A Review of Writing in the Sciences: Exploring Conventions of Scientific Discourse
Ann M. Penrose and Steven B. Katz
2nd edition, Pearson Education 2004
ISBN: 0-321-11204-0 $58.67 pp. 448
Review by Libby Allison
Texas State University, San Marcos
The Beginnings of a Revolution
Since its roots in the 1970s, Writing Across the Curriculum1 (WAC) has been seen by its trailblazers and supporters as a kind of "insistent" and "quiet revolutionary" (Fulwiler 179) "movement" (Walvoord 58; Anson ix) within universities and colleges "to improve the general writing and learning abilities of college students" (Fulwiler 179), regardless of their discipline of choice.
But a strange thing has happened on the way to the revolution. What was once a movement by socially active professors to raise literacy across college disciplines has morphed and recently re-emerged, in some colleges and universities, as a program, sanctioned by conventional administrators, largely to off-set some of the economic problems besetting universities and colleges, and it is this "top-down" approach to WAC that has some Compositionists worried.
Historical Resistance and Current Apprehension
Although WAC has historically met resistance from various segments of academia (Young and Fulwiler), including literature, which WAC pioneer John Bean says has been the "least open" to WAC (Rutz), now even some of our own Compositionists are looking askance at this movement. As there seems to be an "upsurge" in WAC (McCloud), this time around, in spring 2004, some 30 years after its initial start, a thread of emails, "WAC—back to the future?", on the WAC and Writing Program Administrator listservs indicate concern that, as one person put it, "the re-emergence seems sometimes to be out of the context of rhetoric and composition—that there's a higher-administrative-level issue that bypasses the discipline ..." (Gunner).
Also, recently, when one of my former graduate students, who is finishing a well-known doctoral program in Composition, asked my advice about including technical writing into First-year Writing, and I suggested he look into the WAC field, he told me that he felt the "rather ... leftist" faculty at his school "frown" on WAC because it means "if anyone can teach writing, why need English teachers?" (Personal email).
With decreasing state funding for universities and subsequent budget tightening (Hebel; Potter), for administrators, WAC can mean
- moving the teaching of writing beyond the English Department where there are small writing classes and sometimes more expensive senior faculty teaching them;
- a way to help science students write better to obtain those critical grants for external funding; and
- filling curricular gaps in academic programs because of a lack of funding, making it part and parcel of interdisciplinary undertakings, the work style for the scientific disciplines, not the Humanities.
I begin this review of the second edition of Writing in the Sciences: Exploring Conventions of Scientific Discourse by Ann M. Penrose and Steven R. Katz to demonstrate the politics by which texts such as this one arrive. The economic forces pressuring universities have changed the playing field and the striving for sleeker, more efficient classrooms and outside funding are priorities. Regardless of the motivations of faculty members or administrators, for that matter, WAC can help create that design, especially in the sciences, where grant writing is the lifeblood of departments. Robert Zemsky makes a strong argument in "Have We Lost the 'Public' in Higher Education?" that the turn toward research universities after World War II as the sites for the nation's scientific research (and thus its lucrative government funding) rather than the industrial lab and today's sluggish economy has led colleges and universities "to understand that survival depended on being more responsive to market forces" (B7). The upshot, says Zemsky, is that universities, which were once centers of public purpose are no longer. Because I believe that no one today who teaches a WAC course is impervious to political ramifications, I want to help faculty understand what Writing in the Sciences does, what it does not do, and what it can do. Although one can argue that every text is political, as a textbook, Writing in the Sciences does not address the often seedy side of universities--its politics, but it's the book's rather benign political approach that can, in fact, be an ally to teachers caught in political cross fire.
The Nuts and Bolts of the Text
Writing in the Sciences is targeted to upper-division courses in scientific writing as well as "writing-intensive courses in any scientific discipline" (http://ablongman.com). As is the promise of the Allyn and Bacon Series in Technical Communication, the textbook is a combination of theory and practice, but for advanced courses, it will certainly need supplemental theoretical pieces, especially when it begins with a social constructionist epistemological approach to scientific endeavor. The large "References" section at the end of the text is an excellent place to start finding books, articles, and Web sites for Compositionists interested in WAC and in science writing. Two of the best resources are the WAC Clearinghouse, which has the WAC journal and listserv, and the Writing Program Administration Web site, which has the WPA journal and listserv. In addition, Writing in the Sciences has an Instructor's Manual as well as a Companion Web site.
Part I of Writing in the Sciences
Part I "Scientific Conventions" in Writing in the Sciences begins with tying in the role of persuasion and of collaboration in scientific communication. The text does not present writing process theory in isolation; instead, authors have incorporated writing and reading process discussions as they present certain genres. Chapter 2 presents how new scientists get socialized into the scientific community, and the relationship between research journals, conferences, professional associations, funding agencies, and their audiences. Chapter 3 discusses the construction of argument in science and the format for writing research reports. Chapter 4 talks about ways to review prior research, citing sources in the text, and the role abstracts play in research. Chapter 5 prepares students for conference presentations, including the appropriate use of graphics in oral presentations. Chapter 6 is a key chapter about grant proposal writing, which I have mentioned is increasingly important. Chapter 7 is particularly useful to technical writers because it is about writing instructions and public policy, and Chapter 8 takes over with a look at how and why scientists need to communicate with the public at-large. Finally in Part I, Chapter 9 touches on issues of ethics in science writing.
The strategy of teaching students how to write for academic journals, how to write grants, how to make oral presentations, how to write public policy, and the importance of abstracts is extremely valuable information for any student in any discipline in the university, including those in the Humanities.
Part II of Writing in the Sciences
Part II of the text, which constitutes nearly half of it, is devoted to four sample research cases: the "ulcer bug;" predatory algae; supernova remnants; and the Oracle at Delphi. These samples provide a wide range of documents found in scientific fields, and they are referenced throughout the textbook, which offer teachers lots of possibilities to move from the abstract to the applied for discussion and writing assignments. Plus, many of the documents are just interesting and even entertaining reading, helping to debunk the notion that all science writing (and technical writing for that matter) is dry and dull.
For instance, the sample about the 'ulcer bug,' tells the story of how renegade Australian scientist Barry J. Marshall ingested Helicobacter pylori bacteria in 1985 to demonstrate that the bacteria was the cause of ulcers not stress and other psychological factors, which was the widespread supposition of the day. The sample on predatory algae is an environmental issue of how a team at North Carolina State discovered a kind of algae that kills fish by releasing a lethal neurotoxin into the water. Both of these samples have a variety of documents for students. However, the sample on supernova remnants takes a unique spin—it illustrates a "research life cycle" by tracking a project from its grant proposal to the publication of the results, that is, from NASA's call for proposals, to the final report to NASA, to the article that appeared in Astrophysical Journal as a result of the research.
The final sample is an international interdisciplinary collaboration among a geologist, an archeologist, a geochemist, and a clinical toxicologist to solve the ancient mystery of the origins of prophecies by priestesses of the Temple of Apollo in Delphi, Greece. As far back as Plutarch, writers had speculated that the prophecies were the result of gaseous fumes rising from a subterranean fault, but there had never been any faults found in the region (Writing 400), until the end of the 20th century, when researchers from different disciplines in different American universities sought permission from the Greek government to search the area again. Among the documents presented in this case is the request from the researchers to the Greek government to take soil samples. In addition, a copy of "The Delphic Oracle: A Multidisciplinary Defense of the Gaseous Vent Theory" by Henry A. Spiller, John R. Hale, and Jelle Z. De Boer that appeared in the Journal of Toxicology—Clinical Toxicology, 2002, and the subsequent article that appeared in the New York Times in March 2002 is available to students.
For those familiar with the first version of Writing in the Sciences, the authors still use the research cases in Part II to illustrate the rhetorical principles and conventions in Part I. However, they have made these revisions:
- Samples have been expanded to demonstrate distinctive research actions such as the progression from initial theory to clinical application in the sample on the "ulcer bug," and from local environmental issue to state and federal policy in the sample on predatory algae. Chapter 13 demonstrates the results of interdisciplinary research.
- Chapters in Part I have been revised to reflect trends in such areas as grant review procedures.
- Electronic communication technologies have been incorporated to show how they are impacting the publication process.
- Procedures and guidelines within industries and government contexts, including quality assurance and regulatory oversight, have been added in Chapter 7.
- A directory of stylistic features such as information on active and passive voice, imperative mood, and metaphors is included and located at the beginning of the text. This directory also shows how grammar instruction is integrated throughout the text in applied activities (Writing xiv).
The Companion Web site and Instructor's Manual can be very helpful, especially for English teachers new to working with science students. The Web site has resources for students and faculty. Among the resources for teachers is "Supplements Central" with a sample course syllabus and information on how to use assignments that require data. In addition, there are links to professional web sources like the Association of Teachers of Technical Writing and the Drug Information Association. Student resources include a valuable list of links to science and database services such as Biomed Central, an "open access publisher" dedicated to free access worldwide for researchers and the lay public to more than 100 science-related journals, and Medline, published by the U.S. National Library of Medicine, a bibliographic database containing more than 11 million references to journal articles in the life sciences, emphasizing biomedicine.
In addition to the Companion Web site, an Instructor's Manual is available. It describes the purpose and rationale for each chapter in Part I, sample course outlines, and helpful notes on the exercises and activities with advice on what difficulties students might face doing the activities. Most exercises and activities are designed for individuals or groups, and as the authors say, the activities are "exploratory," focusing on texts from students' own research field (IM v-vi). The manual gives teachers advice, such as how chapters can be sequenced in a variety of ways depending on the specific needs of the students and teacher.
Conclusion
Armed with the Writing in the Sciences textbook, Companion Web site, and Instructor's Manual, even the novice WAC Compositionist can feel confident that he/she is ready for a writing class for science majors and/or technical communicators. Writing in the Sciences will not rock anyone's world; it will not shake things up. But in its own nonoffensive way, it does what many Compositionists need: it can convince the still most doubtful that Composition has something to offer those in the sciences and even our own. It presents some of what is the best of our field: how to go about teaching writing in a way that is useful to every student. Faculty who are looking to shake things up or are trying to keep from being blindsided by political fallout will need to read up in other books, articles, and online resources. For instance, Carol Peterson Haviland and Edward M. White's 'We Hate You!" WAC as a Professional Threat" is a fictional scenario about the career of one adventurous WAC who finds herself met with hostility by engineering students and colleagues as well as her own in the English Department. Many would say this tale is not all that far from reality.
Novice WAC faculty need to know that WAC is far from benign; it has politics written all over it. Requiring Writing in the Sciences in a WAC science course and reading in the field are good lines of attack and protection for this "insistent" revolution that is often today anything but quiet.
1For purposes of trying to be consistent and because WAC seems to be the term that has "caught on" in the English discipline, I have chosen to use it rather than focusing on distinctions among terms such as Writing in the Disciplines (WID) and Writing Across the Disciplines (WAD), and the like. However, readers should be aware that WAC covers a wide variety of writing programmatic and curricular models from First-year Writing courses, directed for students in different disciplines, to Writing Intensive (WI) efforts in upper-division courses to a single course within a discipline outside of English. Also, depending on the campus, WAC can entail anything from a single Rhetoric and Composition teacher teaching courses outside of English to students in other disciplines to a campus-wide faculty development program, directed by a Writing Program Administrator, to assist faculty in other disciplines to teach writing.
Anson, Chris M. "Reflection, Faculty Development, and Writing Across the Curriculum: The Power of Scene." The WAC Casebook: Scenes of Faculty Reflection and Program Development. Ed. Chris M. Anson. NY: Oxford UP, 2002: ix-xiii.
Fulwiler, Toby. "The Quiet and Insistent Revolution: Writing Across the Curriculum." The Politics of Writing Instruction: Postsecondary. Eds. Richard Bullock and John Trimbur. Portsmouth NH: Boynton/Cook/Heinemann, 1991: 179-87.
Gunner, Jeanne. "WAC—back to the future?" Online posting. 7 Apr. 2004. Writing Program Administration listserv. http://www.english.ilstu.edu/Hesse/listserv.htm.
Haviland, Carol Peterson and Edward M. White. "'We Hate You!' WAC as a Professional Threat." The WAC Casebook: Scenes for Faculty Reflection and Program Development. Ed. Chris M. Anson. Oxford UP, 2002: 258-60.
Hebel, Sara, Peter Schmidt, and Jeffrey Selingo. "States Face Year of Famine After a Decade of Plenty." Chronicle of Higher Education 49.18 January 11, 2004: A20. http://chronicle.com.
McLeod, Susan H. "WAC—back to the future?" Online posting. 7 April 2004 Writing Program Administration listserv. http://www.english.ilstu.edu/Hesse/listserv.htm.
Personal Email "Thanks." 2 Feb. 2004.
Potter, Will. "State Legislators Again Cut Higher Education Spending" Chronicle of Higher Education. 49.48 August 8, 2003: A22. http://chronicle.com.
Rutz, Carol. "Up Close and Personal with a WAC Pioneer: John Bean." The WAC Journal 14 (August 2003). http://wac.colostate.edu/journal.
Walvood, Barbara E. "The Future of WAC." College English 58.1 (January 1996): 58-79.
Young, Art. "Writing Across and Against the Curriculum." College Communication and Composition 54.3 (February 2003): 472-85.
Young, Art and Toby Fulwiler. "The Enemies of Writing Across the Curriculum." Programs that Work: Models and Methods for Writing Across the Curriculum. Eds. Toby Fulwiler and Art Young. Portsmouth, NH: Boynton/Cook/Heinemann, 1990: 287-94.
Zemsky, Robert. "Have We Lost the ‘Public’ in Higher Education?" The Chronicle of Higher Education 49.38 May 20, 2003. http://chronicle.com.