WRTG 3030: Science and Society

We're living in an interesting historical moment in which pseudo-science is readily accepted and actual science is often dismissed or viewed with great skepticism. As you are about to become scientists and engineers, it is critical that you understand what's happening in the public sphere that has created an atmosphere of distrust for actual science and of credulous approval of pseudo-science. 

This course, therefore, asks the questions: How is science communicated in the public sphere, how is it used rhetorically in discussions about environmental, social, economic, and political issues, and why is proven science being discredited within the public domain? To answer these questions, we’ll focus on representations of science in new media, in public policy and in industry. Because the ways we perceive and choose to interpret science significantly shapes our understanding of our world and how it works, our efforts in this course will better prepare you to be more savvy, more informed and more intentional readers and writers so that you can engage in the important political, environmental, economic and social challenges of our time. 

Learning Objectives

• Reinforce and deploy rhetorical knowledge; 

• Write / compose in consideration of audience; 

• Utilize genre awareness in composition; 

• Clarify and refine writing process; 

• Reinforce critical awareness through composition and discussion; 

• Compose with an awareness of how the digital space limits understanding / our ability to access knowledge.

In this course, you will

   Learn how to analyze pseudoscience from a rhetorical perspective;

   Discover how to create connection to any audience;

   Collaborate to craft a public-facing composition that addresses a seasonally-relevant issue;

   Practice the benefits of curiosity and creativity in a series of experiential opportunities.

Meet Your Instructor 

Dawn Colley

  colley@colorado.edu   

I explore the intersection of and interplay between rhetoric, semiotics and the self. In particular, I am interested in understanding more deeply the connection between the rhetoric of the self and the "other" and the ways in which our knowledge of self-rhetoric impacts decision making, personal empowerment and reverence for everyone and everything. From teaching STEM students to connect with public audiences to helping writers to explore the connection between self-rhetoric, self-conception, creativity and the power to become, my efforts from my research to my writing to my pedagogical choices underscore the influence of language to shape ourselves and our reality in intentional, empowered and beautiful ways.