Course Details

Insofar as scientists use language and visual displays to communicate with others, they use rhetoric, selecting some aspects of reality to convey, and deflecting other aspects of reality from attention. Studying how scientists use rhetoric to communicate, and how nonscientists use rhetoric to argue about science and its effects in the public sphere, students in this class will discover the means of persuasion available to shape science, its products, and the relationship between both and the publics that surround them. Those who are considering a career in science will learn how to think critically about the internal and external discourse of science, improving their use of rhetorical tools in the process. Those who do not intend to become scientists will learn how to critically analyze the claims of science and respond thoughtfully and effectively to its potential influence on them in the modern world.

Student Learning Goals:
1) Understand and critically evaluate scholarship on the rhetoric of science.
2) Identify, define and use rhetorical concepts in the analysis of communication about science.
3) Recognize and evaluate the means of persuasion that can be utilized by scientists in communicating with other scientists and/or the public.
4) Recognize and evaluate the means of persuasion that can be utilized by advocates critiquing or protesting against science and/or its consequences in the public sphere.
5) Write an original rhetorical criticism essay that contributes to the subfield known as “rhetoric of science.”