Plain Style In Scientific Writing

1
Plain Style In Scientific Writing

• Still an Ideal After
• All these years?

2
What is Plain Style?

• Stylistic ideal in scientific and technical
  Writing

3
Purpose of Plain Style

• To facilitate understanding
• To eliminate obstacles between observation and
  understanding

4
Historical Basis

• 17th Century Scientific Revolution
• Pre-Revolutionary scientists acquired knowledge
  through books.
• Grounded in classical studies
• Knowledge of Latin and Greek
• Knowledge and information communicated
  throughlong and involved sentences
• Flowery prose
• Extensive use of rhetorical devices
• Words more important than truth.

5
Historical Basis

• 17th Century Scientific Revolution
• Post-revolutionary scientists acquired knowledge
  through observation.
• Grounded in personal, observed reality
• Knowledge and information communicated
  throughunequivocal mathematical symbols
• Plain language without rhetorical devices
• Truth more important than words.

6
Historical Basis

• Pre-revolutionary knowledge was for the educated
  elite and not the masses.
• Post-revolutionary knowledge was for the masses,
  not just the elite.

7
Factors Affecting Plain Style Usage

• Democratization of knowledge and the use of plain
  style was continued and supported by political,
  economic, industrial and scientific advances of
  18th, 19th and 20th centuries.
• Academic philosophies, practices and conflicts
  supported use of plain style by ignoring need for
  written communications skills for technical and
  scientific fields.

8
Factors Affecting Plain Style Usage

• Global conflicts fought with more complex weapons
  and machines and the mobilization of society to
  produce and support technological weapons
  required the ability to quickly communicate the
  maximum amount of information in the minimum
  amount of time to an audience with a wide variety
  of experience and ability.
• Achievements of wartime technology resulted in a
  post-war acceptance of technology and the
  benevolence of industrial and technological
  providers.

9
Factors Affecting Plain Style Usage

• Social revolution of the 60s and 70s questioned
  the benefits of technology and the motivation of
  technology providers and required different types
  of communication.
• Different purposes for discourse
• Different audiences with different world views
• Different basis for negotiating knowledge
• Different goals

10
New Communication Style

• Requires more advanced and relevant communication
  styles
• More than just the bare statement of facts
• Leading to a basis for agreement
• Informative
• Persuasive

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What is Rhetoric?

• a) Latin Greek
• b) Something a professor of 18th century
  English literature loves
• c) Old, really, really old
• d) Isn't available in plain style
• e) an integral part of a classical education
• f) all of the above

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Rhetoric is

• A tool to facilitate verbal and written
  communication
• A tool to improve the effectiveness and clarity
  of communication

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Rhetoric has 5 major divisions

• Invention-
• what needs to be said
• Arrangement-
• the organization of the material
• Style-
• appropriate language
• Memory-
• pertains to verbal communications
• Delivery-
• how the communication is imparted to the audience

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Rhetoric

• Concentrates on audience
• Directs discourse
• To a specific audience,
• At a specific time
• For a specific reason

15
What are rhetorical devices?

• Methods to assist writers in communicating
  information and positions
• Rhetorical devices are used to
• Improve the effectiveness and clarity of writing
• Provide a template for discourse and analysis

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Examples!

• Alliteration
• Repetition of the same sound at the beginning of
  two or more stressed syllables.
• Anaphora
• Repetition of the same word or group of words at
  the beginning of successive clauses, sentences,
  or lines.
• Brachylogia
• The absence of conjunctions between single
  words.
• Chiasmus
• Repetition of ideas or grammatical structures in
  inverted order
• Dialysis
• To spell out alternatives, or to present
  either-or arguments that lead to a conclusion.
• Diazeugma
• The figure by which a single subject governs
  several verbs or verbal constructions (usually
  arranged in parallel fashion and expressing a
  similar idea) the opposite of zeugma.
• Silva Rhetorica (http//humanities.byu.edu.rheto
  ric/silva.htm)
• .

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More Examples!

• Ellipsis
• Omission of a word or short phrase easily
  understood in context.
• Hyperbole
• Rhetorical exaggeration often accomplished via
  comparisons, similes and metaphors.
• Interrogatio
• Interrogatio is described as employing a
  question as a way of confirming or reinforcing
  the argument
• Metaphor
• A comparison made by referring to one thing as
  another.
• Oxymoron
• Placing two ordinarily opposing terms adjacent
  to one another. A compressed paradox.
• Parallelism
• Similarity of structure in a pair or series of
  related words, phrases, or clauses.
• Simile
• An explicit comparison, usually employing "like"
  or "as."
• Silva Rhetorica (http//humanities.byu.edu.rheto
  ric/silva.htm)

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Questions for Discussion

• In your opinion, is plain style still an ideal
  for today's technical communications?
• Do technical communicators possess enough
  stylistic tools to effectively communicate?
• Should avoidance of errors in writing be
  preferred to aggressive use of stylistic devices?
• When and how should the use of rhetorical devices
  be taught in the Technical Communications
  curriculum?

19
Questions for Discussion

• When, how and why should a writer inject their
  personality into written communication?
• In your personal and professional writing, do you
  use rhetorical devices?
• Do you define them as rhetorical devices?

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On-Line Resources

• Silva Rhetorica (http//humanities.byu.edu.rheto
  ric/silva.htm)
• A Handbook of Rhetorical Devices
  (http//www.uky.edu/ArtsSciences/Classics/
  harris/rhetform.htm)