Classifying Communibiology's Texts: Implications for Genre Theory

Abstract

One can categorize communibiological texts as interdisciplinary inspirational texts. However, one can classify these texts differently with equal plausibility by attending to aspects of the social psychology and economic conditions of current science that are rarely considered by most rhetoricians of science and attending to 2 significant rhetorical requirements of successful scientific texts-programmaticality and interestingness-that have gone unnoticed by rhetoricians of science to date. Given this equality of categorization plausibility, traditional genre theories are contradicted. More significantly, through the author's provision of a reflexive analysis, pragmatist genre theory is supported and extended. Thus, this article contributes to genre theory and the rhetoric of science.

11. Genetics and communication competence

“…A common misconception about genetically based models of human behavior is that specific behaviors are directly influenced by a specific gene (Nelson 2004). However, most attempts to model the influence of genes on human behavior propose that brain structures and processes, which are the product of multiple genesoften interacting in the statistical sense, mediate gene effects on behavior.…”

Motives and Communibiology's Texts: Whose Motives+

“…The motive analysis included in Nelson's (2004) textual critique of the writings regarding communibiology is examined and found erroneous. It is suggested that the claim that traditional genre theories are contradicted by this analysis is not justified.…”

“…In the recent article by C. K. Nelson entitled, "Classifying Communibiology's Texts: Implications for Genre Theory" (Nelson, 2004), the presumed primary interest of the author was to test genre theory based on a book and several articles relating to communibiology. As the author noted near the outset, this article was "about genre criticism and theory, not communibiology" (p. 142).…”

Fallacies in the Textual Analysis of the Communibiological Literature

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Fallacies in the Textual Analysis of the Communibiological LiteratureAs a result of Nelson's (2004) textual analysis of the communibiological literature, he concluded that the motive of the scholars contributing to the literature was the desire for status. In this essay, I expose the fallacious nature of Nelson's analysis and raise questions about the approach he employed.

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