1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 20 Rhetorical features of student science writing in introductory university oceanography Gregory J. Kelly, Charles Bazerman, Audra Skukauskaite, and William Prothero Studies of science education have provided evidence for the importance of writing in students coming to understand and use scientific concepts (Keys, 1999; Rivard & Straw, 2000; Wallace, Hand, & Prain, 2004), as well as learning to participate in science as a learning community (Chinn & Hilgers, 1999). These findings are consistent with work over the last three decades in writing across the curriculum, focused both on writing to learn (Britton, Burgess, Martin, McLeod, & Rosen, 1975; Emig, 1977; Fulwiler & Young, 1986), and writing communities in the classroom (Walvoord & McCarthy, 1990; Herrington, 1985). Simultaneously, studies in the rhetoric of science have made visible that writing and argument play important roles in scientists’ and technologists’ thinking and forming knowledge communities. The forms of expression, invention, and knowledge vary with professions and disciplines. The epis- temic activity of researchers is saturated with rhetorical concerns of who is to be convinced of what, how others respond to novel work, what the organization of their communicative activity is, and what the goals of com- munity cooperation are (Bazerman, 1988; Blakeslee, 2001; Knorr-Cetina, 1999; Latour, 1987; Swales, 1998; van Nostrand, 1997). The representa- tion and role of evidence in relation to generalizations and claims has been crucial in the development of scientific argument (Bazerman, 1988; Chan- dler, Davidson, & Harootunian, 1991; Fleck, 1979; Lynch & Woolgar, 1990). This chapter brings together research in science education with research in science studies and in scientific writing to consider evidence formation in student writing. Science, rhetoric, and education Rhetorical studies of science view knowledge as actively constructed by sci- entists working individually or collectively on problems and being held accountable to public standards through the reasoning displayed in texts open to criticism and evaluation. This perspective highlights scientists’ need to refine reasoning, limit theoretical claims, marshal evidence, and understand strengths and limits of their evidence and arguments so as to 480_20_Writing Research.indd 265 15/7/09 14:49:42