Honors Collegium 43W – Science Rhetoric and Social Influence

Honors Collegium

Science Rhetoric and Social Influence

Enrollment: Instructor Consent; Juniors and above

Enforced requisite: English Composition 3 or 3H or English as a Second Language 36

Requirements fulfilled: Writing II

Course Description: Science writing, particularly scientific texts, both contemporary and historical, that have been used to communicate science to and influence large groups of people’s beliefs and behavior. What is it about certain scientific texts that changes the way we think and has the potential to affect social policy? Texts cover a variety of topics from evolution to nutrition and the food industry to current debates about climate change. Students are encouraged to practice science writing themselves.

Professor Dana Cairns Watson

I was a first-generation college student who attended UCLA for undergraduate and graduate school. I began in the electrical engineering major, but then moved through computer engineering, cybernetics, and math before sticking with English. My last year at UCLA, I fell in love with Gertrude Stein’s writing, so I went on to get a PhD in English and publish a book on Stein. I have taught at Middlebury College in Vermont and at Santa Monica College, but I’ve mainly taught at UCLA: in English, in Honors, for classes cross-listed with Women’s Studies, and for Writing Programs and Electrical and Computer Engineering. So all that work in EE has come in handy after all! My most recent published research project was about Robert Frost and nature, with some economics thrown in there. I am passionate about science communication and the use of scientific data in public policy, although I will add that I also feel strongly about the need to save room in our lives for the ineffable and the unquantifiable. I was awarded one of UCLA’s Distinguished Teaching Awards in 2018.

Q & A

What is your home department at UCLA? UCLA Writing Programs and Electrical and Computer Engineering

How long have you been teaching your HC seminar? The last time I taught 43c was in 2015, and I had taught it a couple of times before that. A lot has happened since 2015, so the class will be updated some!

What is your favorite part about teaching this HC seminar? I love working with students who want to use science and communication to solve problems, to address controversies, to connect to as many people as possible. The bringing together of many different fields and skills into one project always leads to wonderful surprises! I also like how much students teach me along the way–either about the topics of their writing or about the possibilities of multimodal projects!

What do you find to be the most compelling about the subject matter of this seminar? I began this class because I felt that scientists needed to learn how to communicate; I thought this was a reason that the world was not addressing climate change with enough gumption. And there were (and still are!) wonderful examples of climate change scientists and writers trying out everything they can think of to move governments and people to act. (I love studying those attempts.) But as time has passed, and more investigative reporting has been done (another power of writing!), I’ve become more aware of the powerful forces working against that climate crisis message, recognizing that the problem is not all communication. I’m sure you’ve heard that the pen is mightier than the sword, but I’m interested in our exploring how the pen (and voice, and video, and podcast, and Twitter thread, and novel, and slide presentation…) is (or can become) mightier than money.

And this is no longer about only climate change: it’s about environmental justice, Covid-19 and healthcare in general, and they ways the scientific method itself (hypotheses, growing and changing knowledge, and an understanding of probability and risk) is difficult to translate to non-scientists.

What are the learning objectives for this course?

Read influential (or just great) science writing.
Explore and rhetorically analyze the voices/forces that have convened (or are convening) around a chosen topic. (Examples are sea level rise in a certain location, fires in a part of CA, pre-existing conditions in relation to health insurance, mask-wearing, using CRISPR with a particular goal, even maybe just naming the Covid-19 virus. Notice that these are more specific topics than just “climate change” or “healthcare.”)
Develop a writing process that gives you the confidence to start any writing project.
Practice writing in several genres, which include (but is not limited to) rhetorical analysis, a public science article, a proposal, and multi-modal projects. Students will have quite a bit of free choice about genre and topic.
Cooperate to write a collection of informative articles (or multimodal projects) on science and nature-related issues, including (I hope) developing (and perhaps putting into practice) ways to promote science- and human-centered approaches to economic, environmental, and other ethical problems facing us.

Student Feedback

Honors Collegium

“Dana was such a passionate and engaged teacher and I really appreciated her flexibility this quarter as we all dealt with world events. Her virtual classroom felt like a little escape from the chaos in the real world and focused on productive conversations about how to make a real difference. At this point in my education, I was unsure what one more English class was going to teach me, but I can honestly say I learned so much about crafting stories, engaging audiences, using my own voice, and editing my peers’ work in constructive ways. This class has left me with tools I will use throughout my life, and I commend Dana for equipping each and every one of her students with those tools.”

“I have, truly, never had a professor at UCLA that cared so much about me as a student and as a person as Prof. Watson. I didn’t know what to expect with this class, especially since I have tended not to care for writing in the past. However, I really feel like this class was beneficial for me in the future and I really learned something. All of the readings were very interesting and helpful for the class. Especially with the pandemic and now all of the protests, Dana was so understanding on how this is affecting all of us and she was very accommodating. I would definitely recommend this to anyone, especially anyone in STEM.”

“I loved this class! I usually am afraid of writing and English classes but Dana made the assignments very manageable and gave a lot of guidance and pointers. I went to almost every office hour and she was so willing to help me make my essays and give me feedback that strengthened my writing. I also was really interested in the readings that she provided and she really helped improve my ability to communicate science in meaningful ways. Even though there were several different assignments going on at the same time and it seemed very overwhelming at the time, the work was spread out over a lot of time so I was able to finish everything. She also was very engaging and made the 2 hour classes fly by because we were always talking about interesting topics. She had a lot of good comments and questions that encouraged class participation. Dana is an amazing professor and I am so thankful to have been in this class with her!”