Abstract rewrite (Book: The Big ones by lucy jones)
| Style | APA |
| Number of words | 361 |
| Number of sources | 0 |
| Spacing | Double |
| PowerPoint slides | 0 |
Question
For this assignment, you will once again look up the abstract (a one-paragraph summary) of a scientific article referenced in your popular science book, then “translate” it from its original, technical wording into plain English. Please make sure that you are using the abstract from a scientific research article reporting new findings, and not part of a book, or news article, or the like. If you have any questions or would like to go over your Abstract Rewrite #1 before starting this assignment,To complete this assignment, please turn in:
1. The original abstract of another one of the scientific articles referenced in your popular science book (as either a website link, an image, or copy/pasted)
2. A re-written version, between 250 and 400 words, “translated” into plain English that a non-scientist would be able to understand.
The short video for Abstract Rewrite #1 going over the instructions and showing an example of how to complete this assignment is equally applicable to this second rewrite assignment. Step-by-step instructions are below.
Step-by-step instructions:
1. Please choose a professional scientific article that is referenced by your book. Please find a reference in your book that is to a scientific article published in a scientific journal, rather than to another book, a newspaper article, etc. If your book does not include references, talk to me, and I will help you find a relevant and suitable article.
2. Go to Google Scholar (https://scholar.google.com/ (Links to an external site.)) and search for this article by entering part of the title, and/or the authors, and/or the journal name. You might find it useful to put the part of the title within quotation marks, to narrow down the results. For example, searching “Ice core sample measurements give atmospheric” brings up only one result, the scientific article beginning with this title. Notice that typing the entire article is not necessary to find it. If the quotation marks are not used, a lot of other articles come up too.
3. Once you have found the article, click on the link to go to the journal’s website. Some journals are free to access, but most will not show the full article without a subscription. But, they will always show the abstract, which is all you need to look at for this assignment. (If you are interested in reading the entire thing, you can access many journals through El Camino College; see the library for details). Submit this original abstract as part of this assignment, either as a link to the webpage you are viewing, by taking a screenshot of it, or copy/pasting it.
4. Take the time to slowly read through the abstract, one sentence at a time, looking up all terms that you are unfamiliar with. As you work through it, start to write down your own version of it, where you have replaced all the technical terms with common words, and rewritten the sentences so that they are easy to understand. You don’t need to keep the same sentence structure as the original; you can reorganize it, and even add sentences to help make it clearer. Don’t be discouraged if it is slow going: a lot is packed into this single paragraph, which is why we’re spending a full week-long assignment on it. If there are parts that you aren’t able to follow, even after looking up any technical terms, not to worry: just send me a message asking about it, or ask me in class or during office hours. We will spend the last bit of class time on both Tuesday, Oct. 20 and Thursday, Oct. 22 as an open time to ask any questions about this. When you are all done, you should have a paragraph between 250 and 400 words, conveying the same information as the original abstract, but that a non-scientist would be able to understand. You might want to show this paragraph to a classmate, friend, family member, etc., and ask them whether they were able to follow it, or if any parts of it were still too technical. Submit this re-written version of the abstract, along with the original, to complete the assignment.
5. Include explaining/rewording (epicenter, blind fault, geodetic, groundwater, foreshock series, etc.).
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