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The Effective Use of Rhetoric in Scientific Communication How to get to know your audience

The Effective Use of Rhetoric in Scientific Communication How to get to know your audience. Keith Gibson Senior Design Consultant Allen Communication Learning Services. Aristotle’s Reasoning.

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The Effective Use of Rhetoric in Scientific Communication How to get to know your audience

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  1. The Effective Use of Rhetoric in Scientific CommunicationHow to get to know your audience • Keith Gibson • Senior Design Consultant • Allen Communication Learning Services

  2. Aristotle’s Reasoning • . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . • Demonstration—when the premises from which the deduction starts are true and primitive • Dialectic—when it reasons from reputable opinions

  3. Simon Locke The technical sphere is nonrhetorical because it is the sphere of truth; rhetoric is employed only as “handmaiden” in imparting truth to nonspecialist, public audiences, whose reasoning is “untrained.” –The Public Understanding of Science, 2002

  4. My Claim • . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . • The effectiveness of science communication is directly proportional to the level of knowledge about the audience

  5. Three Questions What does our audience need? Where do we disagree with them? What do we have in common with them?

  6. Three Audiences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . • Public • Journalists • Politicians

  7. Building Metaphors Thomson’s plum pudding model of the atom Schrodinger’s cat Turing test

  8. Telling Stories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . • “If we are to win the battle that is now going on around the world between freedom and tyranny, the dramatic achievements in space which occurred in recent weeks should have made clear to us all, as did the Sputnik in 1957, the impact of this adventure on the minds of men everywhere, who are attempting to make a determination of which road they should take.” --John Kennedy

  9. FindingRelevance • . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Kepler Spacecraft 76 stellar systems explored 242 exoplanets confirmed 3,277 exoplanet candidates identified $550 million

  10. Identify the Issue Stasis Theory Fact Definition Quality Procedure

  11. Climate Change - Fact Source: NASA, Goddard Institute for Space Studies

  12. Climate Change - Definition • Source: Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development

  13. Climate Change - Quality • World’s Ten Most Important Challenges • Armed Conflict Biodiversity • Chronic Disease Climate Change • Education Hunger and Malnutrition • Infectious Disease Natural Disasters • Population Growth Water and Sanitation

  14. Climate Change – Quality/Procedure • Challenge Solution • 1 Hunger & Education Bundled Interventions to Reduce Undernutrition • 2 Infectious Disease Subsidy for Malaria Combination Treatment • 3 Infectious Disease Expanded Childhood Immunization Coverage • 4 Infectious Disease Deworming of Schoolchildren • 5 Infectious Disease Expanding Tuberculosis Treatment • 6 Hunger & Biodiversity R&D to Increase Yield Enhancements • & Climate Change • 7 Natural Disasters Investing in Effective Early Warning Systems • 8 Infectious Disease Strengthening Surgical Capacity • 9 Chronic Disease Hepatitis B Immunization • 10 Chronic Disease Acute Heart Attack Low‐Cost Drugs • 11 Chronic Disease Salt Reduction Campaign • 12 Climate Change Geo‐Engineering R&D • 13 Education Conditional Cash Transfers for School Attendance • 14 Infectious Disease Accelerated HIV Vaccine R&D • 15 Education Information Campaign on Benefits From Schooling • 16 Water and Sanitation Borehole and Public Hand Pump Intervention

  15. Climate Change - Procedure • Source: stevenleahy.net

  16. Climate Change Stasis Fact: How much warming has there been? Definition: What is an acceptable level of warming? Quality: Is climate change more dire than other problems? Procedure: How can we most efficiently slow the warming?

  17. Find a Commonplace • . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . • What does the audience value? • What are their goals? • How can your project help them achieve those goals?

  18. Commonplace?

  19. Commonplace?

  20. Commonplace?

  21. Climate Change Stasis Fact: How much warming has there been? Definition: What is an acceptable level of warming? Quality: Is climate change more dire than other problems? Procedure: How can we most efficiently slow the warming?

  22. Three Questions What does our audience need? Where do we disagree with them? What do we have in common with them?

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