The Ethics of Expediency

Katz Article

• a piece can be written "technically correct" if it has all of the parts that the technical piece requires but still have "flaws" in regards to other types of rhetoric (ethics/ethos)
• in persuasive argument we have learned in my speech class two types:
• problem solution
• problem cause solution
• how can you use logic to persuade
• making the voice of the argument less personal (to remove responsibility)
• sometimes technical writing can make a topic trivial and vague emotionally
• clear, easy to understand

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• to write well is to have power
• can do good or bad things
• Cicero: the good man speaking (ethical, moral)
• Ex. Hitler, a good speaker, rhetorician, influenced many people --but without virtue
• "put weapons in the hands of madmen"
•  what words are not used?
• "persons", "humans"
• PROBLEM: that it is so stripped down emotionally on a topic that has a lot of emotion tied to it.

Ethics

• where do they come from?
• teachers, parents, peers, Bible, laws (government and natural), religion, conscience, media, societal norms, experience (nature vs. nurture), role models, employer,
• Philosophy --> Logical (things we don't think about)
• What's wrong? Why?
• hitting, cheating, stealing, lying, killing, adultery, incest, selfishness, greed, lust, gluttony, envy, laziness
•  What's right? What's the value?
• honesty
• loyalty
• protection of property
• Without ethics?
• chaos
• anarchy
• death

Writing for Science 4/15

Chapter 6: Scientifc Visuals

• to make the argument
• Ex. recolored to make meaning
• dye or electron microscopy to differentiate imagery
•  

Latour Chapter 2

• shifting from literature --> laboratories
• how do the devices help them write things down?
• studying scientists as outsiders
• following them at work
• how else do they figure out the world besides writing?
• "essential to visit the places where the fields/papers are happening/written"
• how do we move backwards to see where the journal articles are written
• what is an English/Literature laboratory?
• have text of Huck Finn
• word document or piece of paper
• other sources
• extracted, clean, redrawn, end result
• actual visual display of the mess
• can go back and forth between "clean and mess"
• inscription device:
• scale: temperature display
• machines: MRI, CAT
• poetry: text generators, 
• a test taster for quality
• a scanner: ex. looking at an ancient text
• to communicate

Latour Chapter 1 and Intro

Intro: The Black Box

• instead of looking simply at the finished product we should look at the process--"Science in the Making" (from the view of an anthropologist)
• "Where can we start a study of science and technology?"
• **good point for photographing the work places for our field map
• go backwards from the "point of invention"
• when did  people even start thinking about making the invention?
• science is not FIXED--will these black boxes get reopened? How do we know which ones and when?
• black boxing: scientific and technical work is made invisible by its own success. When a machine runs efficiently, when a matter of fact is settled, one need focus only on its inputs and outputs not on its internal complexity."
• the more the output is positive/consistent, the less we care about "how" as long as it's still producing

• How did truth become?
• when things hold they start becoming true
• when things are true they hold 

• Science/Knowledge in the making is create --> fact in textbook

From Weaker to Stronger Rhetoric--Chapter 1 Literature

• modalities: sentences that modify or qualify another one
• positive modalities: sentences that lead a statement away from its conditions of production
• negative modalities: sentences that lead a statement in the other direction towards its condition of product, why it is solid or weak instead of using it to render some other consequences more necessary
• facts and fact making:
• made more of a fact depending on how it is inserted into sentences
• Rhetoric: name of the discipline that studies how people are made to believe and behave and how to persuade others
• argument from authority: appeal to higher and more numerous allies
• using peer review, former texts/studies --> more accuracy/persuasive
• citations
• perfunctory
• context
• paradigm
• stratified: texts become more technical with the mobilization of new elements brought in from other people and papers

3/6/15 Writing for Science

Scientific Journals

• social and collaborative nature
• peer reviewed
• to ensure that other scientists can "follow, assess, and replicate" presented findings
• professional standard of validity
• types of journals/research articles
• empirical/experimental
• methodological
• theoretical
• review
• case study
• IMRAD
• Introduction
• framework for research
• background, significance
• specific purpose
• primary results and conclusions
• Methods/Materials
• straightforward
• complete/precise/detailed
• design, instruments, techniques, procedures, measurement
• Results
• most important part, but shortest part
• can permit use of visuals
• graphs, photos, tables
•  "hourglass or egg timer"
• broader beginning and end funneling toward specific data in middle
• and 
• Discussion
• freer hand than previous sections
• brief reminder of important findings
• move toward progressively more generalized statements, relationships and connections
• major patterns
• compare to other previous or current work
• unresolved issues, discrepancies
• predictions, future research
• solution to posed problem
• implications

• abstract also follows IMRAD model but with summarizing paper
• Ethics
• authorship credit
• originality of research
• multiple publication
• treatment of sources
• intentionally misrepresented data

Catanoso articles

• the first step in solving a problem is admitting you have one
• it is good that these big companies are acknowledging their effects on global warming--taking responsibility as they do have some sort of power to influence others
• if these companies are willing to do something, then we as individuals can as well
• global warming is inevitable
• so stop it we would have to reverse everything humanity has achieved
• is going back to prehistoric times really reasonable
• find ways to limit or slow down our waste production
• we cannot just eliminate or punish sectors, there needs to be a mutual agreement amongst countries, etc.

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2/18/15 Guest Speaker

• What is Science Writing?
• academic writing written by scientists
• research --> data --> paragraphs --> scientific journals
• hard to read unless you have background knowledge
• narrow audience
• science magazines/publications
• not as specific/academically rigorous
• audience is interested in science, but not necessarily in the field 

•  general knowledge audience
• apply skills as a journalist
• what questions do I need to ask
• how do I tell the story
• Ask the best questions
• sometimes you need some background knowledge/research
• Emotion in writing
• not in formal science writing
• voice--playing it straight vs. attitude

• Skepticism is at the heart of science
• what happens if they are skeptical of science? want them to be called "deniers"
• anti-science rhetoric

• Finding a local anchor
• "Dumbing down" a story
• writers can only write about what they know/understand
•  

 

Darwin: On Origin of Species 2/4

How does Darwin argue for the theories he’s proposing?  How does he know what he knows?  What is persuasive? What isn't? What moves is he making?

• "certain birds", "certain trees"--everything is so perfect and specific, how could that be?
•  where does variation come from? can we teach it?
• ex. domesticating animals
•  there is some sort of purpose or reasoning for characteristics of things--physical and demeanor
• multiple species are a result of one original species

Making his argument:

• an argument should "fully state and balance the facts and arguments on both sides of each question", BUT :this cannot possibly be here done"
•  rejects what most naturalists defend
• he is really just saying "look at the world, it's obvious there is some sort of evolution/adaptation"
• he knows he is going against other naturalists, and religion at this time--
• uses experimentation

Qualities of Science Writing 1/30

Qualities of Science Writing

·         Objectivity and precision

o   Passive voice
 science writing uses passive voice even though active voice is "simpler"
 why? do distance the writer and focus on the object
 "The beaker was placed on the hot plate for 1 hour." who placed the beaker? anyone!
 remove the human element from the language

o   Concrete wording
  detailed ENOUGH to be reproduced

o   Past tense

o   Denotation
 don't want to personify...diseases "afflicting"

o   Numerical expression
 depends on field, journal
 writing out percents, or at the beginning or end of a sentence

·         Simplicity and conciseness

o   Limit repetition and variations

o   Limit wordiness
 circumlocution
 

o   Knowing the difference between

§  Affect/effect

§  After/following

§  Among/between

§  Can/may

§  Compare/contrast

§  Complementary/complimentary

§  Etc.

·         Punctuation

o   Restraint need for commas