Science as a Discourse
Introduction
Scientists transfer information between other scientists by reading each other’s work. Scientists record information with a specific format that is necessary to communicate their results to colleagues in the Discourse of science . In “Literacy, Discourse, and Linguistics: Introduction”, James Paul Gee describes a Discourse as , “ways of being in the world; they are forms of life which integrate words, acts, values, beliefs, attitudes, and social identities as well as gestures, glances, body positions, and clothes” (Gee 7).
Members of the Discourse read scientific papers specifically formatted in the IMRaD (Introduction, Method, Results, and Discussion) structure, rhetorically. Reading rhetorically allows scientists to make connections and relationships with other experiments to further research that would benefit the community. It is essential for scientists to find flaws in other scientist’s work in order to make advancements in the Discourse of science.
Christina Haas, “Learning to read Biology” and A.J. Meadows, “The scientific paper as an archaeological artefact” demonstrate how scientists use the IMRaD structure in the field. It is the only accepted means of documentation for scientists to present their work to others. The use of IMRaD in the science community is highly valued in order to be able to communicate with other scientists and for your work to be taken seriously.
The use of IMRaD
IMRaD allows scientists to easily access information they need in someone else’s work by skimming through the titled sections. Scientists are able to skim effectively because of their skill in rhetorical reading. Members of the Discourse can quickly read through sections of a scientific article and make connections to other areas of science.
Rhetorical reading consists of, “recognizing the rhetorical frame that surrounds a text, or constructing one in spite of conventions which attempt to obscure it- is often crucial for understanding argument and other sophisticated forms of discourse” (Haas 49).
Scientists must look for motives behind experiments and for the relationships found between specific experiments. This is a key factor of being a true member of the Discourse. The IMRaD format is efficient and to the point, making it easy to find information throughout the paper.
Scientists scan through “particular parts of the paper to derive items of interest to them as rapidly as possible” (Meadows 30).
Results
Although scientists usually skim over some sections, the results section is usually the area of focus for most. A scientist would look closely at every detail if they wanted to recreate an experiment which challenged someone’s work or if they wanted to do further research on the topic. Rhetorical reading is a skill that scientists must have in order to be successful in the Discourse and to be a true member.
How do you enter the Discourse of Science?
The stages of recognizing a rhetorical frame serve as the apprenticeship into the Discourse of science and is the basis of being able to read rhetorically.
Gee states, “Discourses are not mastered by overt instruction, but by enculturation into social practices through scaffolded and supported interaction with people who have already mastered the Discourse” (Gee 7).
Enculturation into a Discourse takes practice and this practice comes from the apprenticeship. Scientists interact with their colleagues to make more connections with their work along with others.
Haas provides evidence of one person’s enculturation into a Discourse, “She (Eliza) was also 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).
The rhetorical frame creates the understanding that the text goes deeper than it appears. Scientists especially need to pay attention to the motives behind specific experiments and make connections about how the results will benefit the real world. Establishing this rhetorical frame serves as the apprenticeship in the Discourse of science. Once one is able to rhetorically read the IMRaD structured paper after many days of practice, they become enculturated into the Discourse.
Scientist have motives for performing experiments and reasons for reading lab reports.
Haas states, “elements of the rhetorical frame include participants, their relationships , and motives, and several layers of context” (Haas 48).
In the scientific Discourse scientists read lab reports with the intentions to draw upon other people’s research in order to support their findings or to get ideas that would entail further research to be done. Haas observed a college student to provide evidence of the process of enculturation into the Discourse of science.
Scientific papers were not always structured in the IMRaD format. Connections were always being made about the results of a science experiment, but the way information was presented made reading rhetorically a little more difficult.
The information was not laid out in a specific structure which made scientists have to dig even deeper to find the motives and make connections. eventually the modern day technique was developed, “the abstract at the beginning, the detailed references at the end, the reprint reference at the head of the paper, and so on” (Meadows 28).
The setup of the scientific paper currently, makes the apprenticeship into the Discourse easier than before. With the specific sections labeled, one is easily able to find the results of an experiment without spending a lot of time creating more opportunities for further research to be done. Not one experiment stands alone and they usually are based off previous experiments with the intentions of learning more about the topic.
The science Discourse has specific identities, those of scientists, in which they share a common value of using the IMRaD format. Members of the science community share an understanding that information can only be communicated between others through the use of IMRaD. Haas set up her experiment in the format of IMRaD. This makes it easier for readers to find the information and makes it quicker for scientists who only focus on the one area.
Scientists, “are more inclined to browse- scanning particular parts of the paper to derive items of interest to them as rapidly as possible” (Meadows 30).
Without the use of IMRaD scientists would have to read the entire report in order to pick and hunt for information that was useful to them. Science is a game of time. Scientists propose experiments with proper research and support are able to publish their findings to help the communities. The faster they can collect data the faster they can be credited for their work. The IMRaD structure has proven to be the most efficient means of documentation for scientists to quickly gather all of the information together.
Science also revolves around further experimentation. For example, after someone reads Haas’s work they may feel intrigued to further her research by doing a similar experiment in order to provide people with more knowledge. Scientists can quickly go through Haas’s write up to determine her methods and chose variables they would like to alter that would provide a deeper understanding of the topic. This goes for all scientific papers. This is when the format of IMRaD come into play. A scientists trying to recreate an experiment will need to examine the methods used to come to the particular conclusion.
If a scientist was trying to do the same experiment to see if the information was accurate they would spend time reviewing the results to see if they could recreate the same conclusions. In Haas’s observations of Eliza, she came to the conclusion that by Eliza’s senior year she read rhetorically.
Haas believes that as time moves forward, “processes and practices continue to grow in complexity” (Haas 65).
Conclusion
This proves to be true when looking at the IMRaD paper structure as well. As scientists spend more time using the format they create a higher understanding of the information being portrayed. Scientists will also grow in their abilities to read rhetorically, coming to more complex connections than an apprentice would. The identity scientists play allow them to converse and feed off each other’s results. This is part of the scientific Discourse, being able to communicate your results to others after along with being able to duplicate experiments. The use of IMRaD makes this process more efficient and effective.
IMRaD has repeatedly proven how highly valued it is in the Discourse of science. Scientists in the Discourse use IMRaD along with apprentices trying to earn their spot as a member. Text must be viewed as rhetorical in order to establish motives, relationships, and connections. Without understanding the motives to specific experiments the whole concept of the results may be lost.
There are always reasons why scientists research specific topics and it is essential for members of the Discourse to realize what those reasons are. This ultimately provides results that would benefit society as a whole. The identity of a scientist is to collaborate with other scientists and experiments to try and find a problem they want to try to solve. In the scientific Discourse the rhetorical frame is essential to go beyond the written words of the text and be able to transfer what they read into the world of science. There is nothing to memorize about scientific texts rather than what the concepts behind those words put together create.
