Written Communication Jan 1985

Physicists Reading Physics

CHARLES BAZERMAN

Abstract

Reading, as well as writing, is a constructive activity. Interviews and observations of research physicists reveal reading processes permeated with individual purposes and schema. These schema, or personal maps of the field, include not only consensual knowledge about the phenomena being discussed, but also perceptions as to the most promising lines of current work, methods that are most likely to produce good results, and personal knowledge about the other workers in the field. Schema thus are formed around the active research purposes of the reader. Equally, purposes are framed within the researcher's schematic understanding of the field. With schema and purposes evolving dialectically, texts are read, not as static arguments, but as part of the dynamic process of research activity.

Journal
Written Communication
Published
1985-01-01
DOI
10.1177/0741088385002001001
Topics
multilingual writers

Citation Context

Cited by in this index (13)

  1. Warren (2006)
    Literary Scholars Processing Poetry and Constructing Arguments
    Written Communication
  2. BURROUGH-BOENISCH (1999)
    International Reading Strategies for IMRD Articles
    Written Communication
  3. HASWELL et al. (1999)
    Context and Rhetorical Reading Strategies
    Written Communication
  4. MATHISON (1996)
    Writing the Critique, a Text about a Text
    Written Communication
  5. FREEDMAN et al. (1994)
    Wearing Suits to Class
    Written Communication
Show all 13 →
  1. HAAS (1994)
    Learning to Read Biology
    Written Communication
  2. BERKENKOTTER et al. (1993)
    Rethinking Genre from a Sociocognitive Perspective
    Written Communication
  3. NYSTRAND et al. (1993)
    Where did Composition Studies Come from?
    Written Communication
  4. Blakeslee (1993)
    Readers and authors: Fictionalized constructs or dynamic collaborations?
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  5. HARE et al. (1991)
    The Influence of Interpretive Communities on Use of Content and Procedural Know…
    Written Communication
  6. McCORD (1991)
    The Business Writer, the Law, and Routine Business Communication
    Journal of Business and Technical Communication
  7. SPIVEY (1990)
    Transforming Texts
    Written Communication
  8. KAUFER et al. (1989)
    Novelty in Academic Writing
    Written Communication

Cites in this index (0)

No references match articles in this index.

Also cites 12 works outside this index ↓
  1. Bleich, D.
    Subjective criticism
     ↗
  2. Bruce, B.
    A social interaction model of reading
     ↗
  3. Cozzens, S.
    Life history of a knowledge claim: The opiate receptor case
     ↗
  4. Holland, N.
    The dynamics of literary response
     ↗
  5. Latour, B. (1983)
    10.7202/036788ar
    Etudes Francaises  ↗
  6. 10.1037/h0034822
     ↗
  7. Reynolds, R. E.
    Influence of questions on the allocation of attention during reading
     ↗
  8. Reynolds, R. E.
    Cultural schemata and reading comprehension
     ↗
  9. 10.1177/030631277800800305
     ↗
  10. Steffensen, M. S.
    Register, cohesion, and cross-cultural reading comprehension
     ↗
  11. Suleiman, S.
    The reader in the text
     ↗
  12. Tompkins, J.
    Reader response criticism
     ↗
CrossRef global citation count: 184 View in citation network →

Related Articles

  1. Computers and Composition Jun 2026
    “Article laundry” or “tutor in pocket?”: Multilingual writers’ generative AI-assisted writing in professional settings ↗
    Qianqian Zhang-Wu
    artificial intelligence multilingual writers
  2. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication Apr 2026
    What Video Games Can Tell Us About Interactive Technical Communication ↗
    Emily Kuzneski Johnson
    multimodality technical communication multilingual writers
  3. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication Apr 2026
    “Is This Ethical?” New Data on the Ethical Principles and Practices of Document Design ↗
    Leslie Seawright; Amy Hodges; Timothy Ponce
    multimodality technical communication disability studies multilingual writers
  4. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication Apr 2026
    How to Write With GenAI: A Framework for Using Generative AI to Automate Writing Tasks in Technical Communication ↗
    Guiseppe Getto; Susan Kelley; Bremen Vance
    artificial intelligence technical communication multilingual writers
  5. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication Mar 2026
    “It's Hard to Show ROI When You’re Preventing Things from Happening”: How Impact Storytelling Frames Community Health Initiatives for Executive Audiences ↗
    Margaret Hsiao
    qualitative research multimodality technical communication professional writing multilingual writers