Journal of Business and Technical Communication Jan 2003

Rhetorical Chemistry

Gail Lippincott University of North Texas

Abstract

This article employs neoclassic and feminist rhetorical perspectives to investigate the persuasive strategies in two scientific articles written in the late nineteenth century by Ellen Swallow Richards. One of the first credentialed female scientists in the United States, Richards wrote about nutrition research she conducted in her experimental food laboratory, the New England Kitchen, to persuade two separate audiences—one predominantly male and the other predominantly female—of the scientific value of nutrition studies. The article adds complexity to our historical underpinnings by querying how gender—of the writer, of the audiences, and in the nature of the topic—contributed to the writer’s rhetorical burdens and provides evidence that women historically have been active knowers and users of science and technology.

Journal
Journal of Business and Technical Communication
Published
2003-01-01
DOI
10.1177/1050651902238544
Open Access
Closed
Topics
gender and writing multilingual writers

Citation Context

Cited by in this index (12)

  1. Skinner (2024)
    Theorizing Reception: Antoinette Brown Blackwell’s Response to Evolutionary Theory
    Rhetoric Review
  2. Itchuaqiyaq et al. (2021)
    Decolonial Dinners: Ethical Considerations of “Decolonial” Metaphors in TPC
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  3. Jones et al. (2016)
    Disrupting the Past to Disrupt the Future: An Antenarrative of Technical Commun…
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  4. Moeller et al. (2016)
    Food Fights: Cookbook Rhetorics, Monolithic Constructions of Womanhood, and Fie…
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  5. Frost (2016)
    Apparent Feminism as a Methodology for Technical Communication and Rhetoric
    Journal of Business and Technical Communication
Show all 12 →
  1. White et al. (2016)
    Are We “There” Yet? The Treatment of Gender and Feminism in Technical, Business…
    Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
  2. Skinner (2012)
    Incompatible Rhetorical Expectations: Julia W. Carpenter's Medical Society Pape…
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  3. Moran et al. (2012)
    A Bibliography of Works Published in the History of Professional Communication …
    Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
  4. Meloncon (2010)
    Answering the Call: Toward a History of Proposals
    Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
  5. Thompson et al. (2006)
    Women and Feminism in Technical Communication—An Update
    Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
  6. Rohan (2006)
    A Material Pedagogy: Lessons from Early-Twentieth-Century Domestic Arts Curricula
    Pedagogy
  7. Tillery (2005)
    The Plain Style in the Seventeenth Century: Gender and the History of Scientifi…
    Journal of Technical Writing and Communication

Cites in this index (15)

  1. Sutcliffe (1998)
    Feminizing the professional: The government reports of Flora Annie Steel
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  2. Tebeaux (1998)
    The voices of English women technical writers, 1641–1700: Imprints in the evolu…
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  3. Johnson (1998)
    Complicating technology: Interdisciplinary method, the burden of comprehension,…
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  4. Longo (1998)
    An approach for applying cultural study theory to technical writing research
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  5. Lippincott (1997)
    Experimenting at Home: Writing for the Nineteenth-Century Domestic Workplace
    Technical Communication Quarterly
Show all 15 →
  1. Flynn (1997)
    Emergent Feminist Technical Communication
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  2. Haller (1997)
    Revaluing Women's Work: Report Writing in the North Carolina Canning Clubs, 1912-1916
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  3. Madaus (1997)
    Women's Role in Creating the Field of Health and Safety Communication
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  4. Shirk (1997)
    Contributions to Botany, the Female Science, by Two Eighteenth-Century Women Te…
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  5. Bosley (1994)
    Feminist theory, audience analysis, and verbal and visual representation in a t…
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  6. LAY (1994)
    The Value of Gender Studies to Professional Communication Research
    Journal of Business and Technical Communication
  7. Connor (1993)
    Medical Text and Historical Context: Research Issues and Methods in History and…
    Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
  8. TEBEAUX (1993)
    Technical Writing for Women of the English Renaissance
    Written Communication
  9. SAUER (1993)
    Sense and Sensibility in Technical Documentation
    Journal of Business and Technical Communication
  10. Tebeaux et al. (1992)
    Expanding and redirecting historical research in technical writing: In search o…
    Technical Communication Quarterly
Also cites 15 works outside this index ↓
  1. 10.1080/00335638909383873
     ↗
  2. 10.1080/10510979509368442
     ↗
  3. 10.1525/rh.1995.13.4.401
     ↗
  4. 10.1080/1554477X.1987.9970491
     ↗
  5. 10.2307/1889653
     ↗
  6. ———. “Parlors, Primers, and Public Schooling: Education for Science in Nineteenth-Century America.” Isis 81 (…
     ↗
  7. 10.2307/375964
     ↗
  8. 10.1109/47.180281
     ↗
  9. 10.1007/BF03374172
     ↗
  10. Rossiter, Margaret W. Women Scientists in America: Struggles and Strategies to 1940. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins…
     ↗
  11. 10.1007/BF03373484
     ↗
  12. Tebeaux, Elizabeth. The Emergence of a Tradition: Technical Writing in the English Renaissance, 1475-1640. Am…
     ↗
  13. 10.1109/47.180280
     ↗
  14. 10.1086/494860
     ↗
  15. 10.2307/378463
     ↗
CrossRef global citation count: 16 View in citation network →

Related Articles

  1. Composition Forum Mar 2025
    A Data Feminist Pedagogy for Composing the Rhetorical Life of Statistics ↗
    gender and writing multilingual writers
  2. Teaching English in the Two-Year College Mar 2025
    Queer Books and Bodies in the Writing Center ↗
    Lucinda Grinnell
    writing centers gender and writing multilingual writers
  3. College Composition and Communication Feb 2025
    Research Brief: Transnational Feminist Rhetorics ↗
    Chen Chen
    gender and writing multilingual writers
  4. Pedagogy Jan 2025
    The Bottom Line ↗
    Thomas Blake
    multimodality social media gender and writing multilingual writers
  5. Rhetoric & Public Affairs Jun 2024
    Our Voices Have Always Been Political: Indigenous Feminist Rhetorical Leadership ↗
    Luhui Whitebear
    race and writing gender and writing multilingual writers voice and style