Does Rhetoric of Science Matter? The Case of the Floppy-Eared Rabbits
Alan G. Gross · College English · 1991
We owe to Bishop Sprat, first historian of modern science, notorious dictum that language of science must return back to primitive purity and shortness, when men delivered so many things in an equal number of words (II, xx). It is this view that Swift so effectively ridicules in third book of Gulliver's Travels. To some, nevertheless, Sprat is still last word: rhetoric of science cannot matter because it does not exist. According to Ruth Mitchell, the rigidity of order [of experimental reports] suppresses any possible distraction an artful presentation might entail. Rhetoric is not welcome here (549). To David Dobrin, stylistic choices, such as preference for passive voice, do exist, but those who prefer these choices are misguided as to their purpose: So why do people insist on use of convention? Perhaps because they think [mistakenly] that it makes writing efficient (Technical Writing 248). The literature of composition theory contains another view, one more supportive of rhetoric of science. This outlook suggests that experimental report is a genre like novel or epic, one whose organization is as rhetorical as arrangement of classical oration. According to this view, style and organization in science are matters no more trivial than style and organization in Hemingway or James. To Carolyn Miller, science is a form of argument that asks for assent. As a result, technical writing becomes, rather than revelation of absolute reality, a persuasive version of experience (616). To Elizabeth Harris, literary theory has also exposed 'fictionalities' of ... scientific referents, degree to which they are created by ... scientific ways of understanding (634). To explore these latter possibilities is to see science from point of view of humanities, to apply to science methodology of humanities. From this vantage, science is deeply rhetorical: stylistic choices conspire in creation of world as meant by science; organizational choices imitate approved means of achieving access to that world.