Books

Permanent URI for this collection

https://mro.massey.ac.nz/handle/10179/7593
Documents may be deposited in the Massey University Institutional Repository only by a recognised author or co-author. Where the author(s) are not owners of the copyright all permissions, conditions and restrictions imposed by the copyright owner must be ascertained and observed. Submission of a document to the Repository recognises Massey University’s non-exclusive right to distribute it worldwide in electronic format

Browse

Browsing Books by Subject "expertise"

Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    The forgotten tribe: Scientists as writers
    (The WAC Clearinghouse and the University Press of Colorado, 1/03/2017) Emerson LE
    In The Forgotten Tribe: Scientists as Writers, Lisa Emerson offers an important corrective to the view that scientists are "poor writers, unnecessarily opaque, not interested in writing, and in need of remediation." She argues that scientists are among "the most sophisticated and flexible writers in the academy, often writing for a wider range of audiences (their immediate disciplinary peers, peers in adjacent fields, a broad scientific audience, industry, and a range of public audiences including social media) than most other faculty." Moreover, she notes, the often collaborative and multidisciplinary nature of their work results in writing practices that "may be more socially complex, and require more articulation, mediation, and interpersonal communication, and more use of advanced media and technology than those of faculty in other disciplines." Drawing on extensive interviews with scientists, Emerson argues that writing scholars have "engaged in a form of cultural appropriation" that has worked against a deeper understanding of the contexts in which scientists work and the considerations they bring to their writing. Emerson grounds her analysis in the voices of scientists in a way that allows us to understand not only how they approach writing but also how we might usefully teach writing in the sciences. The Forgotten Tribe offers a valuable contribution to our understanding of scientific writing, allowing us to hear voices that are seldom included in our discussions of this critical area.