Technical Communication Quarterly Jul 2019

There’s No Such Thing as a Scientific Controversy

S. Scott Graham University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee ; Lynda Walsh University of Nevada, Reno

Abstract

We examine 81 rhetoric and technical communication studies of “scientific controversy.” Our praxiographic analysis reveals that “scientific controversy” is not one thing but three, each staged according to a radically different ontology; yet the literature continues to handle these ontologies the same and to privilege scientists’ demarcation claims in their analysis. We conclude the modifier scientific should be abandoned entirely in controversy studies and recommend an antilogical rather than dialectical approach to controversy.

Journal
Technical Communication Quarterly
Published
2019-07-03
DOI
10.1080/10572252.2019.1571243
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Topics
rhetorical criticism technical communication
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Citation Context

Cited by in this index (4)

  1. Ghimire (2024)
    Understanding Transnational Technical Communication in Technical and Profession…
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  2. Marquardt (2022)
    Creationist Science and the Rhetorical Capacity of the Scientific Method
    Rhetoric Review
  3. Moriarty (2020)
    Vaccines Going Viral: Peripheral Public Discussion of Scientifically Justified …
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  4. Walsh (2019)
    A Zero-Sum Politics of Identification: A Topological Analysis of Wildlife Advoc…
    Written Communication

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