IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication Dec 1982

Science and technology for a general audience: The personal essay

M. Jimmie Killingsworth New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology

Abstract

To increase general readers' understanding and sympathy for scientific and technical subject matter, authors need a literary form that allows the material to be effectively related to common human experience. The imposing formality of scientific papers and technical reports must yield to the organic form and rhetorical richness of the personal essay. Stephen Jay Gould's essay “Of Bamboos, Cicadas, and the Economy of Adam Smith” demonstrates how the use of organic form and rhetorical techniques like examples, analogies, metaphors, historical background, and general personalism can enhance communication with nonspecialists. Excellence in essay writing is achieved only through careful planning, writing, and rewriting, but effective interpretation of science and technology for the intelligent general reader is worth the effort.

Journal
IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication
Published
1982-12-01
DOI
10.1109/tpc.1982.6447800
CompPile
Open Access
Closed
Topics
Export
BibTeX RIS

Citation context

Cited by in this index (0)

No articles in this index cite this work.

References (0)

No references on file for this article.

CrossRef global citation count: 1 View in citation network → Build reading path →

Related articles

  1. Journal of Business and Technical Communication Sep 2026
    Learning How to Write as a Cyborg ↗
    Eric Sentell
    rhetorical criticism assessment professional writing artificial intelligence
  2. Journal of Response to Writing Apr 2026
    Composing in Relation: Rethinking Multimodal Feedback as Rhetorical Design ↗
    Laflen, Angela
    rhetorical criticism composition theory genre theory first-year composition writing pedagogy professional writing qualitative research multimodality editorial matter
  3. Business and Professional Communication Quarterly Feb 2026
    LLMs in Composition: Theory, Ethics, and Implementation in the Workplace and Classroom ↗
    Kylie Alexis Wilczynski
    rhetorical criticism discourse analysis professional writing artificial intelligence
  4. Business and Professional Communication Quarterly Dec 2025
    Designing Business Communications in a Disrupted Workplace ↗
    Deborah C. Andrews
    rhetorical criticism collaborative writing professional writing multimodality
  5. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication Oct 2025
    Exploring Design Strategies for Student Career Portfolios ↗
    Shyam Pandey
    rhetorical criticism discourse analysis portfolios professional writing multimodality