From Academia to Social Media

      It is an acknowledged fact that as the Internet grows, it is most likely that people will have some sort of social media presence.

Norenzayan, Ara. "Armenia Berlin Summer 2008"
Copyrite © 2015, Ara Norenzayan

The Author
      The author I've decided to try and find on social media is Ara Norenzayan; so far he has been mentioned a lot on t\Twitter but I cannot seem to find him having a personal Twitter. The only Facebook page related to him is about his book "Big Gods". On LinkedIn people who have studied under him or were his assistants are on there but Norenzayan himself is not. Like Twitter he is not explicitly on Reddit, but those on Reddit enjoy his ideas and his writings. He's not personally on YouTube or Tumblr either though he is referenced.

Their Presence 
       Since Ara Norenzayan has no social media presence personally it is hard to describe their presence besides "nonexistent". He has not personally made any sort of contribution on the Internet so I cannot really that I learned anything about him personally.

Who Are They Really?
         The only Ara Norenzayan that I have been able to find is the one that writes in scientific journals and is a member of the scientific communities and an author to multiple books. If these are all a persona then there is no true distinction from a different persona that I was able to find.

Academic Discourse & Genre

      There is a lot of information being produced in this journal, in a couple different ways.

The Types of Genres
       There are only about two different types of genres within this specific scientific journal, the main research papers and the shorter distinct responses.

david_17in. "Journals" 03/20/2010 via Flickr.

                 

Attribution 2.0 Generic

Their Names
        The names of the two different genres are best coined as a scientific research paper and a formal response to a paper, The main difference between the two genres is the length and extent to which they answer a question or argue a point. The research papers are trying to prove their point through long research and experimental examples; the responses on the other hand are commenting ideas or opinions on the paper, that may still have research to back them, but are still not to the extent the research paper is.

Defining Moment
           A good definition of the scientific research paper is a long dissertation type paper, including an abstract and a conclusion, with many paragraphs between detailing analysis experiment and the result. They include many graphs and charts explaining results as well. The main purpose of this sort of genre is to express ideas and experimental results of some scientific experience.
           The responses are defined as exactly that, a response. Usually short they can be at max a few paragraphs, and may include one graph, not as much about experimental results but more about criticism of the original research paper.

Rhetorical Analysis of Scientific Journal

     The journal that I have decided to use for this rhetorical analysis is Behavioral and Brain Sciences. Sadly the most recent physical copy available to me is only the one of 2004.

Who are the Writers?
       There are a lot of authors in this journal; the main ones being Scott Atran, Ara Norenzayan, Ralf-Peter Behrendt, Claire Young, and Jonathan Kenneth Burns. But added to that are about 20 responses to each work with a different author for each one. The authors are primarily portrayed as trained and knowledgeable individuals.

Who is the Intended Audience?
       The intended audience are those that regularly read the Journal of Behavioral and Brain Sciences mostly because it's a continuing issue, with addendum from the previous issues. Not only that but the journal is heavily focused on those that would want to learn about how the brain affects behavior and does not pander that the people may not understand everything that is being addressed.

Morrison, Alexis. "'Behavior and Brain Science, Volume 27, Issue 6"
02/28/2016

What is the Context for this Journal?
        This journal was published in December of 2004 by Cambridge University; as a scientific journal it's expected to be formatted with a certain style of lots of words and graphs to back up the claims, adding on to that are the numerous published responses given by other sources to the main article.

What is the Overall Message?
          There isn't really an overall message within the journal, as there are multiple unconnected articles within the journal all delineating some neuroscience research and are not as a whole making a point in research.

What is the Journal Trying to Achieve?
         The journal issue in question is trying to educate not only on things like schizophrenia but also issues like religion and how they have effected the brains of those practicing these religions and their attitudes.

Report on My Interviews

       After I had my interviews this week it was imperative that I discuss what was said by my interviewees.

Genres in the Field
       The most prominent genre written in within the fields that I interviewed, both agreed that long research papers are the main part of their field and writing style. Along with the long papers though comes with the shorter writings of abstracts, which sometimes are separate from long research papers. Also shorter works that are done are writings for grants.

How do these Genres Differ?
        The differences between these genres include length and some of the language used. Research papers are the definite longest, can be upwards of sixteen pages of writing including graphs and references. An abstract on the other hand, while usually at the beginning of a research paper, can be separate and is usually only a single paragraph.
         Grant writing is a bit different from both of these, writing to receive a grant needs to have more sway over the audience, the language while academic and formal does not have to be and sometimes should not be as scientifically wordy as a research paper or abstract would be.
       

Fotownetrza. "Coffee, Tablet, Headphones, Work" 01/08/2016 via Pixabay.
CC0 Public Domain

What is Challenging About Them?
         A large part of the challenge of research papers is the length and extent to which they have to go through. While they should publish at least once a year this requires a lot of work. As both of my interviewees are also teachers along with their research positions they really have to have a time trying to balance all this work.
        A challenging part of grant writing is that they have to be persuasive about their project that it would seem to deserve funding, they can't just use big fancy words and expect the funders would understand or want to bother to understand.

What is Exciting About Them?
            To my interviewees the exciting part of writing is getting to tell everyone about their views and the new information that they have been able to discover through their research. Even if what the results of a study turn out opposite of what was expected they significantly can impact the field in that way still.

Hide and Go Seek within Media
        Finding genre examples are relatively easy through social media; social media has drastically affected the way research gets out into the public, now anyone can search for the articles and generally is able to find them relatively easily; social media like twitter is very accessible with such topics as well as online journals and journal reviews. Its a brave new world of open possibilities.

My Field of Study

     My field of study is neuroscience and before going into a long detailed analysis of the writing and audiences within the field it may be pertinent to tell you a it more some things about the field.

What do Students Learn?

        Students within the field of Neuroscience and Cognitive Science have to learn at least all of the basic sciences; biology, chemistry and physics. Then once those have been covered there's also things called "soft sciences" that are taught like linguistics and psychology. Once in the higher levels of the field the students of neuroscience are then taught the basics of brain function and structure and the like.

Where Will We Work?

       Most of the people that study neuroscience go one of two routes, either a medical route or a research route. The medical route leads to neurologist ans brain surgeons, and the research is more focused on understanding the brain usually by using the study of different animal brains and experimenting on them to better understand aspects of the brain as a whole.

Waag Society. "Hack the Brain / Day 3" 05/25/2014 via Flickr.

      

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The Draw

      What drew me to Neuroscience in the first place is sort of fuzzy for me, I think I can trace the interest in brain disease to a summer I spent with grandparents and I learned about the effects of Alzheimer's but it mostly felt right to want to study such an unexplored part of our own human bodies.

Who's "So Hot Right Now"?

        It's hard to tell since 2016 just began who will be truly active in the field at this time so instead I'll tell you three influential people that are significantly in recent times, or who have impacted me. 

        A main person who is a real person of interest to me an is a real inspiration is Mayim Bialik. She's known for being an actress but has studied and published in the field of neuroscience. She's an inspiration to me because not only is she a female scientist but she really breaks a stereotype in both the fields of scientist and in entertainment.

        Another well known Neuroscientist in the field is David Eagleman, he is certainly interesting because he is pioneering research and application of neuroscience into law. Not only that but he has done work on synesthesia, which is endlessly interesting to me and how the brain understands and processes certain senses and its responses to those senses.

       Antonio Damasio  is the third neuroscientist that I would say is significant to the field overall, mostly because of his work in how brain processes affect how feelings and emotions work and how we react to them overall.

Journals of Import 

         A large journal for the Neuroscience community is the Nature journal; Nature Neuroscience is a collaborative online journal so it's not really published in one place since it is also published under a publishing group based out of 40+ countries.

       The second blog I think that has a very high importance rating among neuroscience journals is the Behavioral and Brain Sciences journal published out of Cambridge University.

         A third journal of import is the PLOS: Biology journal that is a review journal for works of science. It's based out of San Francisco, California. 

My Interviewees on Social Media

     As the world has progressed over the years there has been a large movement towards the internet and social media, even in academia. To get to know my interviewees a bit more personally I decided to see how much they were on the social media areas.

What Are the Networks?

   (I a unable to check Instagram or wordpress due to not having a profile)

      So far I've been able to find Anna Dornahus for sure on Facebook, LinkedIn, she is mentioned a lot on Twitter even though she does not seem to have a profile, and not only does she have lecture videos uploaded by other on YouTube, she has a profile there as well.

     Alan Nighorn on the other hand is very difficult to find on any media. I may have found him on Facebook but there are no distinguishing features.

mkhmarketing, "The Art of Social Media" 07/31/2011 via Flickr.
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How Active Are They?

      Anna Dornhaus is relatively active on social media, however most of the posts I have seen by her revolve around her work with her social insects. Her YouTube channel only is comprised of a couple or filmed ant observation videos. And her Facebook is not open to the public.

      Dr. Nighorn has seemingly no presence on social media and so it is hard to judge his attitude or even his interests when he seems shrouded in anonymity. 

Different Personas?

      Truly I can not detect different personas from their academic writing or their attitudes outside of academics.

My Interviewees as Professional

      I'm interviewing these people but it important that they actually have writing to speak of, or it would be a bit wasteful to interview them in light of the project being about the writing in my field of study.

McPhee, Nic. "2008-01-26 (Editing a Paper) -20" 01/26/2008 via Flickr.
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What Is This Writing You Speak Of?
         Most of Alan Nighorn's publications deal with sensory systems, like the olfactory and the connections of neurons inside it, pertaining to certain insects, like breeds of moths or drosophila.
          Anna Dornhaus has the similar theme of insects within her publications, but differently is that her focus within her works are "social insects" and how they interact.

But What Type Is It?
        Alan Nighorn has primarily only published research papers into journals, such examples as this publication in the Journal of Neurochemistry and this publication in the Journal of Neuroscience. So there isnt much genre convention differences between the two, generally a journal publication will include the abstract of the paper and then the main written part usually with some section differentiation like titles, journal research papers longer paragraphs usually structures in a single or two column way.  Usually these pieces are heavily referenced.
       Anna Dornhaus is similar in the way that she has written for multiple journals, papers like this in the Animal Behavior journal and a different one in Apidologie. So like what was said before for Dr. Nighorn, however unlike Dr. Nighorn, Dr. Dornhaus also has had a larger presence at conferences. While these haven't actually been technically published works they are importantly distinct from written works. She has to make the experience more capturing in a conference talk than in a long many page research paper. Also technically writing for such things would be put onto science posters and the conventions of those also include abstracts, graphs but more shorter amounts of main writing. It has to summarize the overall work done.
         

What's Your Message Here?
             The message in Dr. Nighorn's article in the Journal of Neurochemistry deals with specific genes in the antennal neurons of Manduca sexta that are activated by calcium, and they were trying to determine how these differed from other activators in another sensory systems within insects. His second journal writing is about how certain signals may help sorting of olfactory sensory axons in Manduca sexta. The specific signal studied has been determined to seem to have multiple use for the Manduca and may point towards other studies to see the more extensive effects.
             In Dr. Dornhaus' publication in the Animal Behavior journal the message that is reached is that bumble bees seem to have a connection between their division of labor and the space within which they mostly reside within the nest of the colony. The other work by Dr. Dornhaus has to do with how information travels within bumble bees in regards to their foraging habits. The message ultimately is that when bumble bees forage they don't just get food they also get information which they share and are then able to influence the other bees on whether they should take up foraging or not based on their success.

What's The Point Even?
         The point for each of Dr. Nighorn's pieces deal with internal working in the neuron and sensory connectors of the Manduca sexta; having this knowledge allows us to know more deeply about how the connections work and can lead to complete understanding of neuron connection and effects of signals.
         For Dr. Dornhaus' works her goal is to educate and learn more deeply about how social insects get their information and interact. Such actions are important to understanding how animals without direct communication truly work.

My Interview Subjects

     Starting off this project with a gung-ho attitude and no time at all to complete it. The beginning of this project is based heavily off of interviews that I will be conducting with people within my field of study.

Alan Nighorn, U of A , CV

 

Anna Dornhaus, U of A, CV

                         

The Contenders...
      The two people I have elicited help from for this project are Anna Dornhaus and Alan Nighorn.

From Their Corners of the Ring...
      Anna Dornhaus is Associate Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Arizona. Alan Nighorn also works at the University of Arizona, his title is Professor and Department Head of Neuroscience.

After Years of Study...
      Anna Dornhaus has many years of Education under her belt, She received her Masters in Science in Biology in 1999 at the University of Würzburg, and also got her PhD there in 2002.
      Alan Nighorn also got a large amount of higher education first getting his Bachelor of Science in Biochemistry at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1986. And then late in 1993 got his PhD in Cell biology from Baylor College of Medicine in Houston.

And Ages Working...

       Both interviewees have been in the field professionally for a long while, Dr. Dornhaus has been in professional work in her field since 1999. And Alan Nighorn has been at work professionally since 1987.

They Will Come....
        The interviews are scheduled very soon. The interview with Dr. Nighorn is Thursday, the twenty-fifth of February, at 10 am . It will be held within his office; room 603 of Gould-Simpson.
         Dr. Dornhaus' interview will be the next day, the twenty-sixth of February, also at 10 am. This interview will take place in the Entomology Lab of Bio-Sciences West, room 231.

To Answer Some Questions.

1. How would you describe your professional work/job in the field?
2. What sort of writing do you most often do, conference or research papers?
1. How do these differ in your writing?
2. What sort of audiences is either one for? Mostly within the field or without?
3. How often do you have to write or publish within the field?
4. How has writing within the field changed over the years you've been working?
1. How has social media impacted your work? Has it?
5. What's the process from going from a research question/idea to a fully published paper?
6. What are some of the differences in conducting a study by yourself and being in one with multiple co-authors?
7. What are some things that have impacted your writing?

Specifically for Dr. Dornhaus; How is writing within the field different in certain countries?

Specifically for Dr. Nighorn:  What interests you about mostly insect brains to do study on them instead of mammal brains and the like?

         

Local Revision: Variety

     Variety adds spice to life, it would not be exciting if everything stayed exactly the same like some monolithic writing. So it is important to review work for that certain spice that is variation in not only word choice but sentence structure.

Where's the Variance?
        Within my QRG there seems to be a great variety of sentence structure, both of complex compound sentences and the simple few word sentences. There are without a doubt repeated sentence structures but I don't think they are repeated in a way to be too repetitive or monotonous.

Paul. "Lattice Variations" 03/04/2012 via Flickr.
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A Pair of Graphs?
         The paragraphs within my QRG are very important. Since the conventions of the QRG require multiple paragraphs of a shorter length but in varying ways so it doesn't feel to the reader that they're just reading the same paragraph over again. Each specific paragraph does not really have transition words because instead there are transition titles between sections that are more important for the change between topics.

Flavor of the Words
       The words within my paper are varying in their variation; some words within the QRG are extremely different, but as shown with my use of verbs it may not be the most exciting sort of words I could use. I don't know if it is the most flavorful of QRG with the primarily scientific and statistical level of information that is being passed down to the audience.

Local Revision: Passive and Active Voice

     The voice with which one uses verbs can give more punch to the writing as a whole, it is important to hook readers and capture their attention for the entire length of whatever is being presented to them.

Hromnak, Steven. "Active Voice" 09/27/2011 via Flickr.
Attribution 2.0 Generic

 Active (specific)                   Active (general)                      Passive
  - ruined                                 - relates                                  - will
  - intrigued                             - lack                                      - was (5)  
  - exacerbated                        - published (4)                       - may prove
  - reject                                  - lead (2)                                - could fix
  - inflated                               - question                               - would (4)
  - undermine                          - based                                    - does (2)
  - reiterate                              - wrote                                    - are (6)        
                                               - named                                  - have (5)  
                                               - connected                             - is (14)  
                                               - studying                               - to be (8)
                                               - allowed                                - get (2)
                                               - turns                                     - find
                                               - made (6)                               - seemed
                                               - came (2)                               - show (2)
                                               - hold (2)                                - Commenting
                                               - used (2)                                - has (2)
                                               - connecting                            - had (3)
                                               - headed                                  - drew
                                               - analyze                                 - relating
                                                - conducted                            - comes
                                               - produced                              - were
                                               - reach                                    - went
                                               - combined                             - making    
                                               - examined                             - did
                                               - applied                                 - can be (2)
                                               - contrasting                           - allows
                                               - combining                           - causing      
                                               - provide                                - being (2)
                                               -  affects                                 - should be (2)
                                               - addressed                             - having
                                               - fixed                                     - become
                                              - means (2)                               - seem
                                              - skewed                                   - moving
                                              - insure                                      
                                              - finding                                    
                                              - close
                                              - represents
                                              - lie
                                              - blame
                                              - stands
                                              - stems
                                             - argues
                                             - disagrees
                                             - says (3)
                                             - surrounds
                                             - disagreeing
                                             - proving
                                             - mapping
                                             - announces
                                             - fund
                                             - take
                                             - uphold
                                             - change
                                             - increase
                                            - acknowledge
                                            - start
                                            - arguing
                                            - resolve
                                            - reach
__________________________________________________________

Active or Inactive?
      My verb usage is generally general and very rarely specific. There's much less passive voice then active, however, even the passive voiced verbs are of greater number than my specific active verbs. Generally I've learned that it is an exercise to really make an active engaging in verbs when trying to get information mostly across.

Improvements?
      As the draft is now it could be improved by providing more specifically active verbs to give the actions a bit more solid sense and more of a gripping way of being told.

Local Revision: Pronoun Usage

      It is important when using pronouns to use them properly and not excessively. Wouldn't want to confuse the readers.

Effective?
      Within my QRG I think that my use of pronouns is very effective; there are not too many pronouns as too confuse the reader over who or what the subject of that pronoun is. Reviewing my writing for pronouns actually surprises me because I use a lot less pronouns then I had thought I would. My writing style is direct enough that it is unlikely that the subject will be forgotten quickly.

Matt. "32/52 Connection" 08/23/2013 via Flickr.
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Break the 4th Wall?
       As it was drilled in me that it was informal to directly address the audience, though informality is relative, I rarely do it within my writing; I do not think this takes away from the ability to relate between me as the author and the readers of my work. There is still a sense of connection because I am telling them exactly what is happening and it does not feel as detached say as a scientific paper. I do find this space however fits the topic of the QRG best because it is not a situation very heavily influenced by say emotion or particular senses, more it is a thought provoker.

My Pronouns

To always address everyone in a paper directly by name is quite exhausting and so it is best to use pronouns.

frances1972. "problem with pronouns"  03/16/2009 via Flickr.
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The Pronouns from my QRG:

• their (Button et al.)
• their (Button et al.)
• their (Button et al.)
• they (Button et al.)
• it (low power)
• they (Button et al.)
• it ( the problem of low statistical power)
• it ( the field of Neuroscience)
• it (original research  paper)
• his (Phillip Quinlan)
• his (Phillip Quinlan)
• he ( Peter Bacchetti)
• it (the problem in research)
• it's (the problem in Neuroscience research)
• his (John Ashton)
• His (John Ashton)
• it (hypothesis testing)
• their (Ashton, Bacchetti, Quinlan)
• they (Ashton, Bacchetti, Quinlan)
• their (Button et al.)
• they (Button et al.)
• their (Button et al.)
• they (Button et al.)
• its (Neuroscience)
• their (every person within this QRG)
• they (efforts to resolve problems)

Local Revision: Tense Usage

Nawarra. "Dog, Vigilant, Tense" 04/25/2013 via pixabay.
CC0 Public Domain

Present Tense                            Past Tense                              Future Tense 
- relates                                        - was (5)                                    - may prove
- lack                                            - published (4)                          - could fix
- question                                     - would (4)                                - will
- lead (2)                                      - based                                      
- does (2)                                      - wrote                                    
- are (6)                                        - named                                    
- have (5)                                     - connected                              
- studying                                     - ruined                                    
- is (14)                                        - allowed
- turns                                           - made (6)
- to be (8)                                     - came (2)
- hold (2)                                      - used (2)
- connecting                                 - headed
- analyze                                      - intrigued
- get (2)                                        - conducted
- find                                            - seemed
- show (2)                                    - produced
- reach                                         - combined
- Commenting                             - exacerbated
- reject                                         - were getting
- reflects                                      - examined
- has (2)                                       - applied
- contrasting                                - had (3)
- combining                                 - drew
- provide                                      - inflated
-  affects                                      - addressed
- relating                                      - fixed
- comes                                        - undermine
- means (2)                                  - were
- making                                      - skewed
- insure                                        - went
- finding                                      - did
- can be (2)                                
- allows
- causing
- close
- being (2)
- represents
- lie
- should be (2)
- blame
- stands
- stems
- argues
- having
- disagrees
- says (3)
- surrounds
- become
- disagreeing
- seem
- proving
- mapping
- announces
- fund
- take
- uphold
- reiterate
- change
- increase
- acknowledge
- start
- moving
- arguing
- resolve
- reach
_________________________________________________________

Mode
     The tense most prevalent in my draft seems to be present, about twice as much as past and future combined.

Affect of Effect
     The tenses of the verbs within the draft as they are now give the readers a sense of what this past events controversy has had an impact on the present.

Shift it a Little
       The shifts within the QRG for the tenses make sense, because primarily they're shifting between describing the events of three years ago and explaining in the moment the research. I do not think any of the shifts will surprise or throw the readers off.

In The Moment
      I make use of present tense verbs even though this is an older story, it allows the readers to feel like they are watching it unfold not hearing a story of it happening.

My Verbs

Siegel, Rebecca. "RSiegel_week3 - Pure Verb"
01/20/2012 via Flickr. Attribution 2.0 Generic

Now presenting, the Verbs:

1. Relates
2. lack
3. was
4. published
5. would
6. question
7. based
8. would
9. lead
10. are
11. does
12. have
13. wrote
14. named
15. studying
16. are
17. connected to
18. is
19. turns 
20. to be
21. hold
22. are
23. ruined
24. Connecting
25. allowed
26. to be able
27. to analyze
28. to get
29. made
30. would
31. come
32. to be
33. came
34. to find
35. have
36. used
37. headed
38. became 
39. intrigued 
40. conducted
41. seemed
42. to have
43. came
44. to show
45. can be
46. does
47. reach
48. Commenting
49. Behind
50. reject
51. is
52. reflects
53. has
54. are
55. contrasting
56. combining
57. to provide
58. shows
59. affects
60. relating
61. is
63. produced
64. comes
65. is
66. means
67. is
68. making
69. combined
70. are
71. exacerbated
72. to insure
73. were getting
74. examined
75. applied
76. Finding
77. had
78. drew
79. can be
80. allows
81. to be
82. inflated
83. causing
84. close
85. would
86. lead
87. being 
88. addressed
89. fixed
90. represents
91. lie 
92. was
93. to be
94. should be
95. became
96. was
97. to blame
98. undermined
99. was
100. published
101. were
102. published
103. stands
104. stems
105. published
106. argues
107. are
108. having
109. disagrees
110. says
111. is
112. to be
113. waste
114. gathered
115. agrees
116. is
117. says
118. is
119. may prove
120. to be
121. is
122. surrounds
123. has
124. become
125. skewed
126. should be
127. being
128. disagreeing
129. seem
130. to hold
131. proving
132. to be
133. get
134. is
135. made
136. made
137. mapping
138. announces
139. to fund
140. did
141. take
142. had
143. to uphold
144. made
145. reiterate
146. is
147. could be
148. Means
149. against
150. have
151. come up
152. could fix
153. change
154. used
155. use
156. increase
157. acknowledge
158. to start
159. moving
160. made
161. went
162. had
163. is
164. say
165. brought
166. arguing
167. is
168. is
169. have been
170. made
171. to resolve
172. will
173. reach
174. is

Repetitions:
does- 2, is-14, reach-2, have-5, had-3 , has- 2, published- 4, was-5, would-4, made- 6, lead-2, are-6, to be-8, should be-2, can be-2, say(s)-3, means-2, use(d)-3, connect(ed/ing)-2, come(s)-3, beca(o)me-3,  seem(ed)-2, being-2, argue(ing)-2, prove(ing)-2, hold- 2, show-2. get(ing)-3.

Local Revision: Wordiness

In every writing situation there are times when one is too wordy and times when one leaves out some words. This is a time of the first; a time when there are too many words.

A paragraph from my QRG draft;

John C. Ashton agrees with Button et al. but instead says its the null hypothesis testing that is the issue in research.  John Ashton seems an intimidating man with his high forehead and deep set eyes, yet as a professor at the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology in the University of Otago it should be his intelligence that one finds intimidating. His argument against the Button et al. article surrounds the premise that hypothesis testing has become horribly skewed from what it once was, especially since with the small sample sizes the reproduction of results to come to a conclusion will be skewed as well.

As you can see its a little bit too much description, unnecessarily so. To revise this I need to shorten the descriptions a lot; take out all the unimportant information.

McPhee, Nic. "I tend to scribble a lot" 01/26/2008 via Flickr.
Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic 

The revised version:

John Ashton agrees with Button et al. that there is a problem with neuroscience research but instead says it's the null hypothesis testing that is the issue; as a professor at the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology in the University of Otago, his argument may prove to be intimidating for Button et al. His argument surrounds the premise that hypothesis testing has become skewed from what it should be, especially the reproduction of results being incorrect with small sample sizes.

While not too drastic of a change, an entire line of text collectively gone vastly improves the verbosity level of the QRG.

Peer Review #2

     Peer Review is important for revision work because it allows for the authors of the works to have an idea to how an audience will react going in with as much information as the author may have started off with as well; not only that but a peer review does not feel as definite and sentencing as a review by a mentor.

    I reviewed two peers works, the first was Missy Webb's QRG, which I went over in this rubric, and the other was Nicolas Herard's podcast rough draft, which I graded with this rubric.

Learning Experience
     I learned from my observance of others project and QRG that I had missed some points that would most likely be best to be added into the writing. Looking at other work gave me some inspiration on what I could do to formulate the absolute best work I could do.

Grundy, Rich. "Day 4 - 4th Feb - Revision is fun!"
02/04/2011 via Flickr. Attribution-NonCommercial 2.0 Generic

Got Some Issues to Deal With
      The top problem with my QRG so far is that it is extremely under described, both setting and people within my narrative are not given as many characteristics as much as they should have to ignite the senses. To fix this problem I need to just write more into the QRG and format it so that I can introduce all the stakeholders and setting in an applicable way.
      Another problem with my QRG at this point is that the conclusion of it is not quite concluding; I'm unsure how to wrap up the controversy and need to figure out how I should approach that.
        The third problem I've noticed within my QRG is that it might be too short for the conventions of the QRG; while I have all the information it may be too compacted, but this should be fixed as I add in more details and a better conclusion.

But Still Standing Strong
     I think a strong point with my QRG so far is that it explains the controversy well and has all the relevant information it may need to get the information across to the audience effectively. To build on this and make it stronger I would need to make sure that everything connects and makes sense.
      Another good aspect of my QRG is that I've fit the conventions well for including quotes and bullet-ed lists that set apart from the rest of the work but truly just add to it and do not detract from the overall form.
      I think I have efficiently included graphics that accent not only the conventions of the QRG but also provide sufficient information to the audience for things that are hard to explain with just words.

Peer Review 1

      For the peer review I reviewed Rhiannon Bauer's Quick Reference Guide, on this Rubric.

      I decided to review her QRG because I wanted to see how others had done the same project. It really gave me insight when reviewing her project how much more I needed to do in mine to get it to the level I would desire. I need to expand more descriptions about both the people and the setting so that the audience of my work can get more entrenched within the story and actually feel connected to what was happening. So while I have much to describe still in the situation, I feel as though I have accomplished describing the information about the actual controversy exceptionally well.

Long, Christopher. "29/365 Corrections" 01/29/2013 via Flickr.
Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic

Not to Do: Mistakes
     One mistake that I observed and would not like to repeat, well I wouldn't call it a mistake; within Rhiannon's QRG she uses extremely informal language, that due to the scientific and academic material and readers of my article may feel out of place. I know that the ORG should be accessible but it feels slightly demeaning to address them in such a way.
     I don't think there really is another thing i would consider a mistake within the draft that I would not want to emulate.

To Do: Smarts  
     Something I'd like to emulate from Rhiannon's work was her good understanding of the genre of the QRG; her short paragraphs and many headers really capture the conventions of the genre and make it seem like a quick read despite being very information laden.
      The way she chose to separate up the main points of the argument for each individual was a smart choice that allowed for the audience of the article to understand the main points in a quick easy way. Overall I hope to attain the level of QRG that she has already completed at the rough draft level.

Draft of Project 1

      And here is the long awaited Draft of my quick reference guide:


                                            DRAFT

        For those of my peers reviewing this; I most want to make sure that the reference guide is understandable to someone who hasn't been reading up on this topic for a week or more and to make sure that the language of the piece is accessible to those who may want to read it. I ask that you advise me on how perhaps I may make my project even more seemingly a true QRG.

                                                           Happy Reading!

Brown, Owen W. "FACEBOOK LIKE" 08/03/2010 via Flickr.
Attribution 2.0 Generic

The Time Period

The time period within which something was published can give some insight into what the story may have impacted or how it might have been received by people during that time. Events during a time period can also affect the authors of the source in deciding whether to publish something at that specific time.

Locally Grown
    I decided on Bristol to count as the local place for the setting since a majority of authors for the main source are located at the University of Bristol.
      A local news story that may have effected the publishing date of the main source is from the Bristol Post; an article about how there was a healthcare conference being hosted in Bristol on approaching health issues within the area. This could have affected the release date of the paper if they perhaps wanted it to be talked about at the meeting about how statistical matters in medical practices
       Another story from the same online newspaper for Bristol news regarded a "catch up programme" for getting kids vaccines done. Not a direct relation to the source at all, but was generally in the science and medical news in the surrounding area.

de Villa, Jason. "Old news" 01/27/2006 via Flickr.
Attribution-NonCommercial 2.0 Generic

Nationally Known
      In United Kingdom news at the time of the publishing of the article there was another neuroscience study being published as well. In the Daily Mail Online site, on thehe exact same day as the study on statistical power was published, an article was released describing brain scans that could detect pain. The possible connection between the two is that they both detail a study within the neuroscience community and they could compete for attention from audience.
     Another important event happening around this time period in the UK was election time was coming up during the month of April, not necessarily very important towards the specific article or study but important for the idea that may have been going around within the nation.

Internationally Flown
     In international news in the year of 2013 there were quite a few things of dangerous proportions happening and catastrophes left and right. Something that would happen to change how the world would come to view national security and privacy was Edward Snowden leaking NSA secrets and running to Russia for asylum. Not directly linked to this controversy but important for international news at that point.
     In more scientific news in 2013, only little more than a month after this study was published another scientific study with important implications came about; scientists in Oregon were able to create stem cells with cloning, a defining moment for science and one many believed to be the next step in larger enterprises.