WRTG 3030

WRITING ON SCIENCE AND SOCIETY, Dr. Rebecca Dickson

In this in-person course, directed toward science, engineering, and technology majors, we will work to develop your writing and communication skills while expanding your rhetorical knowledge. Through analysis of science-related works and exploration of effective communication strategies, you will learn to convey ideas clearly and appropriately within your field. Assignments will include four major papers, one of which will involve incorporating peer-reviewed research. Additionally, you will deliver two presentations, participate in peer reviews, and actively engage with your peers and instructor.

WRITING MATTER: THE RHETORIC OF VERY SMALL THINGS, Dr. Kurtis Hessel 

Eighteenth-century poet and visionary William Blake recognized how perception shapes our sense of scale, and that even in the very small, whole worlds of understanding may be hidden. In our own era, we are constantly confronted by the force of small things, their ability to reshape the human social experience. The discovery of deposits of rare metals like cobalt and lithium in the global south inspires furious scrambling for mining rights and upends international political and trade arrangements in the process because these elements are key to our intertwined green and digital futures. Closer to home, in 2023, a train carrying chloroethene (a key chemical in the production of PVC) derailed outside of East Palestine, Ohio, causing widespread environmental damage and creating serious health risks for locals as the chemicals were burned off. Small substances, simple substances and molecules, have global ramifications. Indeed, it was a series of genetic mutations, infinitesimal errors in biological transcription, that eventually produced all of human history—the fate of all life on earth is coded in something smaller than a grain of sand. 

This class will explore the rhetorical strategies that scientists have used to write about the tiny—about cells, proteins, molecules, elements, atoms, and sub-atomic particles, to name a few phenomena. We will learn the basics of disciplinary science communication, studying IMRAD format and common rhetorical tactics that apply across scientific fields. But more pointedly, we will investigate compositional strategies of use to scientists who study the infinitesimal. This class will be especially relevant for students in chemistry, biochemistry, physics, MCDB, ATOC, and any engineering fields that build upon these disciplines. Our goal will be to consider how to see, but also how to conceptualize and ultimately how to communicate about the very small. 

In addition to investigating the disciplinary rhetoric of science around the tiny, we will also analyze selections of scientific prose from across the history of science. Our goal will be to understand modern disciplinary science writing better by studying its pre-modern forms and comparing its rhetoric across ages. If we cannot understand science writing’s past, how can we anticipate its future? From this course of rhetorical study, we’ll also be able to infer things about the changing structure of science over time. And we will expand our study to consider the rhetoric of popular science writing, discussing important strategies that scientists and journalists adopt to make specialized scientific concepts comprehensible to non-scientists. Ultimately, for our final research essay, we’ll seek to tell “The Story of a Substance,” not only surveying and translating the scientific literature about a particular substance, element, or particle, but also investigating the social, political, and cultural meanings that have gathered around it over time. 

WRITING ON SCIENCE AND SOCIETY, Dr. Jared Krywicki

Our course will immerse you in the study and practice of writing scientific arguments for expert and non-expert audiences. You will learn to recognize and analyze the rhetorical dimensions of scientific and science-related texts, and you will use this knowledge to hone your own writing and communication skills. We will read foundational scientific articles and papers, journalistic writing, and texts that foreground, clarify, and investigate the rhetorical dimensions of science writing genres. We’ll also explore scientific rhetoric in other forms of media, from the video and webcast to the meme. A considerable portion of our science-focused reading concerns sustainability issues. These readings will provide common ground for our discussions, and compelling subjects for our rhetorical inquiries. Sustainability also matters to our collective and individual futures. Being conversant in sustainability initiatives has potential professional advantages, and actively participating in such initiatives might just help you to “save the world.”

RADICAL SCIENCE WRITING, Danny Long, M.A.

As a future professional in the sciences, you will be expected to write and speak clearly and convincingly to audiences both in and outside your field. The purpose of this course is for you to practice doing so. 

In this class, you will develop your creative- and critical-thinking skills as well as your ability to work with others, and you will consider how the sciences relate to other fields and the civic arena.  Much of the course material will be produced by you, discipuli extraordinaria. 

The course will include brief units on visual rhetoric, argumentation, and research. And at various points throughout the semester, we will discuss the craft of writing. In the end, you will discover how broad and creative science writing can be. 

WRITING ON SCIENCE & SOCIETY, Dr. Christine Macdonald

In this course we will examine the rhetoric of science and how it circulates in the general news media.  Students will produce a variety of assignments aimed at different audiences as we examine and practice strategies for conveying specialized knowledge to non-specialized audiences. We will focus on communication strategies in a variety of formats, including multimodal work.  The course includes a unit on visual rhetoric and how to communicate your professional autobiography to potential employers.

WRITING ON SCIENCE & SOCIETY, Dr. Adam Padgett

This course is a rhetorically informed introduction to science writing that hones communication skills as we examine the relationships among science, engineering, and society, and the manner in which scientific and technical information moves across different rhetorical contexts and becomes relevant to a variety of audiences. The course is intended for upper-division students in Engineering and for students in Arts and Sciences majoring in the sciences. Taught as a writing seminar emphasizing critical thinking, revision, and oral presentation skills, the course focuses on helping students draw on their technical expertise while engaging audiences beyond their own disciplines. The course draws on broad rhetorical principles for cogent writing and speaking and applies them to the demands of communicating in the fields of science and engineering and in the work environments of organizations.

WRITING ON SCIENCE & SOCIETY, Petger Schaberg, M.A.

This course is a rhetorically informed introduction to science writing that hones communication skills as we examine the relationships among science, engineering, and society, and the manner in which scientific and technical information moves across different rhetorical contexts and becomes relevant to a variety of audiences. The course is intended for upper-division students in Engineering and for students in Arts and Sciences majoring in the sciences. Taught as a writing seminar emphasizing critical thinking, revision, and oral presentation skills, the course focuses on helping students draw on their technical expertise while engaging audiences beyond their own disciplines. The course draws on broad rhetorical principles for cogent writing and speaking and applies them to the demands of communicating in the fields of science and engineering and in the work environments of organizations.

TOPICS IN WRITING, Jennifer Stewart, M.A.

“Topics in Writing” is a section of WRTG 3020, 3030, and 3040 that is intended for non-native speakers of English who wish to enroll in an upper-division writing course. The course is taught as a rigorous writing workshop using advanced readings and materials, emphasizing critical thinking, analysis, and persuasive writing. Examples of assignments include daily writing activities in genres used in the contexts of technical, scientific, and professional communication. Course readings focus on communication in the arts, sciences, and professional fields. Future work in these fields will require you to write and speak clearly to an inter-disciplinary audience; accordingly, coursework will include practice in oral presentation. Assignments are tailored to meet the needs and career aspirations of individual students. The final project for this course takes the form of a technical, scientific, or professional genre that students will be likely to produce in their future workplaces or organizations.

WRITING ON SCIENCE AND SOCIETY, Matthew Henningsen

As science-based majors, and especially as future engineers, you are required to build things: bridges, roads, robots, etcetera. However, at times crucial, essential thoughts regarding the ethics regarding engineering are cast aside. We reach a point where we build and construct without really thinking through the issue – do we need these things? Is it in fact ethical to construct them? Even though we can construct them, should we? Are some things just off limits? Etc. During our time together, we will apply these types of questions specifically to social engineering projects. We will mores specifically investigate the rhetoric of these projects, analyzing and thinking through not just the practicality of such places, but also how they are presented to us as the readers. Do our authors present a strong rhetorical case for making us want to join their worlds? This is a true test of rhetorical skill, since a well-engineered society can only succeed if it is well described, and so can only attract people to actually live there. The success of the society, you could say, depends on the rhetoric!

With PWR goals for this course, our investigations with coincide with our production of a wide variety of professional and scientific genres. You will write a report on a specific social engineering text, and present this report to the class, craft an argumentative essay, and a memo, be responsible for maintaining a “Blue Print Journal,” where you compile notes on the societies we study, until ultimately fashioning an exhaustive National Science Foundation (NSF) grant proposal for a social engineering project. This final project will be your chance to actually build a society, and you will present your findings to the class at the very end of the semester. Your ultimate goal: Persuade us that this society can in fact succeed, and that you deserve the NSF money to put it into action.

RADICAL SCIENCE WRITING, Danny Long, M.A

As a future professional in the sciences or engineering, you will be expected to write and speak clearly and convincingly to audiences not only in but also, and especially, outside your field. The purpose of this course is to provide you the opportunity to practice techniques for communicating analytically and persuasively, to further develop your creative- and critical thinking skills, and to consider how your field relates to other fields and to the civic arena. One way you will pursue these objectives is through a service-learning project, for which you will tutor local high school students for a total of eight hours in math, the sciences, or a variety of other subjects. You will use this experience to examine the relationship among doing, teaching, and learning a field; the sociological, political, and institutional factors shaping education in math and the sciences; and the various rhetorical norms involved in scientific pedagogy and practice. Of course, you will do more than the service-learning project this semester. Most of the material you will work with in class will be produced by you, discipuliextraordinaria. You will collaborate with one another, write with one another, teach one another. Count on staying busy each and every class period. Together, we will analyze the characteristics of persuasive writing about and in the sciences and education. The course will include brief units on logic and visual rhetoric. At various points in the semester we will discuss the craft of writing—e.g., writing strong, beautiful sentences that capture audiences, filling them with awe and admiration and wonder. You will complete a number of informal writing assignments. You will write two professional career documents: a personal statement and an exit message, both addressed to your service-learning partners. In groups you will write children’s books for local first graders, fallacious dialogues, and posters that teach the CU campus community about Shakespearean-era science. And you will put together an annotated bibliography that will prepare you for your final project: a piece of writing that uses book arts to share research in math or the sciences with a public audience.

WRITING ON SCIENCE & SOCIETY, Dr. Christine Macdonald

In this course we will examine the rhetoric of science and how it circulates in the general news media.  Students will produce a variety of assignments aimed at different audiences as we examine and practice strategies for conveying specialized knowledge to non-specialized audiences. We will focus on communication strategies in a variety of formats, including multimodal work.  The course includes a unit on visual rhetoric and how to communicate your professional autobiography to potential employers.

WRITING ON SCIENCE & SOCIETY, Dr. Petger Schaberg

This course is a rhetorically informed introduction to science writing that hones communication skills as we examine the relationships among science, engineering, and society, and the manner in which scientific and technical information moves across different rhetorical contexts and becomes relevant to a variety of audiences. The course is intended for upper-division students in Engineering and for students in Arts and Sciences majoring in the sciences. Taught as a writing seminar emphasizing critical thinking, revision, and oral presentation skills, the course focuses on helping students draw on their technical expertise while engaging audiences beyond their own disciplines. The course draws on broad rhetorical principles for cogent writing and speaking and applies them to the demands of communicating in the fields of science and engineering and in the work environments of organizations.

TOPICS IN WRITING, Jennifer Stewart, M.A.

“Topics in Writing” is a section of WRTG 3020, 3030, and 3040 that is intended for non-native speakers of English who wish to enroll in an upper-division writing course. The course is taught as a rigorous writing workshop using advanced readings and materials, emphasizing critical thinking, analysis, and persuasive writing. Examples of assignments include daily writing activities in genres used in the contexts of technical, scientific, and professional communication. Course readings focus on communication in the arts, sciences, and professional fields. Future work in these fields will require you to write and speak clearly to an inter-disciplinary audience; accordingly, coursework will include practice in oral presentation. Assignments are tailored to meet the needs and career aspirations of individual students. The final project for this course takes the form of a technical, scientific, or professional genre that students will be likely to produce in their future workplaces or organizations.