[Teaching_Composition] Rhetorical analysis of scientific research report

[William-Jennings@uiowa.edu]

In a slightly different vein, I've used three different reports about  
a small plane crash:
1) a newspaper account, including the quoting of an 'eye witness';
2) an excerpt from one of the survivor's testimony in a civil case;
3) the official NTSB report.
Others have done similar analysis assignments with traffic accidents,
structural failures (the hotel walkway in Kansas City), etc.
One could do this with the failure of a business as well...Enron or a  
dot com fizzle?

The point isn't to tweak interest through allure of grisly outcomes,
but to see how the language of 'witness', 'testimony', and 'report'
each work to alter perception of an event more commonly associated  
with 'grisly'.

Many of my students argue that their pursuit of specific academic  
discipline
(various sciences, engineering, business, etc.) is being delayed by  
having
to take a 'rhetoric' course.... This sort of exercise & assignment  
doesn't
always solve those complaints, but it does offer a different entry  
point into
text, context, and subtext.

-Will Jennings
University of Iowa