A bible into the Scientific Discourse: IMRaD
As many face the transition from high school to college, their study habits display their comprehension and application skills. When trying to understand science, scientists use the IMRaD format which helps them and others share, develop and analyze research. The IMRad Cheat Sheet developed by Carnegie Mellon University is divided into introduction, methods, results and discussion sections which are a window into the Discourse of science. People such as Gee author of Literacy, Discourse and Linguistics, Haas researcher of Learning to Read and Meadows author of The Scientific paper as an archeological artifact facilitate one’s understanding and comprehension of the Discourse as a whole.
IMRaD functions as a learning and comprehension tool that correlates Hass’ study of a college student with Gee’s ideas of filtering, meta-knowledge and apprenticeship, and Meadow’s in depth analysis of a scientific paper to demonstrate how one enters the scientific Discourse.
Science is a mixture of all the fundamental aspects Gee talks about when describing Discourse. A Discourse is a way of “being in the world… which comes with the appropriate custom and instructions… so as to take on a particular role that others will recognize”(6–7). However, to master and fully enter the Discourse one needs to have a set of what Gee describes as “saying(writing)-doing-being-valuing -believing combinations”(6). In his writing, Gee talks about apprenticeship, mushfake and filtering these ideas tie in with Hass’s research and results on Eliza (a student in college), Meadows’ scientific paper and the IMRaD Cheat Sheet.
In her research Haas develops concrete ideas on the change in study habits of a college student named Eliza and her way into the Discourse of science. While studying Eliza’s academic year, Haas realized that rhetorical frame and rhetorical reading are tools that can help one enter the Discourse. Meadows instead, analyzes the structure of a scientific paper and demonstrate the important factors that also help one into the scientific Discourse. These concepts strongly link to the IMRaD structure and its use for members and nonmembers of the Discourse.
Rhetorical reading in relationship to Gee’s idea of filtering help one ease their way into the scientific Discourse.
Haas suggests that rhetorical reading is “recognizing the rhetorical frame that surrounds the text”, this is a skill used and obtained by many without them even knowing (Haas, 49). To further understand rhetorical reading one needs to know that rhetorical frame, which is used by Haas in her study, is what “helps readers account for the motives underlying textual acts and their outcomes” which depicts how one sets relations and motives between scientific texts (Haas,48 ).
As Eliza’s years progress, her study and comprehension skills change due to her application of rhetorical reading, this shows how she was “filtering” information. As described by Gee “filtering is a process whereby aspects of the language, attitudes, values and other elements of certain types of secondary Discourses are filtered into primary Discourses”, this means that every time she obtained information she used it to relate other texts and research throughout the years (Gee, 15). For students such as Eliza, knowing the IMRaD structure can help one learn the importance of the scientific text and how they can use the information with their assignments, research papers and observations to advance their way into the Discourse of science. Introduction as described by the IMRad Cheat Sheet, is showing the “problem you researched and why the research is necessary” (IMRad, 1), this ties with Meadows idea that “ the structure of scientific papers helps make some of the factors involves explicit, and so ensures that they can be taken into account when planning new development”(Meadows, 27) meaning that when other research and studies are done the “importance” of the text will help other scientist and the scientific community. Filtering rhetorical reading and tying its use to the IMRaD structure help one enter the Discourse of science.
Hass’ research shows how Eliza uses what Gee calls meta-knowledge to help her write her research papers and how she develops better skills throughout the years.
As Haas says Eliza “identified as a ‘low investment’ strategy student” because she was waiting until last minute to write her paper and relied on minimum sources because they were easily accessed (Haas, 62). In this case Eliza was using what she thought as good studying habits, which led her to have decent grades for her paper but not understanding the material and the importance of the assignment. Eliza used what Gee identifies as “meta-knowledge which is liberation and power, because it leads to the ability to manipulate, to analyze, to resist while advancing” (Gee, 13). As years passed she started to relate scientific texts, depicting their importance and relation to other texts and their use in the Discourse.
The results of a research are significant because based on the IMRaD structure they answer the question “What did you find?” (IMRaD, 1). Meadows relates to this idea when talking about citation analysis saying that “it has developed to the stage where it is actually used as an aid in considering the allocation of funding to researchers or facilities” (Meadows, 29). This demonstrates that when Eliza was trying to find sources in her paper they would help the reader and other scientists find a link to other papers and researchers. Meat-knowledge used for research papers and the relation to the IMRaD structure set one into the scientific Discourse.
The internship manifest itself in the form of what Gee calls apprenticeship which helps facilitate one’s way into the scientific Discourse.
Hass says that Eliza was “beginning to understand how Discourse fits into the larger culture of scientific research, recognizing how her own writing will help her make a place for herself within that culture”(Haas, 67) . From her junior to senior year in her work study position, Eliza grew as a scientist and as a scholar. She acknowledged how her research can affect others and found her place into the Discourse. Shelly, Eliza’s instructor as Gee describes was “teaching” her how to do her job. Gee describes teaching as “apprentice someone in a master-apprentice relationship in a social practice wherein you scaffold their growing ability to say, do, value, believe and so forth, within that Discourse” and this idea makes Eliza the apprentice in her internship (Gee, 11). With the internship, Eliza might have not known that the use of IMRaD structure came in hand.
The discussion and methods part of the IMRaD structure and Meadows idea of retrieving information from texts correlate in such a way that it makes it easy to enter the Discourse of science. Discussion and methods in the IMRaD structure answers the questions “What does it mean?” and “What did you do?” (IMRaD, 1), when Meadows says that writing is “tied up with how scientists read a scientific paper…they are more inclined to browse-scanning particular parts of the paper to derive items of interest to them as rapidly as possible” (Meadows, 29–30). This shows the meaning of each scientific text and relates how, like Eliza, one can recognize how the writing and reading portion of science can help scientists relate their work and set one into the Discourse.
In conclusion, rhetorical reading and filtering, meta-knowledge and writing research papers, and internships and filtering are only a few ways that relate to the IMRaD format and facilitate one’s way into the Discourse of Science. Scientists use their previous knowledge, new studies, each other’s research and ideas to broaden the scientific community and science as a whole. The IMRaD structure can be considers as a scientific bible, a guide that many have and will follow to better science and themselves as scientists.
As long as there are unanswered questions science will always rise and try to find its way into other Discourses.
The scientific Discourse is hard to master and comprehend but with the help of the IMRaD structure, writers and researchers such as Gee, Hass, and Meadows it can be easily viewed and understood.
Work Cited:
Haas, Christina. “A Student’s Rhetorical Development in College.” Learning to Read Biology. Vol. 11, No. 1.Sage, 1994. 43+. Print.
Meadows, A. J. “The Scientific Paper as an Archeological Artifact.” (1985): 27–30. Print.
