Collaborative Course Design in Scientific Writing: Experimentation and Productive Failure

English 3820: Scientific Writing, a writing-intensive (WI) course offered by the Department of English at East Carolina University (ECU), serves primarily science majors. According to the course catalog, it provides students with “practice in assimilation and written presentation of scientific information.� The course asks students to consider the situated nature of scientific writing and also to produce scientific writing for various audiences. Throughout the course, students examine theories, methodologies, and ideologies that undergird scientific writing with an eye to perfecting both critique and imitation of scientific styles

Proposing new variables for the identification of strategic groups in franchising

The identification of strategic groups in the Spanish franchising area is the main aim of this study. The authors have added some new strategic variables (not used before) to the study and have classified franchisors between sectors and distribution strategy. The results reveal the existence of four perfectly differentiated strategic groups (types of franchisors). One of the major implications of this study is that the variables that build a strategic group vary depending on the respective sector the network operates in and its distribution strategy. This fact indicates that including sector and distribution strategy is absolutely necessary to achieve good classifications of franchisor type

Lucro líquido do franqueado: um sinal para a escolha de franquia em época de crise

Este artículo aborda desde la perspectiva de la Teoría de Señales la elección de una franquicia por un potencial franquiciado que elige este canal de distribución por primera vez. El objetivo es analizar la relación entre algunas señales enviadas por el franquiciador y la elección de una franquicia por el potencial franquiciado. Concluimos que los efectos de las variables macroeconómicas de España en el periodo 2006-2013 influyeron en los ingresos netos de los franquiciados para que se convirtiera en una señal empleada por éstos a la hora de elegir la franquicia donde abrir un establecimiento.This paper adopts the perspective of Theory of Signals to discuss how someone starting a business as a franchisee for the first time can choose a suitable franchise brand. The aim was to analyze the relationship between certain signals sent by the franchisor and the choice of a franchise brand by the prospective franchisee. Using panel data, we found that the effects of macroeconomic variables in Spain for the 2006-2013 crisis period influenced franchisees' net income, which thus became a relevant signal in their process of choosing a franchise brand to start a business.Sob a perspectiva da Teoria de Sinais, este artigo aborda a seleção de uma franquia por um franqueado que elege esse potencial canal de distribuição pela primeira vez. O objetivo é analisar a relação entre alguns sinais enviados pelo franqueador e a escolha de uma franquia pelo potencial franqueado. Usando a metodologia de dados em painel, os resultados obtidos nos permitiram concluir que os efeitos das variáveis macroeconômicas da Espanha no período de crise econômica (2006-2013) influenciaram as receitas líquidas dos franqueados, tornando-se um sinal para eles elegerem onde abrir um estabelecimento franqueado

Finishing the euchromatic sequence of the human genome

The sequence of the human genome encodes the genetic instructions for human physiology, as well as rich information about human evolution. In 2001, the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium reported a draft sequence of the euchromatic portion of the human genome. Since then, the international collaboration has worked to convert this draft into a genome sequence with high accuracy and nearly complete coverage. Here, we report the result of this finishing process. The current genome sequence (Build 35) contains 2.85 billion nucleotides interrupted by only 341 gaps. It covers ∼99% of the euchromatic genome and is accurate to an error rate of ∼1 event per 100,000 bases. Many of the remaining euchromatic gaps are associated with segmental duplications and will require focused work with new methods. The near-complete sequence, the first for a vertebrate, greatly improves the precision of biological analyses of the human genome including studies of gene number, birth and death. Notably, the human enome seems to encode only 20,000-25,000 protein-coding genes. The genome sequence reported here should serve as a firm foundation for biomedical research in the decades ahead

When Affect Meets the Relational: A Dialogical, Life Writing Approach to English Studies

This dissertation responds to a lack of explicit conversation and pedagogical approaches inclusive of both life writing and interior individual experience in composition studies. Broken into three chapters, the first serves to consider the detrimental impact composition studies has on interiority when it equates the internal with expressivism (Bishop; Newkirk; Gradin; Murray). This chapter focuses on the life writing of Donald Murray, a composition scholar pivotal to one-on-one conferencing and the process movement in composition. This chapter considers how elements of Donald Murray’s work—aloneness, one-to-one relational, and vulnerability—might overlap with introverts and highly sensitive people. If Murray is dismissed, then, it stands to reason, so might be introverts and highly sensitive people. Chapter 1 reimagines Murray and his work, claiming that the imaginal and interior relational experiences we have are intrinsically valuable and that they have transfer into the more traditional spaces we view as social and relational. The second chapter puts pedagogical form and experiential visibility to the thoughts from Chapter 1. Chapter 2 centers student voice from an Advanced Composition course I taught as “Bearing Witness through Life Writing.” How do students respond when life writing is centered in a composition course and how do they take up what we have too long made contradictory, including personal/societal, interior/exterior, and affect and critical thinking? In the final chapter, I move from an affective-relational pedagogy in an explicit life writing space to an affective-relational pedagogy in a course about joy. Do the elements previously listed stand up in such a differently themed course? Does joy carry academic value? Can a personal and societal, interior and exterior, affective and critical approach to joy also be inclusive of the trauma and challenges faced in and around the students engaging in the subject matter? The findings described in this dissertation have implications for teacher education, for composition and life writing, and for anyone looking to take up a more relational and dialogical approach to their personal and professional lives

Concurrent Paper Session 7C: The Existential Imagination

The Faithful Imagination in a Material World - Donald P. Gauger Can reading the fantasy works of certain authors help us better understand difficult spiritual concepts, gain insights bridging the gap between the physical and spiritual worlds, and live spiritually-fulfilled lives in a material world? In George MacDonald’s novel Phantases: A Faerie Romance for Men and Women, Anodos experiences twenty-one years of life in fairyland in twenty-one days, gains spiritual insights from those adventures, and is thereafter a changed person. In J. R. R. Tolkien’s fantasy novel, The Children of Húrin, the son Túrin repeatedly illustrates the spiritual interplay between God’s Grace, evil’s curse, and consequences in the material world of man’s free will. In C. S. Lewis’s fantasy The Screwtape Letters, one sentence, “Humans are amphibians—half spirit and half animal” is a key concept on the dynamic challenge of living spiritually in a material world and gives insights into Lewis’s writing. \u27Not Yet\u27 Reality and the Faithful Imagination - D. Shane Combs In C. S. Lewis’s The Last Battle, Aslan makes the following declaration to the protagonists: “You do not yet look as happy as I mean you to be.” The protagonists, perhaps quite rightly, might have responded: If not now, when? This is Book Seven, Aslan. For Goodness’ sake, it’s even called The Last Battle! This essay conceptualizes a ‘not-yet’ space that is both fueled by and fuels a faithful imagination. It is the ‘not-yet’ space, in the face of destruction and in spite of the cynicism after World War I, that allows for the writing of The Chronicles of Narnia and The Lord of the Rings. It is a ‘not-yet’ space that leads Tolkien to write that “There was an Eden on this very unhappy earth. We all long for it, and we are constantly glimpsing it.” This presentation calls for the renewal of a faithful imagination enlarged by both a ‘not-yet’ longing and the joyful, captivating mythmaking it can produce. When Lewis Suggests More Than He States: Questions Raised by Not Fully Answered in The Chronicles of Narnia - Devin Brown In Surprised by Joy, Lewis tells readers that there came a point where, as he puts it, he had learned “what writing means.” Among the discoveries Lewis reports he had made was the fact that good writing should “not merely state but suggest.” We can see this principle at work in The Chronicles of Narnia in the questions that Lewis raises but chooses not to fully answer. What does Lewis suggest about the extent that Aslan may or may not know the future? Where do we find specific suggestions of how Aslan may be at work in our world? In this paper I will explore a number of instances in The Chronicles of Narnia where Lewis suggests more than he states and will offer thoughts on how these intentionally unanswered questions contribute to our reading experienc

Collaborative Course Design in Scientific Writing: Experimentation and Productive Failure

"English 3820: Scientific Writing , a writing-intensive (WI) course offered by the Department of English at East Carolina University (ECU) , serves primarily science majors. According to the course catalog , it provides students with ""practice in assimilation and written presentation of scientific information."" The course asks students to consider the situated nature of scientific writing and also to produce scientific writing for various audiences. Throughout the course , students examine theories , methodologies , and ideologies that undergird scientific writing with an eye to perfecting both critique and imitation of scientific styles.