Shaping Written Knowledge: The Genre and Activity of the Experimental Article in Science

Rhetoric of the Human Sciences

by Charles Bazerman

text very clean, excellent condition, fast shipping, corner broken.*

400 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 1988

Reviews

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

Yes, Virginia, there is a scientific way of writing, but it’s a way of writing within each scientist individually and the community at large. I love telling the scientists (and, better, engineers) that there is rhetoric, too in what they do. The idea that these forms become more inflexible as the discipline ages and ossifies is interesting to me, too, especially because, as compositionists, we don’t yet have a uniform standard of research, writing and publishing. While I probably won’t move into discourse analysis of scientific writing, this book contained a great theoretical framework for community genre-making.

[Ian Slagle · Rating 5 out of 5]

You might not know it from the title, but this book is not really about how to write an experimental scientific article. Rather it's about what an experimental scientific article is, and their history. As someone who reads many of these but had never thought to ask those questions, this was a fascinating glimpse. It helps also that this is officially available online for free, though I read a paper version.

[Tana Schiewer · Rating 5 out of 5]

I can't express enough how much I love Bazerman's writing. I wish I had the time to write a longer review, but alas I'm on to the next book. Just...I could read Bazerman all day long.