Introduction
In February 2018, Tim Mooney from the Rhode Island Nature Conservancy visited our class to propose a project for a group of students in our Advanced Writing for the Sciences Course. The Rhode Island Nature Conservancy will be updating their website in August of this year, and they are hoping to update the information about many of their nature preserves. So, myself and three other students decided to propose a project to the Nature Conservancy to provide them with some updated material for their website. We proposed that we would visit four preserves who's descriptions were deemed outdated by the Nature Conservancy. Upon visiting, we would take photos for website use and develop a new site description. Finally, we would provide a blog post for use as a first hand "review" of the site to try and attract visitors.
When designing our site descriptions, we used the Washington Nature Conservancy website as a model because in August, the RI Nature Conservancy site will be updated to look similar to the Washington site. When analyzing site descriptions on the Washington Site, we noticed that they tended to start with a 1-2 sentence blurb to catch the readers attention, followed by about two paragraphs giving a more in depth description of what the site had to offer, highlighting both unique ecological information about the site as well as general things-to-do. As a biology major in a writing course, it was my hope that I could combine scientific knowledge with my ability to communicate effectively to the general public to create a description that would draw the reader in while still educating them about the ecological importance of the site.
The site that I visited was the Aust Family Preserve in Lincoln, RI. In my introductory blurb, I decided to highlight the fact that the preserve is a very natural area (no boardwalks or infrastructure) that is surprisingly close to the city. I did this by using language such as "Tucked away in the suburbs" and "quick escape". Next, I talk more about logistic information. I talk briefly about how to get to the preserve, again noting that it is only about a 15 minute drive from Providence, as well as noting the lengths of the available trails. Finally, I discuss the history of the site, the unique species that can be found, the pond views and I highlight that it is a great spot for a lunch-break picnic or a quick nature hike. In that paragraph, I tried to appeal to a variety of audiences while still keeping in mind the importance of the ecological education.
After meeting with Professor Hendrickson, we did a great deal of editing on our deliverables. Originally, we had one long introduction about how we came about doing this project, followed by our site descriptions and a link to our blog post. After discussing with our Professor, we broke our deliverable PDF into headings with various subheadings to make it easier to read for our stakeholder. We also included the blog posts in the PDF along with the link. Finally, we included some photos as well as a drop box link in the PDF.
Unfortunately, Tim Mooney was unable to attend our presentation, however he was able to Skype in and seemed happy with our work. I hope to see some of our work on the updated website when it launches in August.
When designing our site descriptions, we used the Washington Nature Conservancy website as a model because in August, the RI Nature Conservancy site will be updated to look similar to the Washington site. When analyzing site descriptions on the Washington Site, we noticed that they tended to start with a 1-2 sentence blurb to catch the readers attention, followed by about two paragraphs giving a more in depth description of what the site had to offer, highlighting both unique ecological information about the site as well as general things-to-do. As a biology major in a writing course, it was my hope that I could combine scientific knowledge with my ability to communicate effectively to the general public to create a description that would draw the reader in while still educating them about the ecological importance of the site.
The site that I visited was the Aust Family Preserve in Lincoln, RI. In my introductory blurb, I decided to highlight the fact that the preserve is a very natural area (no boardwalks or infrastructure) that is surprisingly close to the city. I did this by using language such as "Tucked away in the suburbs" and "quick escape". Next, I talk more about logistic information. I talk briefly about how to get to the preserve, again noting that it is only about a 15 minute drive from Providence, as well as noting the lengths of the available trails. Finally, I discuss the history of the site, the unique species that can be found, the pond views and I highlight that it is a great spot for a lunch-break picnic or a quick nature hike. In that paragraph, I tried to appeal to a variety of audiences while still keeping in mind the importance of the ecological education.
After meeting with Professor Hendrickson, we did a great deal of editing on our deliverables. Originally, we had one long introduction about how we came about doing this project, followed by our site descriptions and a link to our blog post. After discussing with our Professor, we broke our deliverable PDF into headings with various subheadings to make it easier to read for our stakeholder. We also included the blog posts in the PDF along with the link. Finally, we included some photos as well as a drop box link in the PDF.
Unfortunately, Tim Mooney was unable to attend our presentation, however he was able to Skype in and seemed happy with our work. I hope to see some of our work on the updated website when it launches in August.
Proposal | |
File Size: | 112 kb |
File Type: | docx |
Deliverables | |
File Size: | 143 kb |
File Type: |
Presentation | |
File Size: | 2215 kb |
File Type: |