphrased, or ('''C''') part of the quote should be used as a quote (exactly as it appears here), and the rest of the information should be paraphrased (1 mark each). ''Hint: Show your decisions by stating whether each quote ('''Q1-Q6''') should be treated as an '''A, B,''' or '''C'''.''

'''Q1:''' “We worked on average 12 hours per day for six months before we made any sort of breakthrough but we were always hopeful that we were on the right track because we had occasional highlights that made us believe there was mileage in the project even when things were largely unsuccessful,” said Prof. Stewart. 
'''Q2:''' “This is such a fantastic discovery! We’ve finally shown what so many people thought would be true,” said Prof. Stewart. 
'''Q3:''' “The netting procedures were tough. We used XF20 specialist netting equipment to make sure that no bees could get to the flowers we were exposing only to the wind, but a few were able to get through, which meant we lost a whole season of the project before we got the right ones,” said Prof. Stewart. 
'''Q4:''' “What was really great was that we estimated there were a lot more bees than we had expected to see, based on other reports. Lots of research led us to believe that there might only be 5 – 10 colonies in each field but our data makes it look as though there are probably as much as 10 times that number, which is great news,” said Prof Stewart. 
'''Q5:''' “The real goal now must of course be to lobby governments to make laws that ban the use of neo-nicotinoidal agents,” said Prof. Stewart. 
'''Q6:''' “Sometimes conservation efforts are hard to find support for, but when there is a financial benefit, things usually move quicker,” said Prof. Stewart. 

'''Question 5 (4 marks)'''

Read the transcript excerpt below, which contains four sentences spoken by Prof. Stewart when she answered a reporter’s question. Your task is to '''paraphrase''' this material effectively. Hint: Try to be concise and accurate (2 marks), and look out for at least one part of the transcript that should be included exactly as it is, as a quote (2 marks).

Reporter: Why should governments be concerned about neo-nicotinoid pesticides?

Prof. Stewart: “Well, there are a number of reasons that we should worry about the use of neo-nicotinoid pesticides, because these horrible pesticides… well, I suppose I shouldn’t say ‘horrible’, these strong pesticides are more potent than their older versions. LD-50 studies initially indicated that they were not toxic to bees, but that unfortunately myopic view led many famers to believe that they were safe because they wouldn’t kill bees when applied to crops that they visited for pollen. But that’s not the whole story, and the bees know it too well. You see, when bees are exposed to large volumes of these pesticides, their nervous systems can become overwhelmed, and although they don’t die, they then start doing weird things that they wouldn’t normally do, like flying off and eating pollen instead of returning it to the hive to support the larvae, which then suffer from a lack of food as a result.”

Using Quotations and Paraphrasing in Journalistic Writing/Post-Class Activities/Version 3

2015-06-14T00:00:35Z

Anitar:

====Version 3====

<center>'''Using Quotations and Paraphrasing: Student Post-Class Activities'''</center>

These activities will build on the skills you learned previously. You will be working with another interview transcript to gain more practice in selecting quotes and paraphrasing material, but will begin by considering how to re-order quotes from an interview to make the resultant article more engaging.

Recall that it is acceptable, and often necessary, to re-order quotes to make them slot in better with the story you are telling; it is very rare that you will receive good, coherent quotes in the order you need when interviewing somebody and/or you might decide to write your story from a different angle based on what your interviewee tells you. The important thing is to make sure you do not misrepresent your source.

'''Questions 1 and 2 (4 marks each, 8 marks total)'''

For each of the following two questions, try to first choose the most effective opening to the story (1 mark) before ordering the three related quotes in the most effective way possible (3 marks) to make your story interesting and engaging. Copy and paste the opening to the story you like best, and then copy and paste the quotes in the order you think they should appear.

'''Q1:''' For the opening, ''choose either '''A''' or '''B''':''

'''A:''' Each and every one of us can make a difference when it comes to recycling materials that are harmful to the planet. 
That is the message that sprung from a recent research project performed by undergraduate students at the University of British Columbia (UBC). 
'''B:''' Undergraduate students at the University of British Columbia (UBC) recently performed a research project focusing on recycling. 
Their results suggest that everyone can make a big difference in this area as we collectively seek to minimize the damage we cause our planet. 

'''Now select the order''' that the following three quotes (all taken from the lead researcher, Duncan Galloway) should appear in the story:

'''1:''' “It was shocking to note that only one in four people actually put their recyclable containers in green bins.” 
'''2:''' “Initially, we wanted to quantify the proportion of UBC students who recycle their lunch boxes every day.” 
'''3:''' “It’s frustrating because it’s so easy to recycle. And if we all did this one simple act, UBC would produce 30,000 tons less garbage every year.” 

'''Q2:''' For the opening, ''choose either '''A''' or '''B''':''

'''A:''' Lack of sleep can hinder performance in the classroom, but only if you are ''really'' tired. 
Students at the University of British Columbia (UBC) found that if they slept for at least six hours each night then their exam performance was not diminished. 
'''B:''' Performance in the classroom is dependent on the number of hours sleep that you get each night. 
However, students from the University of British Columbia (UBC) found that they only started to perform less well if they slept less than six hours each night. 

'''Now select the order''' that the following three quotes (all taken from lead researcher, Amy Weatherburn) should appear in the story:

'''1:''' “If students slept for just five hours a night, they were toast in an exam situation. Yet if they got six hours snooze, they performed as well as if they had much more.” 
'''2:''' “In my next study, I am going to see whether different mental stimulation before sleep has any effect on exam performance. For example, will it make a difference whether students watch 30 minutes of TV, or if they read class notes before turning out the light?” 
'''3:''' “What was interesting is that these students said they felt very tired and sluggish if they didn’t get at least six hours sleep.” 

'''Writing an Interesting, Relevant Article'''

Read the interview transcript entitled ‘[http://wiki.ubc.ca/Using_Quotations_and_Paraphrasing_in_Journalistic_Writing/Post-Class_Activities/Exercise_Motivation_Interview Exercise Motivation Interview]’. A pdf copy of this is available for you to download [http://wiki.ubc.ca/File:Exercise_Motivation_Interview.pdf here]. As you read it, try to think what makes the research '''interesting''', and how you should write your article about it (after all, there is no point writing a boring article or one with little relevance to the research that was done).

The questions that follow will give you more practice in using interview material to select an effective angle to take with your article, as well as in extracting quotations and paraphrasing material.

'''Question 3 (5 marks)'''

Consider the five following angles that could be taken when you write an entire article about this research. Try to rank these from '''most''' interesting to '''least''' interesting. ''Hint: Imagine reading an article framed entirely around each one of these revelations. This should help you decide which angles are more newsworthy, novel, and interesting.''

'''A:''' It is important to track motivation changes in follow-up studies to see if people have maintained their commitment to exercise. 
'''B:''' You must commit more than six months to an exercise regime to change your attitude towards being active. 
'''C:''' Some people do not enjoy exercise and only do it because they feel they should. 
'''D:''' A high proportion of Canadians do not exercise. 
'''E:''' Five different studies were analyzed to assess attitudes to exercise. 

'''Question 4 (3 marks)'''

Imagine that your editor has asked you to produce a very short article explaining ('''to the general public''') how the researchers measured motivation. Read the first response given by Wendy Rogers in this transcript when she was asked this question. Try to paraphrase how researchers measured motivation. Try to remove '''all''' jargon and complex, potentially ambiguous words (1 mark). Do not write more than '''60''' words (1 mark), but make sure you explain the important elements of the research and do not change the meaning (1 mark).

'''Question 5 (3 marks)'''

Now read the second response given by Wendy Rogers in this transcript (when she was asked about how many people were studied, and how they were studied). Try to paraphrase this material and remove '''all''' jargon, and complex, potentially ambiguous words (1 mark). Do not write more than '''50''' words (1 mark), but make sure you explain the important elements of the research and do not change the meaning (1 mark).

'''Question 6 (1 mark)'''

Imagine that you have just paraphrased the third and fourth responses given by Wendy Rogers (when asked how she defines long-term exercisers, and how many people fit into these categories in Canada) as:

'''''Wendy Rogers explained that ‘long-term exercisers’ are people who exercise at least three times a week, and who have done so for at least a year.''''' 
'''''Worryingly, a small proportion of Canadians fit into this category.''''' 
'''''Rogers said: “…''''' 

Choose '''one''' quote to incorporate into the writing above (1 mark).

'''Critiquing Other Articles'''

Now you have had a good amount of practice in writing interesting articles, selecting quotations, and paraphrasing material succinctly, you should be able to critique articles written by other people. The final activities in this post-class set will require you to this when referring to the mythical summary article (below) of a recent science discovery that was published in a university newspaper.

'''''Students who run at least twice a week are less likely to suffer from stress, according to a recent study published on a Kilberry University Science blog by graduate student Lily Maeve.''''' 
'''''Maeve gave previously non-exercising students a survey designed to ‘rank’ stress levels from non-existent to very high, both before and after a six-month period in which they either ran at least twice a week or maintained doing little to no regular exercise.''''' 
'''''She found that the ‘runners’ decreased their stress levels by a great amount whereas the ‘non-runners’ were just as stressed at the end of the experiment as they were at the beginning.''''' 

'''''QUOTE 1: ''“We thought that we would consider two groups of students: those who decided to take up running, and those who decided not to,” explained Maeve.''''' 
'''''QUOTE 2: ''“Most students said they expected to see these results yet other data shows that less than a quarter of these same students actually run twice a week, so I think it’s time to stop making excuses and get that running gear on!”''''' 
'''''QUOTE 3: ''“I think the results are very reliable because we used a survey that was previously validated in other experiments; values from this survey were compared with medical data from the same people whose stress hormones in the blood were measured. The survey was found to be a very accurate predictor of the real stress levels.”''''' 

'''Question 7 (1 mark)'''

Which quote should be used as it is in the article?

'''A:''' Quote 1 
'''B:''' Quote 2 
'''C:''' Quote 3 

'''Question 8 (1 mark)'''

Which of the three quotes should not be used in any way in the article? ''Hint: this one should not even be paraphrased.''

'''A:''' Quote 1 
'''B:''' Quote 2 
'''C:''' Quote 3 

'''Question 9 (1 mark)'''

Which quote is the best choice to paraphrase instead of using as a direct quote?

'''A:''' Quote 1 
'''B:''' Quote 2 
'''C:''' Quote 3 

'''Question 10 (2 marks)'''

Explain your answer to Q9. Briefly state why this quote should be paraphrased (1 mark) and then succinctly paraphrase it yourself (1 mark).

Using Quotations and Paraphrasing in Journalistic Writing/Post-Class Activities/Version 2

2015-06-13T23:56:27Z

Anitar:

====Version 2====

<center>'''Using Quotations and Paraphrasing: Student Post-Class Activities'''</center>

These activities will build on the skills you learned previously. You will be working with another interview transcript to gain more practice in selecting quotes and paraphrasing material, but will begin by considering how to re-order quotes from an interview to make the resultant article more engaging.

Recall that it is acceptable, and often necessary, to re-order quotes to make them slot in better with the story you are telling; it is very rare that you will receive good, coherent quotes in the order you need when interviewing somebody, and/or you might decide to write your story from a different angle based on what your interviewee tells you. The important thing is to make sure you do not misrepresent your source.

'''Questions 1 and 2 (4 marks each, 8 marks total)'''

For each of the following two questions, try to first choose the most effective opening to the story (1 mark) before ordering the three related quotes in the most effective way possible (3 marks) to make your story interesting and engaging. Copy and paste the opening to the story you like best, and then copy and paste the quotes in the order that you think they should appear.

'''Q1:''' For the opening, ''choose either '''A''' or '''B''':''

'''A:''' Astronomers used a high-tech new telescope to take a peek at the coldest place in the universe and were surprised when they found it looks like a ghost. 
At -458° Fahrenheit, they originally thought it looked like a bow tie before the greater resolution provided by the new telescope showed a ghost-like shape. 
'''B:''' Astronomers were shocked to find that the coldest place in the universe (the Boomerang Nebula) looks like a ghost when viewed through a high-resolution telescope. 
The Boomerang Nebula, which is about 5,000 light years away from Earth and is in its final stages of life as a star, has a temperature of just -458° Fahrenheit. 

'''Now select the order''' that the following three quotes (all taken from the lead researcher, Duncan Galloway) should appear in the story:

'''1:''' “They’re not just cold at this late stage though as they also emit lots of UV radiation, which is what allows us to see them from so far away.” 
'''2:''' “What remains of a star at this stage of its life cycle is just the very central component of the original star. They aren’t burning now, which is why they are so cold.” 
'''3:''' “We’ve seen some funny images over the years, but the ghostly spectre of the Boomerang Nebula was a real shock.” 

'''Q2:''' For the opening, ''choose either '''A''' or '''B''''':

'''A:''' Students at the University of St. Andrews have designed a new app that helps schedule the time they keep in hand ahead of their assignments. 
Project developer Andrew Stephen explained that the idea sprung from an unhappy classmate who complained about having three essays due in the space of four days. 
'''B:''' Failing to manage time spent on coursework effectively could be a thing of the past after students from the University of St. Andrews developed an app to help time scheduling. 
Project developer Andrew Stephen explained that he hopes the invention will prove useful to fellow students all over the world. 

'''Now select the order''' that the following three quotes (all taken from Andrew Stephen) should appear in the story:

'''1:''' “The basic idea is to help students plan ahead more effectively.” 
'''2:''' “Although we have road-tested the app, it’ll be a few weeks yet before it’s ready.” 
'''3:''' “Without good planning, deadlines can often creep up on you and you’ll find yourself with too little time to devote to an assignment worth a lot of marks.” 

'''Writing an Interesting, Relevant Article'''

Read the interview transcript entitled ‘[http://wiki.ubc.ca/Using_Quotations_and_Paraphrasing_in_Journalistic_Writing/Post-Class_Activities/Exercise_Motivation_Interview Exercise Motivation Interview]’. A pdf copy of this is available for you to download [http://wiki.ubc.ca/File:Exercise_Motivation_Interview.pdf here]. As you read it, try to think what makes the research '''interesting''', and how you should write your article about it (after all, there is no point writing a boring article or one with little relevance to the research that was done).

The questions that follow will give you more practice in using interview material to select an effective angle to take with your article, as well as in extracting quotations and paraphrasing material.

'''Question 3 (5 marks)'''

Consider the five following angles that could be taken when you write an entire article about this research. Try to rank these from '''most''' interesting to '''least''' interesting. ''Hint: Imagine reading an article framed entirely around each one of these revelations. This should help you decide which angles are more newsworthy, novel, and interesting.''

'''A:''' It is important to track motivation changes in follow-up studies to see if people have maintained their commitment to exercise. 
'''B:''' You must commit more than six months to an exercise regime to change your attitude towards being active. 
'''C:''' Some people do not enjoy exercise and only do it because they feel they should. 
'''D:''' A high proportion of Canadians do not exercise. 
'''E:''' Five different studies were analyzed to assess attitudes to exercise. 

'''Question 4 (3 marks)'''

Imagine that your editor has asked you to produce a very short article explaining ('''to the general public''') how the researchers measured motivation. Read the first response given by Wendy Rogers in this transcript when she was asked this question. Try to paraphrase how researchers measured motivation. Try to remove '''all''' jargon and complex, potentially ambiguous words (1 mark). Do not write more than '''60''' words (1 mark), but make sure you explain the important elements of the research and do not change the meaning (1 mark).

'''Question 5 (3 marks)'''

Now read the second response given by Wendy Rogers in this transcript (when she was asked about how many people were studied, and how they were studied). Try to paraphrase this material and remove '''all''' jargon, and complex, potentially ambiguous words (1 mark). Do not write more than '''50''' words (1 mark), but make sure you explain the important elements of the research and do not change the meaning (1 mark).

'''Question 6 (1 mark)'''

Imagine that you have just paraphrased the third and fourth responses given by Wendy Rogers (when asked how she defines long-term exercisers, and how many people fit into these categories in Canada) as:

'''''Wendy Rogers explained that ‘long-term exercisers’ are people who exercise at least three times a week, and who have done so for at least a year.''''' 
'''''Worryingly, a small proportion of Canadians fit into this category.''''' 
'''''Rogers said: “…''''' 

Choose '''one''' quote to incorporate into the writing above (1 mark).

'''Critiquing Other Articles'''

Now you have had a good amount of practice in writing interesting articles, selecting quotations, and paraphrasing material succinctly, you should be able to critique articles written by other people. The final activities in this post-class set will require you to do this when referring to the fictional summary article (below) of a recent science discovery that was published in a university newspaper.

'''''Students who spend at least one hour a day reading for pleasure are more likely to sleep better at night, according to a recent study published on a Navan University science blog by graduate student Lily Maeve.''''' 
'''''Maeve asked students who never previously read non-course-related books to wear sleep monitors for a three-month period in which they agreed to read such material before bed, before comparing their sleep patterns with those of students who only read course notes.''''' 
'''''She found that the ‘readers’ slept for longer, and enjoyed less broken sleep than the ‘non-readers’. She also noted from qualitative responses that the ‘readers’ said they felt more awake in class and were better able to relax at night.''''' 

'''QUOTE 1: ''“We thought that we would consider two groups of students: those who agreed to read for pleasure, and those who either only read course notes or did not want to read other things.” ''''' 
'''QUOTE 2: ''“Most students said afterwards that they weren’t surprised by the results, which makes me wonder why more people don’t read for pleasure all the time.”''''' 
'''QUOTE 3: ''“I think the results are very reliable because we used sleep monitors that were previously validated in other experiments; values from these were compared with data that people personally recorded about their sleep patterns, such as when they went to bed and got up, and when they woke up at night. The sleep monitor data was very reliable when correlated with these personal observations.”''''' 

'''Question 7 (1 mark)'''

Which quote should be used as it is in the article?

'''A:''' Quote 1 
'''B:''' Quote 2 
'''C:''' Quote 3 

'''Question 8 (1 mark)'''

Which of the three quotes should not be used in any way in the article? ''Hint: this one should not even be paraphrased.''

'''A:''' Quote 1 
'''B:''' Quote 2 
'''C:''' Quote 3 

'''Question 9 (1 mark)'''

Which quote is the best choice to paraphrase instead of using as a direct quote?

'''A:''' Quote 1 
'''B:''' Quote 2 
'''C:''' Quote 3 

'''Question 10 (2 marks)'''

Explain your answer to Q9. Briefly state why this quote should be paraphrased (1 mark) and then succinctly paraphrase it yourself (1 mark).

Using Quotations and Paraphrasing in Journalistic Writing/Post-Class Activities/Version 2

2015-06-13T23:56:10Z

Anitar:

====Version 2====

<center>'''Using Quotations and Paraphrasing: Student Post-Class Activities'''</center>

These activities will build on the skills you learned previously. You will be working with another interview transcript to gain more practice in selecting quotes and paraphrasing material, but will begin by considering how to re-order quotes from an interview to make the resultant article more engaging.

Recall that it is acceptable, and often necessary, to re-order quotes to make them slot in better with the story you are telling; it is very rare that you will receive good, coherent quotes in the order you need when interviewing somebody, and/or you might decide to write your story from a different angle based on what your interviewee tells you. The important thing is to make sure you do not misrepresent your source.

'''Questions 1 and 2 (4 marks each, 8 marks total)'''

For each of the following two questions, try to first choose the most effective opening to the story (1 mark) before ordering the three related quotes in the most effective way possible (3 marks) to make your story interesting and engaging. Copy and paste the opening to the story you like best, and then copy and paste the quotes in the order that you think they should appear.

'''Q1:''' For the opening, ''choose either '''A''' or '''B''':''

'''A:''' Astronomers used a high-tech new telescope to take a peek at the coldest place in the universe and were surprised when they found it looks like a ghost. 
At -458° Fahrenheit, they originally thought it looked like a bow tie before the greater resolution provided by the new telescope showed a ghost-like shape. 
'''B:''' Astronomers were shocked to find that the coldest place in the universe (the Boomerang Nebula) looks like a ghost when viewed through a high-resolution telescope. 
The Boomerang Nebula, which is about 5,000 light years away from Earth and is in its final stages of life as a star, has a temperature of just -458° Fahrenheit. 

'''Now select the order''' that the following three quotes (all taken from the lead researcher, Duncan Galloway) should appear in the story:

'''1:''' “They’re not just cold at this late stage though as they also emit lots of UV radiation, which is what allows us to see them from so far away.” 
'''2:''' “What remains of a star at this stage of its life cycle is just the very central component of the original star. They aren’t burning now, which is why they are so cold.” 
'''3:''' “We’ve seen some funny images over the years, but the ghostly spectre of the Boomerang Nebula was a real shock.” 

'''Q2:''' For the opening, ''choose either '''A''' or '''B''''':

'''A:''' Students at the University of St. Andrews have designed a new app that helps schedule the time they keep in hand ahead of their assignments. 
Project developer Andrew Stephen explained that the idea sprung from an unhappy classmate who complained about having three essays due in the space of four days. 
'''B:''' Failing to manage time spent on coursework effectively could be a thing of the past after students from the University of St. Andrews developed an app to help time scheduling. 
Project developer Andrew Stephen explained that he hopes the invention will prove useful to fellow students all over the world. 

'''Now select the order''' that the following three quotes (all taken from Andrew Stephen) should appear in the story:

'''1:''' “The basic idea is to help students plan ahead more effectively.” 
'''2:''' “Although we have road-tested the app, it’ll be a few weeks yet before it’s ready.” 
'''3:''' “Without good planning, deadlines can often creep up on you and you’ll find yourself with too little time to devote to an assignment worth a lot of marks.” 

'''Writing an Interesting, Relevant Article'''

Read the interview transcript entitled ‘[http://wiki.ubc.ca/Using_Quotations_and_Paraphrasing_in_Journalistic_Writing/Post-Class_Activities/Exercise_Motivation_Interview Exercise Motivation Interview]’. A pdf copy of this is available for you to download [http://wiki.ubc.ca/File:Exercise_Motivation_Interview.pdf here]. As you read it, try to think what makes the research '''interesting''', and how you should write your article about it (after all, there is no point writing a boring article or one with little relevance to the research that was done).

The questions that follow will give you more practice in using interview material to select an effective angle to take with your article, as well as in extracting quotations and paraphrasing material.

'''Question 3 (5 marks)'''

Consider the five following angles that could be taken when you write an entire article about this research. Try to rank these from '''most''' interesting to '''least''' interesting. ''Hint: Imagine reading an article framed entirely around each one of these revelations. This should help you decide which angles are more newsworthy, novel, and interesting.''

'''A:''' It is important to track motivation changes in follow-up studies to see if people have maintained their commitment to exercise. 
'''B:''' You must commit more than six months to an exercise regime to change your attitude towards being active. 
'''C:''' Some people do not enjoy exercise and only do it because they feel they should. 
'''D:''' A high proportion of Canadians do not exercise. 
'''E:''' Five different studies were analyzed to assess attitudes to exercise. 

'''Question 4 (3 marks)'''

Imagine that your editor has asked you to produce a very short article explaining ('''to the general public''') how the researchers measured motivation. Read the first response given by Wendy Rogers in this transcript when she was asked this question. Try to paraphrase how researchers measured motivation. Try to remove '''all''' jargon and complex, potentially ambiguous words (1 mark). Do not write more than '''60''' words (1 mark), but make sure you explain the important elements of the research and do not change the meaning (1 mark).

'''Question 5 (3 marks)'''

Now read the second response given by Wendy Rogers in this transcript (when she was asked about how many people were studied, and how they were studied). Try to paraphrase this material and remove '''all''' jargon, and complex, potentially ambiguous words (1 mark). Do not write more than '''50''' words (1 mark), but make sure you explain the important elements of the research and do not change the meaning (1 mark).

'''Question 6 (1 mark)'''

Imagine that you have just paraphrased the third and fourth responses given by Wendy Rogers (when asked how she defines long-term exercisers, and how many people fit into these categories in Canada) as:

'''''Wendy Rogers explained that ‘long-term exercisers’ are people who exercise at least three times a week, and who have done so for at least a year.''''' 
'''''Worryingly, a small proportion of Canadians fit into this category.''''' 
'''''Rogers said: “…''''' 

Choose '''one''' quote to incorporate into the writing above (1 mark).

'''Critiquing Other Articles'''

Now you have had a good amount of practice in writing interesting articles, selecting quotations, and paraphrasing material succinctly, you should be able to critique articles written by other people. The final activities in this post-class set will require you to do this when referring to the fictional summary article (below) of a recent science discovery that was published in a university newspaper.

'''''Students who spend at least one hour a day reading for pleasure are more likely to sleep better at night, according to a recent study published on a Navan University science blog by graduate student Lily Maeve.''''' 
'''''Maeve asked students who never previously read non-course-related books to wear sleep monitors for a three-month period in which they agreed to read such material before bed, before comparing their sleep patterns with those of students who only read course notes.''''' 
'''''She found that the ‘readers’ slept for longer, and enjoyed less broken sleep than the ‘non-readers’. She also noted from qualitative responses that the ‘readers’ said they felt more awake in class and were better able to relax at night.''''' 

'''QUOTE 1: ''“We thought that we would consider two groups of students: those who agreed to read for pleasure, and those who either only read course notes or did not want to read other things.” ''''' 
'''QUOTE 2: ''“Most students said afterwards that they weren’t surprised by the results, which makes me wonder why more people don’t read for pleasure all the time.”''''' 
'''QUOTE 3: ''“I think the results are very reliable because we used sleep monitors that were previously validated in other experiments; values from these were compared with data that people personally recorded about their sleep patterns, such as when they went to bed and got up, and when they woke up at night. The sleep monitor data was very reliable when correlated with these personal observations.”''''' 

'''Question 7 (1 mark)'''

Which quote should be used as it is in the article?

'''A:''' Quote 1 
'''B:''' Quote 2 
'''C:''' Quote 3 

'''Question 8 (1 mark)'''

Which of the three quotes should not be used in any way in the article? ''Hint: this one should not even be paraphrased.''

'''A:''' Quote 1 
'''B:''' Quote 2 
'''C:''' Quote 3 

'''Question 9 (1 mark)'''

Which quote is the best choice to paraphrase instead of using as a direct quote?

'''A:''' Quote 1 
'''B:''' Quote 2 
'''C:''' Quote 3 

'''Question 10 (2 marks)'''

Explain your answer to Q9. Briefly state why this quote should be paraphrased (1 mark) and then succinctly paraphrase it yourself (1 mark).

Using Quotations and Paraphrasing in Journalistic Writing/Post-Class Activities/Version 2

2015-06-13T23:55:28Z

Anitar:

====Version 2====

<center>'''Using Quotations and Paraphrasing: Student Post-Class Activities'''</center>

These activities will build on the skills you learned previously. You will be working with another interview transcript to gain more practice in selecting quotes and paraphrasing material, but will begin by considering how to re-order quotes from an interview to make the resultant article more engaging.

Recall that it is acceptable, and often necessary, to re-order quotes to make them slot in better with the story you are telling; it is very rare that you will receive good, coherent quotes in the order you need when interviewing somebody, and/or you might decide to write your story from a different angle based on what your interviewee tells you. The important thing is to make sure you do not misrepresent your source.

'''Questions 1 and 2 (4 marks each, 8 marks total)'''

For each of the following two questions, try to first choose the most effective opening to the story (1 mark) before ordering the three related quotes in the most effective way possible (3 marks) to make your story interesting and engaging. Copy and paste the opening to the story you like best, and then copy and paste the quotes in the order that you think they should appear.

'''Q1:''' For the opening, choose either '''A''' or '''B''':

'''A:''' Astronomers used a high-tech new telescope to take a peek at the coldest place in the universe and were surprised when they found it looks like a ghost. 
At -458° Fahrenheit, they originally thought it looked like a bow tie before the greater resolution provided by the new telescope showed a ghost-like shape. 
'''B:''' Astronomers were shocked to find that the coldest place in the universe (the Boomerang Nebula) looks like a ghost when viewed through a high-resolution telescope. 
The Boomerang Nebula, which is about 5,000 light years away from Earth and is in its final stages of life as a star, has a temperature of just -458° Fahrenheit. 

'''Now select the order''' that the following three quotes (all taken from the lead researcher, Duncan Galloway) should appear in the story:

'''1:''' “They’re not just cold at this late stage though as they also emit lots of UV radiation, which is what allows us to see them from so far away.” 
'''2:''' “What remains of a star at this stage of its life cycle is just the very central component of the original star. They aren’t burning now, which is why they are so cold.” 
'''3:''' “We’ve seen some funny images over the years, but the ghostly spectre of the Boomerang Nebula was a real shock.” 

'''Q2:''' For the opening, ''choose either '''A''' or '''B''''':

'''A:''' Students at the University of St. Andrews have designed a new app that helps schedule the time they keep in hand ahead of their assignments. 
Project developer Andrew Stephen explained that the idea sprung from an unhappy classmate who complained about having three essays due in the space of four days. 
'''B:''' Failing to manage time spent on coursework effectively could be a thing of the past after students from the University of St. Andrews developed an app to help time scheduling. 
Project developer Andrew Stephen explained that he hopes the invention will prove useful to fellow students all over the world. 

'''Now select the order''' that the following three quotes (all taken from Andrew Stephen) should appear in the story:

'''1:''' “The basic idea is to help students plan ahead more effectively.” 
'''2:''' “Although we have road-tested the app, it’ll be a few weeks yet before it’s ready.” 
'''3:''' “Without good planning, deadlines can often creep up on you and you’ll find yourself with too little time to devote to an assignment worth a lot of marks.” 

'''Writing an Interesting, Relevant Article'''

Read the interview transcript entitled ‘[http://wiki.ubc.ca/Using_Quotations_and_Paraphrasing_in_Journalistic_Writing/Post-Class_Activities/Exercise_Motivation_Interview Exercise Motivation Interview]’. A pdf copy of this is available for you to download [http://wiki.ubc.ca/File:Exercise_Motivation_Interview.pdf here]. As you read it, try to think what makes the research '''interesting''', and how you should write your article about it (after all, there is no point writing a boring article or one with little relevance to the research that was done).

The questions that follow will give you more practice in using interview material to select an effective angle to take with your article, as well as in extracting quotations and paraphrasing material.

'''Question 3 (5 marks)'''

Consider the five following angles that could be taken when you write an entire article about this research. Try to rank these from '''most''' interesting to '''least''' interesting. ''Hint: Imagine reading an article framed entirely around each one of these revelations. This should help you decide which angles are more newsworthy, novel, and interesting.''

'''A:''' It is important to track motivation changes in follow-up studies to see if people have maintained their commitment to exercise. 
'''B:''' You must commit more than six months to an exercise regime to change your attitude towards being active. 
'''C:''' Some people do not enjoy exercise and only do it because they feel they should. 
'''D:''' A high proportion of Canadians do not exercise. 
'''E:''' Five different studies were analyzed to assess attitudes to exercise. 

'''Question 4 (3 marks)'''

Imagine that your editor has asked you to produce a very short article explaining ('''to the general public''') how the researchers measured motivation. Read the first response given by Wendy Rogers in this transcript when she was asked this question. Try to paraphrase how researchers measured motivation. Try to remove '''all''' jargon and complex, potentially ambiguous words (1 mark). Do not write more than '''60''' words (1 mark), but make sure you explain the important elements of the research and do not change the meaning (1 mark).

'''Question 5 (3 marks)'''

Now read the second response given by Wendy Rogers in this transcript (when she was asked about how many people were studied, and how they were studied). Try to paraphrase this material and remove '''all''' jargon, and complex, potentially ambiguous words (1 mark). Do not write more than '''50''' words (1 mark), but make sure you explain the important elements of the research and do not change the meaning (1 mark).

'''Question 6 (1 mark)'''

Imagine that you have just paraphrased the third and fourth responses given by Wendy Rogers (when asked how she defines long-term exercisers, and how many people fit into these categories in Canada) as:

'''''Wendy Rogers explained that ‘long-term exercisers’ are people who exercise at least three times a week, and who have done so for at least a year.''''' 
'''''Worryingly, a small proportion of Canadians fit into this category.''''' 
'''''Rogers said: “…''''' 

Choose '''one''' quote to incorporate into the writing above (1 mark).

'''Critiquing Other Articles'''

Now you have had a good amount of practice in writing interesting articles, selecting quotations, and paraphrasing material succinctly, you should be able to critique articles written by other people. The final activities in this post-class set will require you to do this when referring to the fictional summary article (below) of a recent science discovery that was published in a university newspaper.

'''''Students who spend at least one hour a day reading for pleasure are more likely to sleep better at night, according to a recent study published on a Navan University science blog by graduate student Lily Maeve.''''' 
'''''Maeve asked students who never previously read non-course-related books to wear sleep monitors for a three-month period in which they agreed to read such material before bed, before comparing their sleep patterns with those of students who only read course notes.''''' 
'''''She found that the ‘readers’ slept for longer, and enjoyed less broken sleep than the ‘non-readers’. She also noted from qualitative responses that the ‘readers’ said they felt more awake in class and were better able to relax at night.''''' 

'''QUOTE 1: ''“We thought that we would consider two groups of students: those who agreed to read for pleasure, and those who either only read course notes or did not want to read other things.” ''''' 
'''QUOTE 2: ''“Most students said afterwards that they weren’t surprised by the results, which makes me wonder why more people don’t read for pleasure all the time.”''''' 
'''QUOTE 3: ''“I think the results are very reliable because we used sleep monitors that were previously validated in other experiments; values from these were compared with data that people personally recorded about their sleep patterns, such as when they went to bed and got up, and when they woke up at night. The sleep monitor data was very reliable when correlated with these personal observations.”''''' 

'''Question 7 (1 mark)'''

Which quote should be used as it is in the article?

'''A:''' Quote 1 
'''B:''' Quote 2 
'''C:''' Quote 3 

'''Question 8 (1 mark)'''

Which of the three quotes should not be used in any way in the article? ''Hint: this one should not even be paraphrased.''

'''A:''' Quote 1 
'''B:''' Quote 2 
'''C:''' Quote 3 

'''Question 9 (1 mark)'''

Which quote is the best choice to paraphrase instead of using as a direct quote?

'''A:''' Quote 1 
'''B:''' Quote 2 
'''C:''' Quote 3 

'''Question 10 (2 marks)'''

Explain your answer to Q9. Briefly state why this quote should be paraphrased (1 mark) and then succinctly paraphrase it yourself (1 mark).

Using Quotations and Paraphrasing in Journalistic Writing/Post-Class Activities/Version 1

2015-06-13T23:10:01Z

Anitar:

====Version 1====

<center>'''Using Quotations and Paraphrasing: Student Post-Class Activities'''</center>

These activities will build on the skills you have already learned. You will be working with another interview transcript to gain more practice in selecting quotes and paraphrasing material, but will begin by considering how to re-order quotes from an interview to make the resultant news article more engaging.

Recall that it is acceptable, and often necessary, to re-order quotes to make them slot in better with the story you are telling; it is very rare that you will receive good, coherent quotes in the order you need when interviewing somebody, and/or you might decide to write your story from a different angle based on what your interviewee tells you. The important thing is to make sure that you do not misrepresent your source.

'''Questions 1 and 2 (4 marks each, 8 marks total)'''

For each of the following two questions, try to first choose the most effective opening to the story (1 mark) before ordering the three related quotes in the most effective way possible (3 marks) to make your story interesting and engaging. Copy and paste the opening to the story you like best, and then copy and paste the quotes in the order you think they should appear.

'''Q1:''' For the opening, ''choose either '''A''' or '''B''':''

'''A:''' Astronomers used a high-tech new telescope to take a peek at the coldest place in the universe and were surprised when they found it looks like a ghost. 
At -458° Fahrenheit, they originally thought it looked like a bow tie before the greater resolution provided by the new telescope showed a ghost-like shape. 
'''B:''' Astronomers were shocked to find that the coldest place in the universe (the Boomerang Nebula) looks like a ghost when viewed through a high-resolution telescope. 
The Boomerang Nebula, which is about 5,000 light years away from Earth and is in its final stages of life as a star, has a temperature of just -458° Fahrenheit. 

'''Now select the order''' that the following three quotes (all taken from the lead researcher, Duncan Galloway) should appear in the story:

'''1:''' “They’re not just cold at this late stage though as they also emit lots of UV radiation, which is what allows us to see them from so far away.” 
'''2:''' “What remains of a star at this stage of its life cycle is just the very central component of the original star. They aren’t burning now, which is why they are so cold.” 
'''3:''' “We’ve seen some funny images over the years, but the ghostly spectre of the Boomerang Nebula was a real shock.” 

'''Q2:''' For the opening, ''choose either '''A''' or '''B''':''

'''A:''' Students at the University of St. Andrews have designed a new app that helps schedule the time they keep in hand ahead of their assignments. 
Project developer Andrew Stephen explained that the idea sprung from an unhappy classmate who complained about having three essays due in the space of four days. 
'''B:''' Failing to manage time spent on coursework effectively could be a thing of the past after students from the University of St. Andrews developed an app to help time scheduling. 
Project developer Andrew Stephen explained that he hopes the invention will prove useful to fellow students all over the world. 

'''Now select the order''' that the following three quotes (all taken from Andrew Stephen) should appear in the story:

'''1:''' “The basic idea is to help students plan ahead more effectively.” 
'''2:''' “Although we have road-tested the app, it’ll be a few weeks yet before it’s ready.” 
'''3:''' “Without good planning, deadlines can often creep up on you and you’ll find yourself with too little time to devote to an assignment worth a lot of marks.” 

'''Writing an Interesting, Relevant Article'''

Read the interview transcript entitled ‘[http://wiki.ubc.ca/Using_Quotations_and_Paraphrasing_in_Journalistic_Writing/Post-Class_Activities/BC_Dinosaur_Interview BC Dinosaur Interview]’. A pdf copy of this is available for you to download [http://wiki.ubc.ca/File:BC_Dinosaur_Interview.pdf here]. As you read it, try to think what makes the research '''interesting''', and how you should write your article about it (after all, there is no point writing a boring article or one with little relevance to the research that was done).

The questions that follow will give you more practice in using interview material to select an effective angle to take with your article, as well as in extracting quotations and paraphrasing material.

'''Question 3 (5 marks)'''

Consider the five following angles that could be taken when you write an entire article about this research. Try to rank these from '''most''' interesting to '''least''' interesting and remember not to misrepresent the interviewee (Victoria Arbour). ''Hint: Imagine reading an article framed entirely around each one of these revelations. This should help you decide which angles are more newsworthy, novel, and interesting.''

'''A:''' It took a long time to work out what sort of animal the fossil came from. 
'''B:''' There was controversy over the finding and the original collector was very angry. 
'''C:''' This is the first time a pterosaur fossil has been found in BC. 
'''D:''' This is the first time a dinosaur fossil has been found in Canada. 
'''E:''' There should be some dinosaur fossils to find in the area nearby. 

'''Question 4 (3 marks)'''

Imagine that your editor has asked you to produce a very short article explaining ('''to the general public''') how the researchers figured out that the fossil belonged to a pterosaur. Read the fourth response (at the bottom of the first page) given by Victoria Arbour in this transcript when she was asked this question. Try to '''paraphrase''' this. Try to remove '''all''' jargon and complex, potentially ambiguous words (1 mark). Do not write more than '''50''' words (1 mark), but make sure you explain the important elements of Victoria’s answer without misrepresenting her original meaning (1 mark). '''Make sure you include a word count at the end of your answer.'''

'''Question 5 (3 marks)'''

Now read the ninth response (at the bottom of the second page) given by Victoria Arbour in this transcript (when she was asked about what the finding said about the kind of environment, or about what else existed there at the time). Try to '''paraphrase''' this. Try to remove '''all''' jargon, and complex, potentially ambiguous words (1 mark). Do not write more than '''50''' words (1 mark), but make sure you explain the important elements of Victoria’s answer without misrepresenting her original meaning (1 mark). '''Make sure you include a word count at the end of your answer.'''

'''Question 6 (1 mark)'''

Choose '''one''' quote to incorporate into the paraphrased information you have just written to answer Question 5 (1 mark). ''Hint: There is only one quote that is personable and succinct that you could add to make the article more engaging.''

'''Critiquing Other Articles'''

Now you have had a good amount of practice in writing interesting articles, selecting quotations, and paraphrasing material succinctly, you should be able to critique articles written by other people. The final activities in this post-class set will require you to do this when referring to the summary article (below) of a recent science discovery that was published in a university newspaper. ''Hint: All three quotes came from the same person, who was a lead researcher involved in the discovery.''

'''''Research involving scientists from Trinity College Dublin has discovered a ground-breaking new technique that will make determining cell membrane protein structure up to 20 times more efficient.''''' 
'''''Making use of a highly specialized syringe, researchers will be able to place protein crystals into the path of X-rays at precisely the right speeds to produce diffraction patterns from which the 3-D structures can be interpreted.''''' 
'''''This discovery will have major implications for drug research because over 50% of the drugs currently on the market target cell membrane proteins. But scientists can only hope to design new drugs that act effectively if they have accurate protein structure ‘roadmaps’ from which to work from.''''' 

'''Quote 1: “The key is in being able to present the protein crystals at exactly the right speeds, which is what the syringe enabled us to do.”''' 
'''Quote 2: “It’s a tremendously exciting breakthrough. Instead of waiting for six months to decode a specific protein structure, researchers might now only need to wait for 10 days.”''' 
'''Quote 3: “We showed in our research how quickly we were able to decode a known protein structure, treating the process as though we were working from scratch and had no idea how this particular membrane protein looked structurally. It was important to work this way because if we had determined an unknown protein structure using a new technique, people might have wondered how accurate our findings were because they had no blueprint to confirm it against.”''' 

'''Question 7 (1 mark)'''

Which quote should be used as it is in the article?

'''A:''' Quote 1 
'''B:''' Quote 2 
'''C:''' Quote 3 

'''Question 8 (1 mark)'''

Which of the three quotes should not be used in any way in the article? ''Hint: this one should not even be paraphrased.''

'''A:''' Quote 1 
'''B:''' Quote 2 
'''C:''' Quote 3 

'''Question 9 (1 mark)'''

Which quote is the best choice to paraphrase instead of using as a direct quote?

'''A:''' Quote 1 
'''B:''' Quote 2 
'''C:''' Quote 3 

'''Question 10 (2 marks)'''

Explain your answer to Q9. Briefly state why this quote should be paraphrased (1 mark) and then succinctly paraphrase it yourself (1 mark).

Communication Learning Objectives/Scientific presentations

2015-06-10T19:41:14Z

Anitar:

====Scientific presentations, and visual materials:====

====='''''Knowledge'''''=====

Identify the appropriate amount – and type – of content 

====='''''Understand'''''=====

Identify key points from a presentation 

Describe the most common practices for visually reporting statistical and other scientific information 

====='''''Apply'''''=====

Apply oral presentation best practices: eye contact, pace, gesture, content, visual aids, rehearsing 

When appropriate, incorporate presentation techniques such as humour, metaphor, comparisons, and analogies 

Incorporate graphics and multimedia elements into presentations 

Represent data in logical and clear tables and graphs 

====='''''Analyze'''''=====

Analyze risk communication in the context of scientific data and non-expert audiences 

====='''''Evaluate'''''=====

Ask and answer questions after viewing presentations 

Evaluate visual representations of scientific information 

Evaluate the reporting of statistical ideas 

====='''''Create'''''=====

Deliver an oral presentation using no visual aids (a speech) that is clear, audible, well rehearsed, and suitable for the audience 

Deliver an oral presentation using visual aids (a speech) that is clear, audible, well rehearsed, and suitable for the audience 

Deliver a presentation using software (such as PowerPoint, Keynote, Prezi) that is clear, audible, well rehearsed, and suitable for the audience

Communication Learning Objectives/General science communication

2015-06-10T19:40:11Z

Anitar:

====General science communication:====

====='''''Knowledge'''''=====

Identify, and restate in your own words, the thesis statement in a piece of writing 

Define the different types of plagiarism and avoid plagiarism 

Identify different audiences of scientific information 

Recognize when it is appropriate to use the different types of scientific literature such as primary literature, reviews, and textbooks 

Know that there are many different, commonly used citation styles, and that these can be managed with a citation manager such as RefWorks 

====='''''Understand'''''=====

Discuss reasons scientists communicate (or should communicate) their work 

Discuss the role of governments, industry, and other stakeholders in communicating science 

Explain how scientific research is published (including the peer review process, open-access journals, and the embargo system) 

Identify some common misconceptions of science 

Explain what is at stake if scientific research/information is communicated poorly 

====='''''Apply'''''=====

Apply writing best practices regarding: clarity, succinct writing, topic sentences and paragraph structure, passive vs. active voice, metaphors, jargon 

Avoid committing the different types of plagiarism in science writing 

Locate relevant information in scientific publications 

Apply different citation styles using citation manager software such as RefWorks 

====='''''Analyze'''''=====

Explain what is done well (and what isn’t) in examples of different styles of science writing 

====='''''Evaluate'''''=====

Give feedback on peers' writing 

Decide what aspects of peer feedback to incorporate into your writing 

Evaluate sources of scientific information possible origins of scientific misconceptions and how they might be addressed 

====='''''Create'''''=====

Organize scientific information from a variety of sources to produce different written work (research papers, essays, journalistic articles, blog posts etc.)