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This page presents assigned readings and supplemental readings.
Assigned Readings
Eight sets of readings are assigned during the term, as presented in the following table.
Course readings.
| LEC # |
TOPICS |
READINGS |
| 2 |
Audience: grabbing the reader
Literary techniques: scenes, imagery, characters. . .
Voice and tone
Science and life—the "non-quantifiable"
|
Lightman, Alan. "Smile." In A Modern Day Yankee in a Connecticut Court: And Other Essays on Science. New York, NY: Viking, 1986, pp. 34-37 and 165-166. ISBN: 9780670812394.
Thomas, Lewis. "Crickets, Bats, Cats, and Chaos." Audubon 94 (March/April 1992): 94. [ Republished in Occasions for Writing. Edited by R. DiYanni and P. C. Hoy II. New York, NY: Thompson Wadsworth, 2007. ISBN: 9781413012064.]
Doyle, Brian. "Joyas Voladoras." The American Scholar (Autumn 2004).
[ Republished in The Best American Essays 2005. Edited by Susan Orlean. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin, 2005. ISBN: 9780618357130.]
Weed, William Speed. "106 Science Claims and a Truckful of Baloney." Popular Science 264, no. 5 (2004): 106-115.
|
| 3 |
Context
Why do science? Who does science?
The writer as a "character" in his essay
|
Kanigel, Rob. The Man Who Knew Infinity. New York, NY: Washington Square Press, 1991. Excerpts: pp. 1-7 (Prologue), 85-92 and 382-83 (notes). ISBN: 9780671750619.
Hirsh, Aaron. "Signs of Life." In The Best American Science Writing 2004. Edited by Dava Sobel. New York, NY: Harper Collins, 2004, pp. 79-88. ISBN: 9780060726409.
Sacks, Oliver. "Remembering Francis Crick." In Best American Science and Nature Writing 2006. Edited by Brian Greene. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin, 2006, pp. 219-231. ISBN: 9780618722228.
Kolbert, Elizabeth. "Crash Course." The New Yorker, May 14, 2007.
|
| 7 |
Writing scientific controversies
The question of fairness
Making complexity clear
Asking the right questions
|
Orr, H. Allen. "Devolution." The New Yorker, May 30, 2005.
Shreeve, Jaimie. "The Other Stem-Cell Debate." The New York Times Magazine, April 10, 2005, 42-47.
|
| 8 |
Science v. myth
What's at stake?
Making complexity clear
Prewriting for essay 3, life/science or social impact. . .
|
Gopnik, Adam. "American Electric." The New Yorker, June 30, 2003.
Singham, Mano. "The Copernican Myths." Physics Today 60, no. 12 (December 2007): 48-52.
Gould, Stephen J. "A Division of Worms." In The Best American Science Writing 2000. Edited by James Gleick. New York, NY: Ecco Press/Harper Collins, 2000, pp. 178-204. ISBN: 9780060957360.
|
| 9 |
Public health and individual patients
Involving the reader
|
Gawande, Atul. "Desperate Measures." In The Best American Science Writing 2004. Edited by Dava Sobel. New York, NY: Harper Collins, 2004, pp. 8-28. ISBN: 9780060726409.
Patterson, Kevin. "The Patient Predator." In The Best American Science Writing 2004. Edited by Dava Sobel. New York, NY: Harper Collins, 2004, pp. 189-200. ISBN: 9780060726409.
|
| 10 |
The Pill: TV program as science essay, part I
Discuss The Pill and "John Rock's Error"
|
Gladwell, Malcolm. "John Rock's Error." The New Yorker, March 13, 2000.
Lightman, Alan. "Prisoner of the Wired World." In A Sense of the Mysterious. New York, NY: Vintage, 2006, pp. 183-208. ISBN: 9781400078196.
Seabrook, John. "Fragmentary Knowledge." The New Yorker, May 14, 2007.
|
| 11 |
Technology and culture
Hear proposals for essay 3
|
| 14 |
Book review as essay
Tight focus and wide significance
The language of judgment
|
Example book reviews
Foster, Ian. "Harnessing Atoms to Create Superfast Computers." The New York Times, March 7, 2003.
Zimmer, Carl. "Adam's Family." The New York Times, March 2, 2003.
Owen, David. "Measure for Measure." The New Yorker, Oct. 14, 2002, p. 212-216.
|
| 15 |
Strategizing the longer research essay
Questions about essay 4, book review?
|
Overbye, Dennis. "Remembrance of Things Future." In Best American Science and Nature Writing 2006. Edited by Brian Greene. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin, 2006, pp. 180-188. ISBN: 9780618722228.
Pollan, Michael. "Unhappy Meals." The New York Times Magazine, January 28, 2007.
Book list for essay 4 (PDF)
|
Supplemental Readings
Science Daily
A Web site devoted to daily briefings on science news, in all categories of science.
Angier, Natalie. "Seeing Red." The New York Times, February 6, 2007.
A short piece on the science of everyday life.
Sacks, Oliver. "Patterns." From the series "Migraine: Perspectives on a Headache." The New York Times, February 13, 2008.
An excellent piece on the visual phenomenena accompanying migraines.
Dizikes, Peter. "Civic Science." Boston Globe, April 30, 2006.
Contains a good discussion of scientific literacy.