BMSC 4310
Practice: Evaluating Written Science Media
1.
a. Title: Helping plants thrive: assisted gene flow may combat habitat loss
b. Author: Riley Thoen
c. URL: https://athensscienceobserver.com/2024/11/25/helping-plants-thrive-assisted-gene-flow-maycombat-habitat-loss/
d. Date of publication: November 23, 2024
e. Briefly (in 2-3 sentences), summarize the article below.
The article pertains to the main objective of promoting the gene flow of plants to combat habitat loss. The
author views the situation as urgent and presents data from other studies and his own to support his claim.
Overall, it dives into the several options that can be explored to combat habitat loss in plant life and invite
future scientists who may be interested in the topic to potentially join and help their research.
2. The following set of questions pertains to the level of engagement you felt while reading your article.
Answer each question to the best of your abilities.
a. After reading the entire article, are you interested in learning more about this topic? Why or why
not? (2 pts)
Yes, I am interested in learning more about the topic. This is because while reading the article, the author
introduced me to many terms that I had never heard about such as inbreeding and fragmented habitats.
b. Were scientific concepts explained using clear language? At any point, did you have to stop to reread passages for clarity or to look up difficult words? (1 pt)
Yes, all scientific concepts were explained clearly. This was done by the author in an efficient way, where
anytime he mentioned a scientific concept, he would then immediately follow it up with it’s meaning in a
nonscientific way and the relevance of the concept to the main claim he is presenting to the reaer. By
doing this, I never felt that I had to pursue any more information regarding a concept, outside of the
author’s article.
c. Did the author include appropriate images that helped to either illustrate concepts or set the tone of
the article? What did you like or dislike about the images they chose? (1 pt)
Yes, the author included two different types of images for the article. The first type of image the author
included were a few from the research group he is part of and the location and people that were involved.
This showed me that it is a real and active thing that the author is really involved in. The second type of
image that was included was a graph. This allowed me to to visually interpret the text in a fast and easy
manner.
BMSC 4310
3. The following set of questions pertains to the credibility of your article. Answer each question to the best
of your abilities.
a. Did the article include links to reputable sources of additional information? What types of sources
did they use (e.g., news articles, primary research…)? (1 pt)
Yes, the article included links to reputable sources. The author did so by including them as hyperlinks
rather than putting them in a works cited page. This made it very easy to just click and see where the data
was coming from any time new information was mentioned. Many of the articles were links to primary
research or scholarly articles that were conducted by other scientists and published as scientific articles.
b. Was the author trying to convince you of a particular point-of-view? If so, did they adequately
address opposing evidence or viewpoints? (2 pts)
No, the author is not trying to convince the reader to change radically change anything about their way of
life or viewpoint, but rather to highlight an oversight in gene flow for plants due to habitat loss. The effect
of this was the author conducting research and finding a solution. I don’t think any viewpoint was forced
on the reader, and even at the end, the author invites anyone who may be interested in joining their
research effort to reach out to his research group for an opportunity to do so.
c. Did the author discuss specific studies or data? If so, navigate to the linked research article and read
the abstract. Does it seem like the author accurately summarized the major findings and interpretations?
(2 pts)
Yes, the author did discuss specific studies. This can be seen in the text when the author referred a solution to the
problem that was found in an article “The conservation value of small population remnants: Variability in
inbreeding depression and heterosis of a perennial herb, the narrow-leaved purple coneflower (Echinacea
angustifolia)”. He is an author in this scholarly article, which goes to show how he is a credible source by himself
given that he is a published author as well. After reading the abstract, it seemed that everything was accurately
summarized as well.
4. Using your analysis above, write a brief paragraph below (4-5 sentences) describing your impressions
of this article. You should address whether you found the article engaging and credible; explain why or why
not. (5 pts)
My impression of the article “Helping plants thrive: assisted gene flow may combat habitat loss” by Riley
Thoen is that it is good content based on the fact that I found that it was engaging and credible. What made it
engaging to me was that it included pictures, which were from the research group that the author was a part
of, and included the presence of current PhD students conducting research as part of the Echinacea Project. It
also included data that they had collected in the form of a graph; which was not only engaging but provided a
sense of credibility as well. More examples of credibility could be seen in the sources of the article through
hyperlinks to scholarly/ scientific publications that directly supported whatever topic the author was
discussing. The author even included his own publication as a source, which further helped build the
credibility of the entire article.