Scientific ethos

Let's consider one compelling sentence from early in Prelli's essay. I want to know what you think of this claim: "Even those seeking explicitly to popularize science risk jeopardizing their ethos with expert audiences" (89). First off, what do you think this statement means? Second, have you seen examples of this in your own career or have you noticed this happening around you, in "popular culture"? Can you think of any examples of a scientist whose ethos was compromised as a result of the popularity of his/her research with a certain audience?

Welcome to English 501, the Graduate writing seminar!

Hello students and welcome to our graduate writing seminar!

This class will aim to help you improve or polish the kinds of written projects you will need to complete to graduate (meaning, your thesis or dissertation) and later, the kinds of texts you will create during your career (grant proposals, abstracts, journal articles, a c.v.). The course is evaluated on the basis of a student's performance on an on-going writing journal, in-class discussion, blog-posting, individual writing assignments, and a final portfolio of writing submitted at the end of the term. To begin the course, you will need to have a part of your Master's thesis (if you are an M.A. student) or your dissertation (if you are a Ph.D. student) written, ready to work on over the course of the semester.

I am looking forward to working with you this semester. I hope you will enjoy this blog, as it will give all of us an opportunity to continue the conversations we will begin in our seminar room. On our blog we will continue to discuss ways to improve, strengthen, polish, and add compelling interest to our written products. We will also have the opportunity to add comments here about the readings we do for our class, readings which concern writing in the contexts of science and technology workplaces.