Re: Writing in the Social Sciences

[WARD@limerick.Calvin.EDU]

Date:          Fri, 7 Jul 1995 09:47:37 -0500
Reply-to:      wcenter@unicorn.acs.ttu.edu
From:          Karin Gosselink <U15593@UICVM.UIC.EDU>
To:            Multiple recipients of list <wcenter@unicorn.acs.ttu.edu>
Subject:       Writing in the Social Sciences


Does anyone know of good books and/or articles about writing in the 
social sciences?  
Karin Gosselink
u15593@uicvm.uic.edu


Karen,  Here are a handful (OK, a large handful) of things I've been 
collecting (I've *'ed the ones I think you might find most helpful).  
Among the problems of teaching writing in the social sciences are the 
facts that social science writing includes everything from writing in 
history to writing in economics.  And within each of the social-science 
disciplines people are grappling with the quantitative v. qualitative 
debate (made more complex by the fact that "quantitative" researchers do 
not necessarily buy into the positivist assumptions of the natural 
sciences and that "qualitative" researchers conduct measurements and use 
statistics).  All this makes it very hard to offer simple ways for 
tutors to understand writing in the social sciences.  Good luck.     
Dean Ward, Calvin College



Agger, Ben.  "Do Books Write Authors?: A Study of Disciplinary 	 
Hegemony."  Teaching 	Sociology 17 (1989): 365-369.
Bazerman, Charles.  "Codifying the Social Scientific Style the APA 
Publication Manual as a 	Behavoirist Rhetoric."  Rhetoric of the Human 
Sciences.  Nelson, et al.  125-144. 
---.  "Modern Evolution of the Experimental Report in Physics:  
Spectroscopic Articles in Physical 	Review."  Social Studies of Science 
14 (1984): 163-96.
*---.  Shaping Written Knowledge:  The Genre and Activity of the 
Experimental Article in Science.  	Madison:  University of Wisconsin 
Press, 1988.
---.  "What Written Knowledge Does:  Three Examples of Academic 
Discourse."  Philosophy of 	the Social Sciences 11 (1981): 361-87.
*Bazerman, Charles and James Paradis, eds.  Textual Dynamics of the 
Professions: Historical and 	Contemporary Studies of Writing in 
Professional Communities.  Madison:  University of 	Wisconsin Press, 
1991.
*Becker, Howard.  Writing for Social Scientists.  Chicago: University of 
Chicago Press, 1986.
Carlston, Donl E.  "Turning Psychology on Itself :The Rhetoric of 
Psychology and the 	Psychology of Rhetoric."  Rhetoric of Human 
Sciences. Nelson et. al. 145-162.
Crossen, Cynthia.  Tainted Truth: The Manipulation of Fact in America.  
New York: Simon and 	Schuster, 1994.
Denzin, Norman and Yvonna S. Lincoln, eds.  Handbook of Qualitative 
Research.  Thousand 	Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 1994.
*Faigley, Lester and Kristine Hansen.  "Learning to Write in the Social 
Sciences."  College 	Composition and Communication. 36 (1985): 140-9.
---.  "Rhetoric and Epistemology in the Social Sciences: A Counteract of 
Two Representative 	Texts."  in Jolliffe, Writing in the Academic 
Disciplines.
Harley, J.K.  "The Smell on the Lamp: Bad Writing in the Behavorial 
Sciences."  Canadian 	Journal of Education.  8 (1983): 245-262.
Herndl, Carl G.  "The Rhetoric of Ethnography."  College English.  53 
(1991): 320-32.
Hummel, Richard C. and Gary S. Foster.  "Reflections on Freshmen English 
and Becker's 	Memoirs."  Sociological Quarterly  25 (1984):  429-31.
Jolliffe, David A., ed.  Writing in the Academic	Disciplines.  Advances 
in Writing Research Vol. II.  New York:  Ablex, 1988.
Journet, D.  "Rhetoric and Sociobiology."  Journal of Technical Writing 
and Communication 14 	(1984):  339-50.
Kirk, Jerome and Marc L. Miller.  Reliabililty and Validity in 
Qualitative Research.  Qualitative 	Research Methods, Volume 1.  Newbury 
Park, CA: Sage Publications, 1986.
Klamer, Arjo.  "As if Economists and Their Subject were Rational."  
Rhetoric, Nelson et. al.  163-	183.
Matalene, Carolyn.  Worlds of Writing:  Teaching and Learning in 
Discourse Communities of the 	World.  New York:  Random, 1989.
McCloskey, Donald N.  The Rhetoric of Economics.  Madison:  University 
of Wisconsin Press, 	1985.
McCloskey, Donald.  "The Rhetoric of Economics."  Journal of Economic 
Literature 21 (1983):  	481-517.
Merton, Robert K.  "Foreward to a Preface for an Introduction to a 
Prolegomenon to a Discourse 	on a Certain Subject."  The American 
Sociologist.  4 (1969): 99.
Merton, Robert K.  "Sociology, Jargon and Slangish."  Sociology:  
Theories in Conflict.  Ed. R. 	Serge Denisoff.  Belmont, CA:  Wadsworth 
Publishing, 1972.
Mullins, Carolyn J.  A Guide to Writing and Publishing in the Social and 
Behavioral Sciences.  	1977.
*Nelson, John S., Allan Megill, and Donald N. McColskey, eds.  The 
Rhetoric of the Human 	Sciences:  Language and Argument in Scholarship 
and Public Affairs.  Madison:  	University of Wisconsin Press, 1987. 
Selvin, Haran C. and Everett K. Wilson.  "On Sharpening Sociologist's 
Prose."  The Sociological 	Quarterly. 25 (1984):  205-22.
Shapiro, Michael J.  "The Rhetoric of Social Science."  Rhetoric.  
Nelson et. al.  363-380.
Simons, Herbert W.  Rhetoric in the Human Sciences.  London:  Sage 
Publications, 1989.
Wolcott, Harry F.  Writing Up Qualitative Research.  Sage University 
Paper Series on Qualitative 	Research Methods, Vol. 20.  Newbury Park, 
CA: Sage, 1990.