Homework Mash-up

This semester, I resumed my work with a psychology professor on his research. This break provided me with a larger amount of time to get ahead on this, so I have spent more time than usual coding autobiographical narratives that describe a stressful event in peoples’ lives. Upon coding dozens of these, I became curious as to how environmental writing would fit into this framework. For each fragment of the narratives, I am responsible for assigning it with a number based on what type of information it is. This allows the frequency of evaluative or interpretive information to be measured and compared across different types of participants. So in our atlas for example, would “factual” information actually fall under these subjective categories more often than not?

p. 245 – Is acid rain still a problem?

Yes it is. 3

Its effects are subtle, 3

but, as we are learning, 4

cumulative and persistent. 5

The Clean Air Act has decreased sulfate pollution 3

but has done very little to change nitrate pollution. 5

 Average lake and stream pHs have increased slightly, 5

But the rain is still very acid, 5

And our streams and lakes are still subject to the highly acid, 5

Nitrate-dominated episodes 5

That kill fish. 3

Many forest soils are acidified 3

And nutrient-depleted. 5

They will recover eventually, 5

But recovery may take hundreds of years 5

And may not begin 5

While there are continuing inputs of acid. 3

5 : 58.8%  non-5 : 41.2 %

I won’t get into the specifics of the coding, but basically the 5’s are given for evaluative/interpretive information. These might include dramatizations or hypothetical situations. As you can see from the passage above, a larger portion of the passage falls under this interpretive category than the other codings (which might include actions, background, or descriptions). Interestingly enough, it appears that even one of the more strictly fact-based texts we have been reading has a significantly persuasive voice. However, I don’t necessarily believe that this is a weakness. If anything, I’m relieved that environmental writing produced these results. If the text wasn’t written in a way that influenced its readers, no one would be compelled to do anything about the facts being presented to them.