A Community of Science
Social and natural sciences are an intricate Discourse because the community has a particular set of building tasks that can be applied to outline the ways of that community. A capital ‘D’ Discourse, as defined by James Gee in his journal entry “Literacy, Discourse, and Linguistics: Introduction”, is a community, or group, with the same
“ways of being in the world; they are forms of life which integrate words, acts, values, attitudes, and social identities as well as gestures, glances, body position, and clothes”(7).
Building Tasks
The aspects of a Discourse can be broken down into seven building tasks as introduced by Darcy A. Fiano in a research paper titled “Primary Discourse and Expressive Oral Language in a Kindergarten Student.” These seven building tasks include the following; significance, practices, identities, relationships, politics (values), connections, and sign systems and knowledge.
IMRaD
The IMRaD (Introduction, Methods, Results, and Discussion) structure of scientific writing is an essential piece of the Discourse of social and natural sciences because this is the structure in which all scientific writing is done. Defining the social and natural sciences community as a Discourse can be done by looking at the information within the IMRaD format, outlined in the IMRaD cheat sheet, and looking at the development of the format throughout the rapid growth in size and competition of the community.
Who did it first?
All members of the Discourse of social and natural sciences must know how to apply the IMRaD format when presenting experimental findings. The IMRaD structure outlines the problem that was investigated, the ways in which they went about solving that problem, what exactly happened in the experiment, and how those findings connect to the problem and other research within that same field. This creates a rhetorical frame within the research. This format is also used to establish who receives credit, or who has “priority claim,” for the finding (Meadows 28). This is a very important aspect of the format because in many situations with the rapidly expanding scientific community, multiple scientists are performing similar research at similar times.
Adapting to Growth
The dates on the reports help give credit to the right people based on who performed the research and documented their findings first. This piece of scientific writing is one that changed several times throughout the development of the IMRaD format. Priority was established several different ways throughout the development of the format, however, they all had “possibilities of abuse,” stating that there were still ways for scientists to get around the regulations to gain an advantage (Meadows 28).
Putting the Format into Action
An example of the application of the IMRaD format is in a write up by Christina Haas titled “Learning to Read Biology: One Student’s Rhetorical Development in College.” In this report, Haas follows the learning process of a college student named Eliza, starting with her freshman year and going through her senior year.
Which one are you?
Identities are a very important aspect of the social and natural sciences Discourse because one’s understanding of a scientific write-up depends on whether they are an insider or outsider. These two identities are defined by A.J. Meadows in an article titled “The Scientific Paper as an Archaeological Artifact.”
“To an outsider, the contents of these [scientific] papers appear to be mystic and wonderful; to an insider, they convey rapidly and efficiently information about the research being done” (Meadows 27).
This means that unless one obtains the proper knowledge on the topic within the scientific paper, they will be an outsider because the information will be “mystic” to them instead of meaningful and useful as it would be to an insider. This idea of proper knowledge for insiders can be related to the idea of metaunderstanding as talked about by Haas. Haas says that metaunderstanding is needed “in order to understand, use and judge scientific content” (45). This metaunderstanding also means the insiders know what sections to focus on in certain instances. This metaunderstanding is what causes the methods section to be the least read section within the IMRaD format. It is unnecessary information in more instances.
Becoming an Insider
An example of developing from an outsider to an insider is illustrated in Haas’ analysis of Eliza’s rhetorical development as a reader of scientific writing. Eliza transformed from a low investment reader to a high investment reader as “she now spent a great deal of time and effort going over figures and tables in texts she read” (Haas 65–66). Eliza now knew what was important and what she needed to spend the most time on. A huge help in this development was her apprenticeship her junior year. She got a work study where she worked in the lab side by side with a graduate student named Shelly.
“It [the lab job] gives me a lot of individual attention because I work side by side with Shelly, who’s a graduate student in the lab, and like she’s — well they gave me a project and when I need help or have a problem, she guides me through it. Like an apprenticeship, I guess…”
This shows how important and helpful an apprenticeship can be to getting into a Discourse, even one as complex as the Discourse of social and natural sciences. Having someone within the Discourse there to help and guide Eliza throughout her journey made the leap from an outsider to an insider mush easier than it may be for someone without that help and guidance.
How did you do it?
The social and natural sciences Discourse’s set of practices are outlined by part of the IMRaD cheat sheet. The IMRaD cheat sheet is a document that outlines each of the sections of the format and describes what each should include. The practices, which consist of what is “going on,” are outlined in the methods section (Fiano 82–83). The methods section is where scientists document what they did throughout the experimental process. This is important to the scientific community because that is the way scientists are able to reproduce an experiment or to see the process in which another scientist went through to execute the experiment and gather the resulting data.
Rhetorical Frame
Eliza’s practices developed throughout her four years of college. In Eliza’s freshman year, she “focused almost exclusively on preparing for tests in her biology, chemistry, and math courses” (Haas 59). Her goals were just to “learn it, to understand it, or even to memorize it” [information, facts](Haas 60). As she read, she was only truly interested in the facts within the texts. She was unable to identify with or relate texts to anything else; texts were autonomous. By Eliza’s sophomore year she was continuing to view texts as autonomous although she did illustrate “an increased attention to the procedures of knowing” (Haas 61). Eliza’s reading activities throughout sophomore year included “reading, taking notes, writing down some relevant facts, and pulling out information”(Haas 62). She had a “low investment” strategy for reading because she was still only interested in the facts and not relating texts or identifying with the authors. In Eliza’s junior year, she finally began identifying with authors and relating texts. A big help in doing so was her new work study job. In Eliza’s work study she was able to truly see the application of the IMRaD process and the purpose of the IMRaD format in presenting scientific findings. With help from a fellow student named Shelly, she began to exhibit “a range of reading strategies-skimming, reading selectively, moving back and forth through texts, reading for different purposes at different times” (Haas 64). Eliza began “reading some texts not solely to glean information but to learn about about conventions and structures” (Haas 64). Eliza’s senior year came with an “increased sensitivity to context” as her “reading processes and practices continued to grow in complexity” (Haas 65).
Relate and Connect
These scientific papers also form relationships and connections within the Discourse of social and natural sciences between scientists and their works as well as between past, present, and future research done in a particular field. These relationships and connections are closely related within the Discourse of social and natural sciences. Relationships are made through the discussion and references sections in the IMRaD format. The relationships are formed when other scientists’ work is brought into the discussion section and the credit is given to them by citations in the reference section at the end of the write up. These connections are formed in the introduction and discussion sections of the IMRaD format. Part of the introduction is to “discuss the current state of research in your field, expose a ‘gap’ or problem in the field” and that exposed problem represents what the current research will try to solve (IMRaD). As outlined by the discussion section of the IMRaD cheat sheet, “they connect these finding [experimental findings] to other [related] research. They discuss flaws in the current study. They use these flaws as reasons to suggest additional, future research” (IMRaD). The author (scientist) of the current research connects his/her research and findings to that of past related research. Eliza’s overall development throughout college was her ability to not just read texts as autonomous, but to make these connections between different pieces of scientific writing.
The Discourse of social and natural sciences has an intricate makeup that includes a particular set of practices, identities, relationships, values, connections, and sign systems and knowledge. All of these aspects are connected through the IMRaD format, the universal format for scientific write ups. The IMRaD format brings scientists and theirs works together and pushes members of the community to be honest about their work and further their research. Although it is a very competitive Discourse, the main goal is to further research and progress through all given fields of research. This IMRaD format for scientific paper is put into effect by Christina Haas in a write up titled “Learning to Read Biology: One Student’s Rhetorical Development in College.” Haas’ write up is not only organized in the IMRaD format, but it also outlines one’s growth throughout the process of becoming a member of the social and natural sciences Discourse. It indirectly brings in ideas defined by James Gee in his journal entry “Literacy, Discourse, and Linguistics: Introduction” that help one enter this large, complex community. Although the IMRaD format has been through and may continue to go through more changes in the future, it has and will continue to be one of the most important aspects of this Discourse that helps organize the social and natural sciences community.
