The Past and the Future of Scientific and Technical Writing

Abstract

Excerpts from Thomas Sprat's History of the Royal Society, published in 1667, are used to explore the parallels existing between the rise of modern scientific and technical writing and the rise of seventeenth century science.

The author of this paper shows how the English teachers of today, like the scholastic critics of the past, are too often isolated from the realities of communication. He quotes Thomas Sprat to emphasize that communication techniques should not be studied at a distance. The practice of scientific and technical writing must be brought closer to the university. Doing consulting work is one possibility; another is conducting communication research for business and industry. Additional specialized courses should be introduced for students specializing in the professions. English majors planning to work full time in communication should have internships provided. Sprat recognized that a bridge must exist between science and the humanities. This applies as well to the present condition.

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References

Sprat

, History of the Royal Society, Cope

J. I.

and Jones

H. W.

, (ed.), Washington University Press, St. Louis, 1958.

Davies

, The Language of Science and the Language of Literature, 1700–1740, Sheed and Ward, London, 1963.

Kuhn

, Structure of Scientific Revolutions, 2nd ed., University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1970.

Whitburn

M. D.

, Personality in Scientific and Technical Writing, Journal of Technical Writing and Communication, 6: 4, 1976.

Richard Foster Jones, in The Seventeenth Century: Studies in the History of English Thought and Literature from Bacon to Pope, Stanford University Press, Stanford, p. 9, 1951.