Writing Climate Change Assessments: Scientific Author Challenges and Rhetorical Negotiations

Journal of Technical Writing and Communication Apr 2022

Writing Climate Change Assessments: Scientific Author Challenges and Rhetorical Negotiations

Carol A. Reeves ; Maura Ross Butler University

Abstract

The rhetorical challenges and deliberations of scientific authors writing climate change assessment reports have received scant scholarly attention. As our interviews with 21 authors reveal, authors engage with multiple stakeholders who bring diverse scientific, political, economic, and cultural interests and perspectives. They must remain aware of politically motivated climate change denial and scientific illiteracy while remaining committed to producing policy relevant rather than policy prescriptive statements. These challenges lead to intense rhetorical negotiations over the lexical and visual features of a document they hope will deflect denial and contribute to meaningful policy solutions.