SP 26 ENGL 199A

Writing in the Natural Science

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Instructor: Anqi Zu

Date: 4/16/2026

Agendas

• [Throughout the class, the “Thank You” card for Sally will pass along. Please write a short “Thank You” note to Sally!]
• If you want to share a photo for icebreaker, add it to the following slides during free writing time! The one with artifacts – no worries!
• Free writing: Cloud, and Howitt & Wilson
• Icebreaker: 20 sec super fast intro to your science student identity.
• Debate: “Inquiry is a matter of continually reweaving a web of beliefs.” (Richard Rorty)
• Mini-Lecture: Rhetorics & Genres
• Preview Next Week + Housekeeping
• Group forming and group working
• Exit Ticket

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Free Writing

• What do you think are characteristics of science communication? How do the readings impact your understanding?
• Use your own words to define “rhetorics”. What does that mean? [You do NOT have to have a perfect answer.]

After reading Cloud and Howitt & Wilson

Icebreaker

• With artifacts/pictures/short video, do a quick 20 second introduction of yourself as a “science student”.

Anqi

Noah

Anqi

Holly

Morgan

Sophie

Haiden

Lilianna

Nico

Jasmine

Mateo

Eliana

David

Aster

Debate

• Cloud, drawing on Rorty, suggests that knowledge is a “web of beliefs.” (p.26)
• Based on this idea, when writing a scientific paper, should researchers:
• aim for complete objectivity, or
• recognize and be vocal on how their beliefs influence their research?
• Think from the perspective of science students, future researchers, and from the aspect of how general academia and political environment.
• What are the goals of scientific writing?
• Is the goal to present neutral facts?
• Or to explain, persuade, and make knowledge meaningful to others?
• Who are the audiences of scientific writing?
• Other scientists? Policymakers? The general public?
• Why does objectivity matter in scientific writing?
• 4. What makes full objectivity difficult or unrealistic?

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Mini-Lecture: Scientific Writing Norms

• Why should I read these papers as undergrads?
• “It is possible to go through a science degree reading nothing else than the sanitized view of science.” – and I do not want that to happen to my students.
• Howitt & Wilson explained some reasons in the paper, but for me, I hope during the journey you get prepared as a future scientist, or science expert, you become critical readers and writers.
• I hope this can inspire you in your literature review process. Wear your critical lens, and think: “What are something the scientists should have shared, but they did not?”
• Couple main takeaways from Anqi for Howitt & Wilson:
• Rethink what aspect of science is worthwhile to be published.
• The meanings of sharing failed procedure.
• The meaning of community and group working acknowledgement in science.
• The humane aspect of science should be acknowledged.

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Mini-Lecture: Cloud - Philosophy and Political aspect of Scientific Writing

• Scientific “facts” are socially constructed
• What we call “facts” are shaped by history, culture, and power.
• Science is not fully neutral—it is connected to social interests.
• Knowledge is always mediated: Scientific knowledge is always interpreted, not just discovered.
• Mediation = we understand the world through language, symbols, and framing.
• We never access reality directly.
• Instead, meaning is shaped by: word choices; explanations; cultural context; power relations
• Rhetoric of science can be used for critique and resistance
• By analyzing how science is communicated, we can: challenge unfair systems and question dominant knowledge
• This opens space for new perspectives and change

Rhetoric

Nietzsche

（German Philosopher)

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“We call an author, a book,

or a style ‘rhetorical’ when

we observe a conscious

application of artistic means

of speaking”

“There is obviously no

unrhetorical ‘naturalness’ of

language to which one

could appeal; language

itself is the result of purely

rhetorical arts.”

Richard McKeon

（American Philosopher)

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Rhetoric is “a universal and

architectonic art” it is

“present everywhere we

turn”

James A. Herrick

(Professor of Communication and former communication chair at Hope College)

“rhetoric is, among other

things, the study of how we

organize and employ

language effectively”

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“The systematic study and

intentional practice of

effective symbolic

expression.”

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Anqi Zu

(Your Instructor???)

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If you see persuasion (sort of) rooted in most of the rhetorics, you will have some eye opening reading experiences!

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Rhetoric - In this Course

• For the purposes of our course, we will think of rhetoric as part of all communication; it is the selections and deflections authors make about what to include, what not to include, and how to present what they include. This ultimately influences how knowledge is received and perceived and then communicated elsewhere.
• In other words, rhetoric exists in any process of making decisions (conscious or subconscious) about how to present information, particularly when we are trying to achieve a particular goal.

What are some examples of where rhetoric appears in your everyday life?

Rhetoric - In this Course

• The rhetorical situation influences those decisions we make about what information to present and how.
• It includes
• An exigence, a need or demand
• A purpose, a goal or motivation
• A writer and all of that writer’s “baggage”
• An audience, who is the information for?
• A topic or message (e.g., argument)
• A broader social, political, spatio-temporal context
• And it is all presented in a text determined appropriate by this situation.

Genres (Very Brief)

• Brent Henze notes that genres are “nameable categories of the texts commonly encountered.”
• Here, a ”text” can be written, verbal, or aural and can be identified by their form, content, and linguistic characteristics.
• A genre might be an email, letter, billboard, television show, movie, song, academic paper, application letter, text, caption, brochure, etc.
• There could be multiple genre across the same piece of message.
• There is structural power elements in genres

Genres can determine how and in what form knowledge is communicated.

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Next Week Preview

• Scientific writing annotation due Sunday midnight.
• Anqi’s conference availability available by end of today. Please schedule ASAP. For conference, bring: basic draft (in bullet points or just part of) your Critical Analysis of Scientific Writing.
• Critical analysis of scientific writing information and samples available on Canvas by end of today. More information and Q&A on Tuesday 4/21.
• After today, I will form your group on Canvas. You will start submitting SOME assignments as a group.
• By Tuesday 4/21 3:30, submit your AI generated literature review, based on your preliminary topic.
• By Thursday 4/23 3:30, have a relatively completed draft of critical analysis paper, have your letter to reviewer ready

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Group Work:

STEP1: Go to Grouping Information add your info, or find people of similar interests. Come to Anqi for help.

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STEP2: Once you find your group, go to the Team Information and Group Agreement, put down your names on the first page. Go to your group agreement page and briefly fill out the agreement.

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STEP3: Make some preliminary topic proposal. Can be very incomplete. You can change it until the end of next week.

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STEP4: Plan for a brief meeting before next class for AI generated essay. (30 mins should be enough)

Exit Ticket

You can leave right after finishing the exit ticket!

• Write your name
• Write if you are the “Find Someone Who” Hero
• We will have Librarian Sally Pine visit our class to discuss ways to find sources for your literature review. Think of 1 (or more) questions you would like to ask her. It could be about:
• How to find sources with UW library page?
• What could librarians help students with?
• Whom would be the best librarian to reach out to if I major in …
• Genre comparison related questions.
• Anyone from library could help me with my writing?
• OR MORE!