Probability (15-30 min)
Take 2 minutes and review the reading. Admittedly, it is not super well-written, but I think it has some good points about how probability is difficult for people go immediately grasp, and ways you can write about probability to help with that issue.
What is the issue with “single-event probability statements”?
How about “conditional probabilities”?
What are some ways to visualize probability? (here is one example for a class at Brown)
What makes probability so hard to comprehend do you think? What can we do as writers to help with this?
Comprehension is just one aspect of rhetoric. We all have goals when we communicate. For instance, what would be more comforting for you to hear?:
- 49 out of 50 chance that everything will be fine
- 98% chance everything will be fine
How about, instead:
- One out of 50 chance that you will win the lottery
- 98% that you won’t win the lottery
Design and Accessibility (30-45 min)
In terms of style (that is, attention to sentence-level moves in writing) we have talked about the importance of emphasis. That is, how the ways in which we choose specific words, arrange the order of the sentence, use punctuation (we will get to this eventually), how we vary our sentences to create and break a rhythm, etc. These moves help disrupt expectations or rhythms in ways that highlight a point we want to make.
Emphasis helps draw attention to something. When writing about data, there is usually something we want to make salient in that data to emphasize.
Design features of the writing we create can also help us do this. Like paying attention to varying sentences, being deliberate about our design choices also makes our writing more engaging. However, it can also draw attention to points we want to mark as important through our layout, use of color, use of images, use of font, use of spacing and empty space, etc.
A similar but highly related concept is accessibility. We can think of accessibility in terms of writing as trying to answer the question: How can I make my writing reach as inclusive of an audience as possible. Considering things like color blindness, sight or hearing impaired readers and listeners, people who have various cognitive issues that affect things like working memory or comprehension.
Open up the “Design and Accessibility Quick Guide” on CourseWeb. Take time a minute to review it. Let’s see this in action with some texts, but before that: Questions? For instance, you might not know about alternative texts like image descriptions: *Stephanie Kerschbaum on image descriptions
Group activity
Let’s see these at work in 4 different texts. We will have 9 pairs to look at one of these 4 texts to consider what does and/or does not make these pieces designed well and accessible.
Group 1, Bank of America annual report (on CourseWeb)
Group 2, PennDOT Construction Webpage
Group 3, Coda Story article
Group 4, Pittsburgh Public Schools “Facts at a Glance” Webpage
Group 5, Bank of America annual report (on CourseWeb)
Group 6, PennDOT Construction Webpage
Group 7, Coda Story article
Group 8, Pittsburgh Public Schools “Facts at a Glance” Webpage
Group 9, Bank of America annual report (on CourseWeb)
Questions to ask:
- What draws your eye? Where does it go as you scroll?
- How navigable is the page or the website overall? How easy is it to get around?
- Do you get lost when reading the text? Why? Does it go smoothly? Why?
- Is there anything that would make this text accessible to many different groups of readers? What? How? Does anything make it inaccessible to some groups of readers? What? How?
- Is there a certain “predictable” quality to the piece that makes it easy to read through it? What is it?
- Looking at Quick Guide, anything else worth noting?
Okay, if time: group up with a similar group to share findings and then we will discuss in large group. If less time: go right to large group.
Next: Look at your own draft. Consider both the features of the publication or organization you are writing for as well as some of the design/accessibility elements we discussed today. What needs to be revised in light of that do you think? Read through your draft and take some notes about how you might revise with design/accessibility in mind.
Next Time (5 min)
-read chapter 3 in Miller
-work on public writing revision
-We will talk start the first in a series of classes where we talk about more advanced calculations and ways to write about them