Science Genre Writing
The page below provides directions given to fellows for the Science Genre Writing deliverable. The page also contains artifacts created during the summer institute and fellowship year related to this deliverable as well as work samples from fellows.
Science Genre Writing
During the ISI, you will have an opportunity to pursue your own science writing to challenge yourself within a particular science genre and develop your own science writing. Through this task, we want you to create a piece that embraces a particular genre of science writing, directly connected to your chosen science mentor text . By the end of the ISI, your task is to have a completed science genre piece. We will be working on various parts, both with the writing and the science mentor text, throughout the summer.
(Task, Purpose, Audience, Criteria)
Examples of Science Writing:
- Awareness Science (Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosse, Hungry Planet by Peter Menzel)
- Environmental Science (Silent Spring by Rachel Carson, Sea Change: A Message of the Oceans by Sylvia Earle)
- Social science (Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely, Outliers by Malcom Gladwell)
- Science-themed memoir (Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer, Lab Girl by Hope Jahren)
- Science narrative (The Hidden Life of Trees by Peter Wohlleben)
- Science fiction (The Martian by Andy Weir, Nexus by Ramaz Naam)
- Cli-fi, Climate Change Fiction (Flight Behavior by Barbara Kingsolver, Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood)
- Science essays (Upstream: Selected Essays by Mary Oliver)
- Science-themed children's literature (Rosie Revere, Engineer by Andrea Beaty)
- Science biographies (Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly, Bang—How We Came to Be by Michael Rubino)
- Literature Reviews
- Peer-reviewed journal articles
- Data analysis
Our Genre Study:
- What do you notice? (content, structure, style, tone, text features, etc.)
- What seems to always be in the genre? What seems to sometimes be in the genre?
- Create a definition or list of essential elements for your genre.
- Write “under the influence” (Ray, 2006) of the genre—decide which elements to include in your own writing.
Resources:
Lattimer, H. (2003). Thinking Through Genre: Units of Study in Reading and Writing Workshops Grades 4-12. Portland, ME: Stenhouse Publishers.
Ray, K. W. (2006). Study Driven: A Framework for Planning Units of Study in the Writing Workshop. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
Genre Study/Writing Groups:
Science Fiction
Cli-Fi (Climate Change Fiction)
Awareness Science
Children's Literature
Social Science
Examples of Books in Genre Groups:
Cli-Fi: Year of the Flood (Atwood)
Awareness Science: A Sand County Almanac (Leopold), Fast Food Nation (Schlosser)
Social Science: Predictably Irrational:The Hidden Forces that Shape our Lives (Ariely)
Each group created two posters in response to book discussions and genre study:
- What do you notice about the genre based on your collective reading of your books?
- What are essential elements of the genre that you might include in your own writing?
