Minor Assignment 21/31/2018 The Assignment sheet I decided to analyze was for a final research paper in my Marine Vertebrate Zoology Lab during the fall 2017 semester. The assignment sheet begins by over-viewing what the paper will be about and introduces the way in which the project should be approached and done. It gives a very clear procedure that walks the students through the order in which steps of the project should be done, so as to be approachable and easy to understand. Clear deadlines are also given so that there is no question in when the proposal, presentation, or paper will be due. There is some generalization done at some points with the assumption that the students either already know what is supposed to be done, or that it is easy enough to figure out. Given that each student, or pair of students, was given a slightly different project, this generalization helped to keep the assignment sheet short, without focusing too much on one specific project over another. The tone of the assignment as well is a very commanding one, with many sentences beginning with “You will...” with the only option being whether the students want to work alone or in pairs. A clear tone like this helps take away any questioning, and give the students more direction. Something I found interesting about this document, or assignment in general, was the requirement to write according to the “standard” for scientific literature. This spot in the assignment in particular is where I found the assignment most closely connecting to the scientific discourse within the Maine Biology community. The requirement to “include all standard sections: abstract, introduction, materials and methods, results, discussion, and references” is clearly trying to teach us how to write for the specific community of our major. Almost all papers that I have read within the field of marine biology have included these sections, because that is not what the discourse community expects to see when they pick up a paper, and we are being taught the write the exact same way starting early in our careers. Given that this way of writing has been, and will continue to be, taught to college students across the discourse community it appears that it will be around to stay for some time to come, whether it is the best way to convey ideas or not.
2 Comments
Minor Assignment 11/28/2018 As Montgomery details what kind of writing scientific writing is, he begins by stating how it is engaged in rhetoric, with the intent to persuade people.
“Scientific writing is also engaged in rhetoric- it aims not just to tell but to persuade. It wants to convince us that the result not only has meaning but is meaningful” – Montgomery (9) He goes on to use the term “rhetoric” a couple more times in the first two chapters of “The Chicago Guide to Communicating Science,” all with the same context, of being used to persuade someone on a topic. Through this repetitive use, it can be assumed that by “rhetoric,” Montgomery means to write in such a way as to convey an idea. He put significant emphasis on this idea, because he believes that writing in a rhetorical way is required within the sciences so that any reader who approaches the work, even one with no scientific background, would be able to understand and accept what the writer is trying to prove. Personally, within the scope of scientific literature, I think that writing with rhetoric in mind is a crucial part of any successful paper. In my mind, rhetorically engaged papers are significantly better for a couple different reasons. Firstly, many people run into issues by scientific papers burning them out. These papers can be dense, with a lot of tough ideas and language to wade through, leading people to putting them down before making it to the end. When papers are written with rhetoric in mind, this sense of being bogged down can be lessened by rhetoric adding a sense of conversation to the paper. Having somebody try to convince you of something helps to keep interest in a piece elevated, and thus helps to finish an entire paper. Secondly, it helps to show the writer’s passion for the subject matter throughout the paper, and when someone is passionate about something it can help draw other people into the subject and get them interested. Rhetoric is a crucial aspect of many different fields of writing, but especially in the sciences, just for these reasons. The sciences can be a daunting subject for many people to get involved in, but giving them a sense of conversation can help get past those initial worries. However, there’s another side to every story. It can also be important to examine science through a rhetorical lens, so that you are able to tell when someone is trying to persuade you on a topic. While many writers use rhetoric to make their papers more appealing, there is always a chance that what they are trying to convince you on is wrong. Examining papers with a rhetorical eye can help to identify these moments and allow you to look deeper into the topic to ensure you learn the truth. AuthorSophomore Marine Biology Major, Roger Williams University Archives
April 2018
CategoriesAbout
The purpose of these blogs were to serve as a mode to turn in minor assignments for my Professional Writing Class. Many are responses to reading we did, and a couple are first drafts of various major assignments. |