Course Information

ENGL 296: Critical Literacies in the Natural Sciences

Frank Macarthy

Email: fwmacar@uw.edu
Office: PDL A505
Office Hours: T & TH 1:30 - 2:30pm (& by appointment)
Zoom Link

About the Course

Course Overview

What is science: a method, a way of thinking, a project, or a literary genre? These are just a few of the dimensions of the human endeavor we describe as science–itself a vibrant, contested, and cultural set of contexts, activities, and writings.

This writing seminar develops students’ critical literacy skills through the diverse disciplines of the natural sciences and their affiliated, peripheral studies in medicine, public health and epidemiology, computer science and engineering, and data science. By reading across disciplines, and by reading and writing critiques of contemporary science cultures, we will find greater context for the ways scientific knowledge is produced, communicated, and (mis)interpreted in the world. We will also aim to understand the tacit cultural ideologies that inform ostensibly empirical science writing–including assumptions about power, race, gender, citizenship, and other vectors of social difference.

Together, we will cycle through writing assignments, peer reviews, readings, discussions, conferences, and revisions with ample opportunity for feedback and mutual support. Throughout this process, our goals are to become better scientists and science communicators, rigorous thinkers and questioners of hidden human values, and more diligent and practiced writers and readers.

Learning Goals

Adapted from Megan Callow and Hollis K Miller

Understand the nature of science as contingent, contested, and situated

- What purpose does science serve? Does it have social or moral responsibility?
- How are questions formulated and answered in the sciences? What kinds of questions can science answer? Why do people choose particular questions in science, and how do they develop hypotheses? What sociopolitical and ethical values underlie scientific assumptions, questions, and hypotheses?

Engage a diversity of ways of knowing and doing in science across cultures and nations, including identifying strengths and limitations of different approaches

- What are essentialist vs. holistic ways of knowing in science?
- How do scientists situate the self in relation to various communities (academic, professional, disciplinary, cultural, national, indigenous, etc.) and ecologies (environmental, institutional, research contexts, topics/objects of inquiry)?
- By what means can students locate themselves within scientific practice and discourse? What kinds of cultural and intellectual capital do they bring to the course, and might they bring to scientific inquiry?
- How can students deploy a critical lens as they navigate scientific fields first as apprentices and then as professionals?

Trace the genealogies of ideas in circulation, as information moves through pipelines and networks

- How do scientific concepts and “discoveries” get reified as they are communicated across various platforms? How do reified concepts privilege or harm certain groups? How does “reality” differ across those groups?
- In what ways can novice scientists use transformative communication practices within a realm where the language of Western mainstream science is dominant?
- How can inquiry into scientific content provide occasions for writing to learn as a form of reflection and engagement? Equally important, how can communicating scientific content provide occasions for learning to write in order to share that knowledge with particular audiences?
- How can intertextual connections across time and space provide greater insights into particular “facts”?
- In what ways can scientific communication practices (both traditional and transformative) serve as a vehicle for responding to all of the above questions?

Required Texts

All readings will be posted to Canvas

Learning Remotely and Adjustments to Syllabus

Times are still uncertain. Although this class is listed as in-person, that does not mean it will remain in-person for the entirety of the quarter. I will do everything I can to maintain face-to-face learning, but it is often out of my control. I reserve the right to alter the syllabus to accommodate the needs of the classroom community, with notice. Be sure to check Canvas for updated versions of the syllabus, as necessary.

Reading Assignments

You will have some form of reading assignment due for most class meetings. It is your responsibility to keep up with the readings each week. I will post the readings week-by-week in the Homework folder on Canvas. These assignments will prompt and inform our classroom discussions, and they will serve as resources for your other class projects. You should complete all the reading for each meeting and be sure that you bring the readings with you to class.

Writing Assignments

There will be some form of writing due every week. Writing assignments are always due at the start of class on the day they are due. Late work may result in a lowered grade (see below). It is important that you turn in your writing on time, as late work cannot become part of class discussion. Likewise, because all projects build upon one another, turning in late work means you miss out on comments that would help you with the upcoming assignment. You will also sometimes be asked to bring extra copies of your work to class. Bear in mind that revision is a central practice of this course, and you will submit more than one draft of certain assignments.

Unless other instructions are given, please submit papers in the following format:

Standard 12-point font (Times, New Roman, Calibri, etc.)
Double spaced
One inch margins on all sides
I will ask you to submit many assignments digitally. Unless I state otherwise, submit your assignments in the .doc, .docx, or .pdf format

Free Writing

At the beginning of every class we will take part in a free writing activity. I will prompt a different, open-ended question based on the day’s activities (or related to different lessons throughout the semester). The free writes will be turned in for a participation grade. They are a low-stakes way to prove your understanding of the lessons being taught. Or they may just be based on a question I feel like asking that day. Depends on what kind of mood I’m in.

Sequence Projects

Your three major assignments are larger-scale pieces of writing that we will develop together by sharing, workshopping, and revising drafts that build up to final submissions.

The Social Life of a Scientific Fact

In this project, which will take the final form of a deck of slides (a presentation, though we won’t be giving them to the whole class), students will conduct a rhetorical analysis of a piece of scientific research and the various ways it gets communicated (from a research article to a social media post), demonstrating how exigence, convention, and audience expectations all shape the ways that the “facts” get represented.

Ethnographic Vignette

4-5 pages, double spaced (excluding works cited page)

Ethnography is a research strategy and a genre of writing that attempts to capture richer, nuanced, and local qualities of a particular subject. Ethnographers use participant observation as their primary method: watching, collaborating, or speaking with the people whose lives and rituals we are attempting to describe. The anthropologist Renato Rosaldo has described this as “deep hanging out”— spending time with people and in the richness of their experiences to capture unforeseen insights. For this assignment sequence, you’ll write an ethnographic vignette to answer a question about how people conduct, live with, think about, talk about, and experience science: a short, descriptive essay that illustrates a scene that you observed, and then uses this observation to explicate an answer for your question. Based on the question you’ve chosen, there are a variety of field sites that you might choose to make your observations: a lab session for one of your science classes, a public lecture and Q&A session, a museum exhibit, or a Facebook group where people circulate misinformation or conspiracy theories. You might also consider a field site that’s less obvious, but where ideologies and rituals about science are still documentable: climate activism demonstrations or organizing, zero-waste food blogs, or even a local hardware store that sells energy-efficient materials.

Personal Science Narrative

4-5 pages, double spaced (excluding works cited page)

All scientists have intellectual, cultural, and linguistic histories. For the sake of neutrality and objectivity, apprentices are trained to divorce themselves from these histories, especially when they are doing and communicating research. This assignment asks students to read examples of scientists’ memoirs. Students will compose their own narratives, exploring how their identities, investments, and intellectual interests have shaped their training. This assignment is a form of reflection, orientation to/within scientific fields, and self-advocacy.

To complete this assignment, I will ask that you identify a project that can be useful to you: it can be a draft of a personal statement for graduate school applications, a narrative statement for a grant or fellowship application, an application to a job/internship, or a piece of autoethnographic writing that you want to develop and publish somewhere.

Revision

If you are unsatisfied with your grade on any of the writing projects (other than the final project) and would like to make revisions to try to earn a higher grade, you are welcome to do so. You must come to my office hours or set up an appointment with me outside of class during which we will discuss what steps you can take to improve your grade and what time frame you will have to complete the revisions. You may submit a work at least 72 hours before the due date if you wish to have some feedback. I will not be fully proofreading the work, but I will let you know if you are on the right track and what can be fixed before the actual due date.

Late Work and Attendance

Times are weird (to say the least). We all have to get used to returning to face-to-face learning. But, it’s been almost two years. That’s a long time. We all might need a little extra space to acclimate back to how life used to be. Because of this, my late work and attendance policies will be more lenient than usual (but still exist).

Please contact me about any absences before class. This will help coordinate peer review and group work days. Excessive tardiness and lack of preparation can also result in counted absences.

Similarly, please inform me of any late work ASAP. Homework is important because it not only reinforces the topics we cover, but it usually also connects to the in-class group work we complete almost every day in class. Late sequence papers impact the peer review process. Any late work may result in a grade penalty (one letter grade per day).

Engagement and Participation

Participation is mandatory in ENGL 199. But, there are many other ways to participate without having to raise your hand in class (I was always the quiet student). The free writing activities each day will be a major part of your participation grade. It’s participating without raising your hand! Other opportunities will be available throughout the course of the semester including, but not limited to, in-class group work, extra credit opportunities, .

Technology Policy

Cell Phones

Please keep your cell phones on silent mode during class time.
Don’t text or answer your phone during class. That’s just rude. If I have to warn you multiple times about this, you may be asked to leave and the day will count as an absence.
You are allowed to listen to music during free writes or any other activities that do not require class discussion. Just don’t be too loud about it.
If you choose not to listen to your own music during these times, you may be subjected to my music, which you may not like.

Personal Laptops

Got a computer? Wanna bring it? Go for it! But, I will not be responsible for whatever may happen to your personal computer if you do choose to bring one.

Grading

The following grading scale will be used throughout the semester:

97% and up: 4.0	91: 3.6	87: 3.2	83: 2.8	79: 2.4	75: 2.0	71: 1.6	67: 1.2
95-96: 3.9	90: 3.5	86: 3.1	82: 2.7	78: 2.3	74: 1.9	70: 1.5	66: 1.1
93-94: 3.8	89: 3.4	85: 3.0	81: 2.6	77: 2.2	73: 1.8	69: 1.4	65: 1.0
92: 3.7	88: 3.3	84: 2.9	80: 2.5	76: 2.1	72: 1.7	68: 1.3	64% and below: 0

Although this is a composition class, I will not be necessarily grading your work on your spelling/punctuation/grammar/syntax/etc. “Good writing” is so much more than that. Instead, I will be focusing more on your abilities to research, analyze, and ultimately create technical communication genres. Your grades will be determined in a more labor-based system. You will not be graded on the “perfection” of your work, but on the rigor of your work and how much you attempted to follow the expectations. We will build grading contracts for each sequence so you will know exactly what I will be looking for.

Cancelled Class

On the rare occasion I need to cancel a class, I will let you know through email before class begins. Be sure to check your email every day before class to make sure nothing has changed.

Syllabus Resources

Face Coverings in the Classroom

The health and safety of the University of Washington community are the institution’s priorities. Please review and adhere to the UW COVID Face Covering Policy [pdf].

Students are required to follow the University’s COVID-19 Face Covering Policy at all times when on-site at the University, including any posted requirements in specific buildings or spaces. If a student refuses to comply with the policy, the student can be sent home (to an on or off-campus residence). Student Conduct offices are available for consultations on potential violations of student conduct if needed. University personnel who have concerns that a student or group of students are not complying with this policy should speak with their supervisor, a representative of the academic unit, or report it to the Environmental Health & Safety Department.

English Department Statement of Values

The UW English Department aims to help students become more incisive thinkers, effective communicators, and imaginative writers by acknowledging that language and its use is powerful and holds the potential to empower individuals and communities; to provide the means to engage in meaningful conversation and collaboration across differences and with those with whom we disagree; and to offer methods for exploring, understanding, problem solving, and responding to the many pressing collective issues we face in our world—skills that align with and support the University of Washington’s mission to educate “a diverse student body to become responsible global citizens and future leaders through a challenging learning environment informed by cutting-edge scholarship.”

As a department, we begin with the conviction that language and texts play crucial roles in the constitution of cultures and communities. Our disciplinary commitments to the study of language, literature, and culture require of us a willingness to engage openly and critically with questions of power and difference. As such, in our teaching, service, and scholarship we frequently initiate and encourage conversations about topics such as race, immigration, gender, sexuality, and class. These topics are fundamental to the inquiry we pursue. We are proud of this fact, and we are committed to creating an environment in which our faculty and students can do so confidently and securely, knowing that they have the backing of the department.

Towards that aim, we value the inherent dignity and uniqueness of individuals and communities. We aspire to be a place where human rights are respected and where any of us can seek support. This includes people of all ethnicities, faiths, genders, national origins, political views, and citizenship status; nontheists; LGBQTIA+; those with disabilities; veterans; and anyone who has been targeted, abused, or disenfranchised.

Academic Integrity

The University takes academic integrity very seriously. Behaving with integrity is part of our responsibility to our shared learning community. If you’re uncertain about if something is academic misconduct, ask me. I am willing to discuss questions you might have.

In general, acts of academic misconduct may include but are not limited to:

Cheating (working collaboratively on quizzes/exams and discussion submissions, sharing answers and previewing quizzes/exams)
Plagiarism (representing the work of others as your own without giving appropriate credit to the original author(s))
Unauthorized collaboration (working with each other on assignments)

However, concerns about these or other behaviors prohibited by the Student Conduct Code will be referred for investigation and adjudication by (include information for specific campus offices).

Students found to have engaged in academic misconduct may receive a zero on the assignment (or other possible outcome).

Access and Accommodations

Your experience in this class is important to me. If you have already established accommodations with Disability Resources for Students (DRS), please communicate your approved accommodations to me at your earliest convenience so we can discuss your needs in this course.

If you have not yet established services through DRS, but have a temporary health condition or permanent disability that requires accommodations (conditions include but not limited to; mental health, attention-related, learning, vision, hearing, physical or health impacts), you are welcome to contact DRS at 206-543-8924 or uwdrs@uw.edu or disability.uw.edu. DRS offers resources and coordinates reasonable accommodations for students with disabilities and/or temporary health conditions. Reasonable accommodations are established through an interactive process between you, your instructor(s) and DRS. It is the policy and practice of the University of Washington to create inclusive and accessible learning environments consistent with federal and state law.

Religious Accommodations

Washington state law requires that UW develop a policy for accommodation of student absences or significant hardship due to reasons of faith or conscience, or for organized religious activities. The UW’s policy, including more information about how to request an accommodation, is available at Religious Accommodations Policy. Accommodations must be requested within the first two weeks of this course using the Religious Accommodations Request form.

Title IX

Sex- and gender-based violence and harassment: UW, through numerous policies, prohibits sex- and gender-based violence and harassment, and we expect students, faculty, and staff to act professionally and respectfully in all work, learning, and research environments. For support, resources, and reporting options related to sex- and gender-based violence or harassment, visit the UW Title IX webpage, specifically the Know Your Rights & Resources guide.

If you disclose information to me about sex- or gender-based violence or harassment, I will connect you (or the person who experienced the conduct) with confidential and/or private resources who can best provide support and options. Please note that some senior leaders and other specified employees have been identified as “Officials Required to Report.” If an Official Required to Report learns of possible sex- or gender-based violence or harassment, they are required to call SafeCampus and report all the details they have in order to ensure that the person who experienced harm is offered support and reporting options.

Notice to Students - Use of Plagiarism Detection Software

Notice: The University has a license agreement with SimCheck, an educational tool that helps prevent or identify plagiarism from Internet resources. Your instructor may use the service in this class by requiring that assignments are submitted electronically to be checked by SimCheck. The SimCheck Report will indicate the amount of original text in your work and whether all material that you quoted, paraphrased, summarized, or used from another source is appropriately referenced.