Value Arguments in Science Research Articles

Carter, Michael

doi:10.1177/0741088316653394

Cited by 7 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 28 publications

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“…In a previous study of 60 science research articles from three different scientific journals (chemistry, neurobiology, and animal ecology), I (Carter, 2016) observed that value arguments are perhaps more common than what Fahnestock and Secor had found. For the present study, I offer a novel approach to stasis theory by analyzing particular arguments of value in those introductions and then quantifying the arguments according to type and to topical category, or topos.…”

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confidence: 88%

“…These two value arguments have claims, reasons, and warrants. But for one exception (Carter, 2016), I am aware of no subsequent scholarship after Fahnestock and Secor (1988) that has used stasis theory to examine such value arguments in science research articles. 2 It would seem, though, that the pressure to publish mentioned above would provide a compelling reason for scientists to argue for the importance of their research.…”

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confidence: 99%

“…Here, I analyze the same corpus of research introductions used in my previous study (Carter, 2016), but in this instance I carry out a quantitative rhetorical analysis 3 of how authors of scientific research rhetorically construct the value of their research. This analysis offers a detailed, numerical report of arguments of value, the goal of which is a richer understanding of the stasis of value and, more broadly, writing and argumentation in the sciences.…”

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confidence: 99%

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The Construction of Value in Science Research Articles: A Quantitative Study of Topoi Used in Introductions

Carter

2021

Written Communication

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Scholars in the field of writing and rhetorical studies have long been interested in professional writing and the ways in which experts frame their research for disciplinary audiences. Three decades ago, rhetoricians incorporated stasis theory into their work as a way to explore the nature of argument and persuasion in scientific discourse. However, what is missing in these general arguments based on stasis are the particular arguments in science texts aimed at persuasion. Specifically, this article analyzes arguments from the stasis of value in introductions of science research articles. This work is grounded in the Classical topoi, or topics, cataloging types of arguments and identifying seven topoi. I analyzed 60 introductions from articles in three different science journals, totaling the number of value arguments and arguments comprising the topoi. Findings yielded different proportions in types of arguments, sharp disparities among the journals, and widespread use of value arguments. The broader issue at work in this article is how scientists make a case for the importance of their research and how these findings might inform writing and argumentation in the sciences.

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The Construction of Value in Science Research Articles: A Quantitative Study of Topoi Used in Introductions

Carter

2021

Written Communication

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“…"Evaluation" statements refer to and help contextualize and frame the rest of the discussion of the interferometers and accompanying mathematical work. In this way, these statements function similar to value statements used to frame modern scientific research articles (see Carter, 2016). When introducing the research, students often make statements that signal to the reader that the visuals have epistemological value.…”

Section: Creating Context Through "Evaluation" Statementsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Scanning as a Rhetorical Activity: Reporting Histories of Ether Experiments in the Johns Hopkins University Physical Seminary (1892–1913)

Cutrufello

2020

Written Communication

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This article reports on a study that examined papers written by graduate students in the Physical Seminary course at Johns Hopkins University (1892–1913) to investigate how students reused various visuals of the interferometer to construct narratives of late-19th-century Ether research. Their representations of the interferometer focused on the mechanics of the devices by constructing a series of textual-visual relationships, requiring that the reader scan back and forth between the written text and the accompanying visual. These multimodal texts demonstrate how the students used writing activities to create a narrative of equipment development, which highlighted the centrality of trained vision in enculturating graduate students into disciplinary writing practices in the late 19th century. Through an analysis of the specific interactions and the network of visuals the students used to reconstruct a history of Ether investigation, scholars of writing and rhetoric can see how important inclusion of equipment and its detailed discussion was to graduate writing and disciplinary enculturation in the sciences.

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“…We limited the scope of our study to analysing the rhetorical patterns in the introduction sections of research articles. This choice was in part informed by the way introduction sections are particularly dense rhetorical moments of interaction between writers and readers [36]. Hence, if we wanted to look for possible changes in rhetorical patterns, we assumed introductions might be a rich site for analysis.…”

Section: Analytical Instrument: the Create-a-research-space Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

Multilingual Research Writing beyond English: The Case of Norwegian Academic Discourse in an Era of Multilingual Publication Practices

Solli

Ødemark

2019

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Although English is the dominant language of scholarly publication, many multilingual scholars continue to publish in other languages while they also publish in English. A large body of research documents how these multilingual scholars negotiate writing in English for publication. We know less, however, about the implications of such negotiations for other languages that scholars work in. We wanted to investigate trends in writing conventions in language other than English during a period when multilingual publication patterns have been common. Specifically, we examined changes in rhetorical patterns in the introduction sections of the 1994 and the 2014 volumes of three Norwegian-language journals in three different disciplines in the humanities and social sciences. Our findings show that while certain features of our material might be interpreted as the result of a non-English discourse community adopting dominant Anglo-American models, the overall picture is more complex. Our study indicates that we need more research that examines cross-linguistic textual practices that focus on English and any other languages that scholars may work in. We also consider the possible pedagogical implications of such a focus.

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Value Arguments in Science Research Articles

Cited by 7 publications

References 28 publications

The Construction of Value in Science Research Articles: A Quantitative Study of Topoi Used in Introductions

The Construction of Value in Science Research Articles: A Quantitative Study of Topoi Used in Introductions

Scanning as a Rhetorical Activity: Reporting Histories of Ether Experiments in the Johns Hopkins University Physical Seminary (1892–1913)

Multilingual Research Writing beyond English: The Case of Norwegian Academic Discourse in an Era of Multilingual Publication Practices

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