Artifact Summaries

Artifact #1: Scientific Article View Here

This article is about plastic bag, standard and biodegradable, and how the stomach fluids of
sea turtles are able to digest the bags. Turtles are unique in that they cannot regurgitate any food; their
esophagus structure does not allow it. Knowing this, Christin Müller and their team investigated what
happens once the bags are swallowed. They learned that the chemicals in sea turtles are not enough to
break down either plastic bag, the biodegradable bag being dissolved slightly easier in the plant eating
Green turtle, but it is not enough to prevent sea turtles death.

Artifact #2: Florida House Bill 93 View Here

This bill, introduced in the Florida House of Representatives in 2016, proposed to begin pilot
programs to ban plastic bags in coastal communities with fewer than 100,000 citizens. It died in its
second committee hearing and was not passed.

Artifact #3: Sea Turtle Conservancy website View Here

Here is a collection of reputable information about sea turtles. It combines everything in one
location and is accessible to all who are interested in conservation. From here, you can learn about
different programs, research facilities, and events that the organization is leading.

Analyze how those artifacts show your key term and bring them into conversation with each
other: how are the artifacts distinct in their representation of your key term? How are they similar?

All of these artifacts utilize text to communicate. They depend on a person to absorb the knowledge
through reading. Design wise, each artifact varies greatly. Starting with the House Bill, there are
virtually no visual elements. The only design considered is the formatting of the bill, which all bills must
be in. The scientific article mainly relies on conventional formatting as well and contains elements like
a decorative banner on the first page along with graphs and tables throughout. My artifacts all take
place in different rhetorical situations. One takes place in scientific communities, one in government,
and one in a public information and outreach setting. However, as discussed in the network tab, these
differences only make the network they create stronger. It means they each have more to offer to the
situation. The scientific article proved that bags are not digestible by sea turtles, even if they are
labeled as biodegradable. This research and other research out there caused a need for legislative
action. All the people who read these type of discoveries pushed for legislation to be passed and
demand action from their governments. The conservancy website is home to all information about sea
turtles, so it aggregates everything into one reliable accessible source. Tracing and imagining the
network between these three artifacts shows how important they to each other and the
interconnectedness despite their differences.