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

By Charles Bazerman

In Shaping Written Knowledge, Charles Bazerman traces the history and character of the experimental article in science, calling attention to the social and rhetorical forces that shaped its development. Truly a landmark in writing studies, this book provides a broadly interdisciplinary exploration of an important genre and offers insights that extend far beyond its immediate focus of study.

Table of Contents

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Front Matter

Acknowledgments

Part One: Writing Matters

Chapter 1: The Problem of Writing Knowledge

Chapter 2: What Written Knowledge Does: Three Examples of Academic Discourse

Part Two: The Emergence of Literary and Social Forms in Early Modern Science

Chapter 3: Reporting the Experiment: The Changing Account of Scientific Doings in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, 1665-1800

Chapter 4: Between Books and Articles: Newton Faces Controversy

Chapter 5: Literate Acts and the Emergent Social Structure of Science

Part Three: Typified Activities in Twentieth-Century Physics

Chapter 6: Theoretical Integration in Experimental Reports in Twentieth-Century Physics: Spectroscopic Articles inPhysical Review, 1893-1980

Chapter 7: Making References: Empirical Contexts, Choices, and Constraints in the Literary Creation of the Compton Effect

Chapter 8: Physicists Reading Physics: Schema-Laden Purposes and Purpose-Laden Schema

Part Four: The Reinterpretation of Forms in the Social Sciences

Chapter 9: Codifying the Social Scientific Style: The APA Publication Manual as a Behaviorist Rhetoric

Chapter 10: Strains and Strategies in Writing a Science of Politics: The Unsettled Rhetoric of the American Political Science Review, 1979

Part Five: Scientific Writing as a Social Practice

Chapter 11: How Language Realizes the Work of Science: Science as a Naturally Situated, Social Semiotic System

Chapter 12: Writing Well, Scientifically and Rhetorically: Practical Consequences for Writers of Science and Their Teachers
 

References

Index

Publication Information: Bazerman, Charles. (2000). Shaping Written Knowledge: The Genre and Activity of the Experimental Article in Science. The WAC Clearinghouse. https://wac.colostate.edu/books/landmarks/bazerman-shaping/ (Originally published in 1988 by University of Wisconsin Press)

Publication Date: November 1, 2000

Digitizing. This book was first digitized and edited by Patricia Klei in 2001. It was digitized once again by Colorado State University's Morgan Library in 2022.

Contact Information:
Charles Bazerman's Home Page: http://www.education.ucsb.edu/~bazerman
Charles Bazerman's Email: bazerman@education.ucsb.edu

Landmark Publications in Writing Studies

Series Editor: Mike Palmquist, Colorado State University

This book is available in whole and in part in Adobe's Portable Document Format (PDF).

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