Science Communication: Textbooks

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"Writing in the Sciences: Exploring Conventions of Scientific Discourse is an advanced science writing textbook grounded in the rhetoric of science, the sociology and history of science, and linguistics. The book treats the major genres of writing in science and research: scientific research reports, grant proposals, conference papers and other professional presentations, and public communication, as well as the social, rhetorical, and ethical bases of these as scientific arguments. Focusing not only on the distinctive features of these genres but also on how and why such texts are created by scientists, the book thus highlights the multiple genres of science writing as distinguished from technical writing and other professional writing domains."

Published under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License.

"Uncloistered by the web, science is finding its way into previously unimagined audiences. Whether collecting data in one's backyard to help wildlife experts manage wolf populations or even funding research out of one's own pocket, nonexperts can engage science at an unprecedented scale. As science communication has moved online, a range of important new genres have emerged that put professionals and the public into conversation with each other. In Science Communication Online: Engaging Experts and Publics on the Internet, Ashley Rose Mehlenbacher takes up these "trans-scientific" genres to explore how scientists are adapting their communications, how publics are increasingly involved in science, and how boundaries between experts and nonexperts continue to shift.

Bringing together genre studies and the rhetoric of science, Mehlenbacher examines a range of new forms of science communication that challenge traditional presumptions about experts and nonexperts--including Twitter and Reddit AMAs, crowdfunding proposals such as Kickstarter and Experiment.com, civic-minded databases such as Safecast, and the PLOS blogging network."

"The greatest conundrum concerning anthropogenic climate change may prove to be in the humanities and the social sciences. How is it even possible that highly exigent information for which overwhelming evidence exists does not make an immediate and strong impact on ideologies, policies, and life practices across the globe? This volume offers an intriguing and enlightening new approach to the the climate debate by taking it as a question of genre."

"In Shaping Written Knowledge, Charles Bazerman traces the history and character of the experimental article in science, calling attention to the social and rhetorical forces that shaped its development. Truly a landmark in writing studies, this book provides a broadly interdisciplinary exploration of an important genre and offers insights that extend far beyond its immediate focus of study."

"Writing Science in the Twenty-First Century offers guidance to help writers succeed in a broad range of writing tasks and purposes in science and other STEM fields. Concise and current, the book takes most of its examples and lessons from scientific fields, such as the life sciences, chemistry, physics, and geology, but some examples are taken from mathematics and engineering."

"Science communication is a popular topic and there is no shortage of books on how to do it effectively. But this book has a unique hook, specifically not only how to make science findings understandable, palatable, and meaningful to a skeptical public but how to communicate emotional topics that directly affect the lives of individuals, such as natural disasters, climate-related issues, and disease outbreaks. Although most scientists have no problem presenting data and results, they are increasingly unprepared to tackle scientific issues that have become deeply polarized. The premise of this book is that it is no longer enough to focus on telling a good story and communicating a topic clearly; it requires relationship skills as well-"emotional intelligence" that allows scientists to navigate their own and other people's thoughts, feelings, and opinions. The book includes a deep dive into topic of social justice and how that affects scientists who are women, people of color, or alternative genders"

"For more than a decade, The Chicago Guide to Communicating Science has been the go-to reference for anyone who needs to write or speak about their research. Whether a student writing a thesis, a faculty member composing a grant proposal, or a public information officer crafting a press release, Scott Montgomery’s advice is perfectly adaptable to any scientific writer’s needs."

"This book examines the expanding world of genres on the Internet to understand issues of science communication today. The book explores how some traditional print genres have become digital, how some genres have evolved into new digital hybrids, and how and why new genres have emerged and are emerging in response to new rhetorical exigences and communicative demands. Because social actions are in constant change and, ensuing from this, genres evolve faster than ever, it is important to gain insight into the interrelations between old genres and new genres and the processes underpinning the construction of new genre sets, chains and assemblages for communicating scientific research to both expert and diversified audiences. In examining scientific genres on the Internet this book seeks to illustrate the increasing diversification of genre ecologies and their underlying social, disciplinary and individual agendas."

"This book presents an overview of the wide variety of digital genres used by researchers to produce and communicate knowledge, perform new identities and evaluate research outputs. It explores the role of digital genres in the repertoires of genres used by local communities of researchers to communicate both locally and globally, both with experts and the interested public, and sheds light on the purposes for which researchers engage in digital communication and on the semiotic resources they deploy to achieve these purposes. The authors discuss the affordances of digital genres but also the challenges that they pose to researchers who engage in digital communication. The book explores what researchers can do with these genres, what meanings they can make, who they interact with, what identities they can construct and what new relations they establish, and, finally, what language(s) they deploy in carrying out all these practices."

"In recent years the concept of 'register' has been increasingly replaced by emphasis on the analysis of genre, which relates work in sociolinguistics, text linguistics and discourse analysis to the study of specialist areas of language. This book is a clear, authoritative guide to this complex area. He provides a survey of approaches to varieties of language, and considers these in relation to communication and task-based language learning. Swales outlines an approach to the analysis of genre, and then proceeds to consider examples of different genres and how they can be made accessible through genre analysis. This is important reading for all those working in teaching English for academic purposes and also of interest to those working in post-secondary writing and composition due to relevant issues in writing across the curriculum."

"This book provides a rich and accessible account of genre studies by a world-renowned applied linguist. The hardback edition discusses today's research world, its various configurations of genres, and the role of English within the genres. Theoretical and methodological issues are explored, with a special emphasis on various metaphors of genre. The book is full of carefully worded detail and each chapter ends with suggestions for pedagogical practice. The volume closes with evaluations of contrastive rhetoric, applied corpus linguistics, and critical approaches to EAP. Research Genres provides a rich and scholarly account of this key area."

"Writing and the sciences are intricately linked. Without writing, science would not exist -- and could not be funded, communicated, replicated, enhanced, or applied. Further, writing helps scientists (and students) understand the science, explain the results of research in a greater context, and develop new ideas. Working from this philosophy, this book primarily addresses undergraduate STEM majors and minors who want or need to improve their scientific writing skills."