DOCUMENT RESUME ED 304 702 CS 211 731 AUTHOR Worsley, Dale; Mayer, Bernadette TITLE The Art of Science Writing. INSTITUTION Teachers and Writers Collaborative, New York, N.Y. REPORT NO ISBN-0-915924-20-X PUB DATE 89 NOTE 218p. AVAILABLE FROMTeachers and Writers Collaborative, 5 Union Square West, New York, NY 10003 ($12.95, paperback). PUB TYPE Guides - Classroom Use - Guides (For Teachers) (052) -- Books (010) EDRS PRICE MFO1 Plus Postage. PC Not Available from EDRS. DESCRIPTORS Annotated Bibliographies; Anthologies; Mathematics; Science Instruction; Secondary Education; Teaching Methods; *Writing Across the Curriculum; *Writing Exercises; Writing Improvement; Writing Instruction IDENTIFIERS *Science kiting; Writing Assignments ABSTRACT Aimed at secondary school science and English teachers, this book presents practical advice for developing good student writing in science and mathematics. Five main sections cover: (1) an essay development workshop; (2) 47 specific writing assignments; (3) over 30 questions teachers ask about science writing, and the answers; (4) an anthology of 43 selections of science writing from Shakespeare, Darwin, Freud, Carl Sagan, Rachel Carson, and others; and (5) an annotated bibliography of over 150 books useful for the teaching of science writing. An appendix by Russel W. Kenyon discusses teaching math writing. (RS) ****************************************t****************************** * Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made * from the original document. *****************************************************************x***** 1 / "PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE THIS MATERIAL IN MICROFICHE ONLY U S DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION Once of Educational Research andImprovement AS BEEN GRANTED BY EDUCATIONAL RESOURCESINFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) reproduced as 1J Q O Ms document has been received from the person ororganaation originating IC made to Improve C Minor changes have been reproduction quality TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES in t his doctr Poets of view or opinions stated INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC)."r meet do not necessarilyrepresent official OERI position or policy Pt-,1 2 The Art of Science Writing 4....... P. 3 THE ART OF SCIENCE WRITING Dale Worsley & Bernadette Mayer Teachers & Writers Collaborative New York ......... 4 The Art of Science Writing Copyright © 1989 by Dale Worsley and Bernadette Mayer. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or trans- mitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photo- copying, recording, or otherwise, without prior written permission of the publisher. Teachers & Writers Collaboratis,re 5 Union Square West New York, NY 10003 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Worsley, Dale, 1948 - The art of science writing. Bibliography: p. 1. Technical writingHandbooks, manuals, etc. I. Mayer, Bernadette.II. Title. T11.W681988 808'.0665 88-29569 ISBN 0-915924-20-X Printed by Philmark Lithographics, New York, N.Y. 5 Table of Contents Acknowledgments ix Preface xiii Section 1: Essay Development Workshop 1 Section 2: Writing Experiments 38 Section 3: Questions and Answers 78 Section 4: Samples 93 Section 5: An Annotated Science Writing Bibliography 182 Appendix: Using Writing in Mathematics by Russel W. Kenyon 199 Acknowledgments We wish to thank Phyllis McGrath, Manager of the Corporate Services Programs at the General Electric Foundation, and Nancy Larson Sha- piro, Director of Teachers & Writers Collaborative, for their initiative in creating the General Electric Science Writing Project at the Manhattan Center for Science and Mathematics, where Cole Genn, principal; Har- vey Kaye, dean of the Technology Department and director of the Gener- al Electric Scholar's program; Herb Laden, dean of the Science Depart- ment; Beatr.ce Ramirez-Epstein, dean of the English Department; teachers Glen Album, John Borchert, Joe Ciparick, Mitch Elinson, Jef- frey Levin, Stori MacPhee, and Joe Sherman; librarian Rita Moran; and Sandra J. Price provided invaluable assistance. We would also like to thank our colleagues at the Institute for Writing and Thinking at Bard College: Paul Connolly, Director; Teresa Vilardi, Associate Director; Margaret Bledsoe and Alan Marwine, workshop leaders; and at Teachers & Writers Collaborative: Chris Edgar, Elizabeth Fox, Herb Kohl, Gary Lenhart, Pat Padgett, and our editor Ron Padgett. William Logan and Ron Padgett wrote part of the Writing Experiments section, and Russel Kenyon provided the appendix on math writing. Ann Chamberlain of the Exploratorium in San Francisco provided many helpful materials. We would especially like to thank all our students for enabling us to learn more about the processes of science writing. The following publishers and writers allowed us to quote from their material: F. Woodbridge Constant, Fundamental Principles of Physics, copyright C11967 Addison-Wesley Publishing Co. Pages 262-263 reprinted by permission. Excerpt from "Abundance" by Peter Steinhart reprinted from Audubon, the magazine of the National Audubon Society. Used by permission of the author. "Dreams of the Death of Beloved Persons" from The Interpretation of Dreams by Sigmund Freud, translated from the German and edited by James Strachey. Pub- lished in the United States by Basic Bowcs, Inc. by arrangement with George Allen Sr Unwin Ltd. and The Hogarth Press, Ltd. Reprinted by permission of Basic Books, Inc., Publishers. "Chemists on Mt. Olympus" by Joseph D. Ciparick reprinted by permission of the author. ix .0.gm.. 7 Excerpts from "The Sacred Beetle" in The Sacred Beetle and Others by Jean Henri Fabre reprinted by permission of Dodd, Mead & Company, Inc. "Sudden Extinction" by Bernard Cooper from the Winter 1988 issue of Grand Street reprinted by permission of Grand Street and the author. This work will ap- pear in The Best American Essays of 1988 selected by Annie Dillard. Pp. 125-127 from Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard. Copyright © 1974 by Hugo and Jane van Lawick-GooJall. Reprinted by permission of Houghton Mif- flin Company. Excerpt from Coming of Age in Samoa by Margaret Mead copyright © 1928, 1955, 1961 by Margaret Mead. Reprinted by permission of William Morrow & Co., Inc. Excerpts from "Writing in the Mathematics Classroom" by Russel Kenyon in The New England Mathematics Journal, May 1987 issue. Used by permission of the author. "Le Medicin Malgre Lui" from William Carlos Williams, Collected Poems 1909- 1939 Volume I. Copyright 1938 by New Directions Publishing Corporation. Re- printed by permission of New Directions Publishing Corporation. John Allen Pau los, "Orders of Magnitude," from Newsweek, November 24, 1986. Copyright © 1986 by Newsweek, Inc. Sharon Begley, "Liberation in the Lab," from Newsweek, December 2, 1985. Copyright © 1985 by Newsweek, Inc. All rights reserved. Reprinted by permission. "The Science to Save Us from Science" by Bertrand Russell reprinted from the March 19, 1950 issue of The New York Times Magazine copyright © 1950 by The New York Times Company. Reprinted by permission. Excerpt from "The Barbarism of Specialization." Reprinted from The Revolt of the Masses by Jose Ortega y Gasset, by permission of W.W. Norton & Company, Inc. Copyright 1932 by W.W. Norton & Company, Inc. Copyright renewed 1960 by Teresa Carey. Excerpt from "Physics in the Contemporary World" by J. Robert Oppenheimer ap- pears in The Open Mind, published in 1955 by Simon & Schuster. Selection from The Sea Around Us by Rachel Carson. Copyright © 1950, 1951, 1961 by Rachel Carson; renewed 1979 by Roger Christie. Reprinted by permission of Oxford University Press, Inc. Excerpt from Black Apollo of Science: The Life of Ernest Everett Just by Kenneth R. Manning. Copyright © 1983 by Oxford University Press, Inc. Reprinted by permission. "E = me2" by Albert Einstein from Out of My Later Years. Reprinted by permission of Philosophical Library Publishers, Inc. 8 "William James" by Martin Gardner from The Sacred Beetle & Other Great Es- says in Science edited by Martin Gardner. Reprinted by permission of Prometheus Books. Excerpt from Chaos by James Gleick. Copyright © 1987 by James Gleick. All rights reserved. Reprinted by permission of Viking Penguin Inc. Material from Ruth von Blum's paper delivered at Bard College's 1987 conference on the Role of Writing in Learning Mathematics and Science reprinted by permis- sion of the author. Excerpt from Buckenster Fuller's "How Little I Know" © 1976 Estate of R. Buckminster Fullei used with permission of the Estate. For information about the work of Buckminster Fuller, contact the Buckminster Fuller Institute, 1743 South La Cienega Blvd, Los Angeles, California 90035. We also express our appreciation to the following for their support of Teachers & Writers CoFaborative, in addition to the General Elec- tric Foundation: American Stock Exchange, Mr. Bingham's Trust for Charity, Columbia Committee for Community Service, Consolidated Edison, NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, Aaron Diamond Foun- dation, Long Island Community Foundation, Manufacturers Hanover Trust Company, Mobil Foundation, Morgan Guaranty Trust Com- pany, Morgan Stanley Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, New York Foundation for the Arts, New York State Council on the Arts, New York Telephone, New York Times Company Foundation, Henry Nias Foundation, Helena Rubinstein Foundation, The Scher- man Foundation, and the Steele-Reese Foundation. 4..xi Preface The Art of Science Writing is addressed to secondary