So, Rhetoric of Science is off to a great start! Monday's class was filled with varied comments from all participants and we are learning each other's personality. Dr. Baake provides some thoughtful prompts and admits that learning can occur instantaneously with each post. The suggestive topics for final projects sounds like each of us will be travelling unique paths down this rhetorical trail.

The first assigned text by Natalie Angier brings a certain normalcy to the topic of scientific discovery. Her use of metaphor and humor create a sense of conversation to a topic that you wouldn't find around a workplace lunch table or night out with friends, but creates the feeling that you might not mind if it did. Her style reveals why she is a Pulitzer Prize-winning author.

Off and running!

As our ENGL 5060 semester comes screeching to a halt, I'd like to take the time to thank Dr. Rice and my fellow students for the collaborative learning experience that created a unique voice for the expressive discourse during the semester. My sincere appreciation to each of you for a great semester!!

“Fill your paper with the breathings of your heart.” ~William Wordsworth

Authority - Bartholomae - As students begin to write in an academic setting, they begin to integrate into knowledge-based communities building authority by adding to the knowledge-making writing they produce.

Coherence – Coherence can be described as the unifying element in good writing. It refers to the unity created between the ideas, sentences, paragraphs and sections of a piece of writing. Coherence is what gives a piece of writing its flow. It also gives the reader a sense of what to expect and, therefore, makes the reading easier to follow as the ideas appear to be presented in a natural, almost automatic, way.

Evaluation - Flower and Hayes explains evaluation as a cognitive process of revision where a writer makes judgments against their goals, knowledge, and the current text in an effort to determine the final product of writing.

Philosophies of Composition - Fulkerson - philosophies about the teaching of composition may be either expressive (personal views of the author), mimetic (shared universe of reality between writer & reader), rhetorical emphasizing the effect on the reader), or formalist (emphasizing traits internal to the work)

Post-process theory – This theory of composition endorses the fundamental idea that no codifiable or generalizable writing process exists or could exist. Post-process theorists hold--for all sorts of different reasons--that writing is a practice that cannot be captured by a generalized process or a Big Theory. Kastman Breuch views writing as an activity, looking to Kent’s claim that “writing is public, writing is interpretive, writing is situated.”