Shaping Written Knowledge: The Genre and Activity of the Experimental Article in Science (Rhetoric of the Human Services)
Charles Bazerman
Language: English
Pages: 400
ISBN: 0299116948
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
The forms taken by scientific writing help to determine the very nature of science itself. In this closely reasoned study, Charles Bazerman views the changing forms of scientific writing as solutions to rhetorical problems faced by scientists arguing for their findings. Examining such works as the early "Philosophical Transactions" and Newton's optical writings as well as "Physical Review", Bazerman views the changing forms of scientific writing as solutions to rhetorical problems faced by scientists. The rhetoric of science is, Bazerman demonstrates, an embedded part of scientific activity that interacts with other parts of scientific activity, including social structure and empirical experience. This book presents a comprehensive historical account of the rise and development of the genre, and views these forms in relation to empirical experience. The emergence of the experimental scientific article, Bazerman argues, is a response to the social and rhetorical situation of the 17th and 18th-century natural philosophy activated by the need to communicate findings and the exigencies of conflict that arise from communication. The emergence of the argumentative forms of scientific writing are coincident with the emergence of the scientific community and the development of experimental procedures. All three interactively structure each other. Bazerman shows that later developments of the experimental article, in both the physical and social sciences of the 20th century, have been shaped within the contexts of the various disciplines. An understanding of what forces have shaped the experimental report, what functions the features were designed to serve, and the impact of rhetoric on the rest of scientific activity helps to evaluate all statements of knowledge and increases our ability to make intelligent writing choices. The introductory chapters explore the complex dynamics of situated knowledge-bearing texts. Bazerman then explores the interactions of textual form and social and empirical activity in early science, through examinations of the early "Philosophical Transactions" and Newton's optical writings. Bazerman also examines literate activity within the elaborated social/intellectual/empirical/literary structures of 20th century physics. His study of "Physical Review" examines changing textual form, particularly in relation to the increasing importance of physical theory as a text-structuring element. Bazerman then examines the migration of the experimental report to the social sciences in considering both changing forms and epistemological implications, looking at experimental psychology and political science. He closes by considering directly the implications of the studies in the book for theories of language and language use and for the practice of writing.
to study. With respect to new publication the literature of the field has a status beyond simply the record of past subjective perception. The new publication, in criticizing, correcting, extending, and simply using the prior literature treats that literature as the “third world” Popper describes. 6. See G. Nigel Gilbert, “Referencing as Persuasion”; Henry G. Small, “Cited Documents as Concept Symbols”; and Susan Cozzens, “Comparing the Sciences” and “Life History of a Knowledge Claim.” 7.
original authors. The differences in formulations among original authors may make reconciliation of viewpoints difficult, and many researchers may find the clearest direction by following in the footsteps of only a limited number of originators. There are, of course, many other economic, social, and cognitive reasons for the formation of schools in all disciplines l Reading a Poem Unlike the previous two articles, Geoffrey Hartman’s “Blessing the Torrent: On Wordsworth’s Later Style” (see pp.
fact, but from a representation of events, hewing closely enough to events and defining the events so carefully as to answer all critics, seem plausible to readers with extensive knowledge and experience with similar events, and to hold up against future attempts to create similar events. As gatekeepers gain in power, restricting access to publication, the representation of empirical events becomes even more important. An editor or referee reading through a manuscript must judge plausibility and
the work of a colleague who published while his own work was still in progress. The article elaborates theory extensively, using the tools of quantum mechanics and discussing how the analysis varies from others proposed, as well as how it relates to experimental results in the literature. The author is well aware that he has organized his work around the concept of a problem, for he explicitly states in the acknowledgments, “Dr R. S.Milliken suggested this problem. . . . ” In 1930-SKA/JHW,
well-formulated statement to one’s colleagues, one had to communicate more information. AS theory grew, it became apparent that it was a construction, separate from the nature it described. This awareness affected argument and social relations. Hard answers were not to be expected. The tentativeness of the “modelling” or “fit” type of arguments mitigated the confrontational conflict of theoretical dispute by recognizing that each contribution was only part of a process. l Concluding Thoughts The