Preface Introduction: After the Carnival Part I: Foundations I. Reason, Rationality, and Rhetoric II. Impersonality and Its Discontents Part II: Applications III. Irony and Reflexivity: Rhetoric and Social Construction IV. Arguments and Appeals: Rhetorics of the Social Sciences V. Dialogues with the Dead: The Rhetorics of History Part III: Implications VI. Conversation, Dialectic, and the Question of Closure Conclusion: A Contention of Rhetorics Notes Index
Supposedly a worthwhile endeavor, scholarly and scientific writing to most people is abstract, impersonal, impractical, and sometimes impossible to read. This book examines this discourse, studies its relation to practical, everyday writing, and tells us why scholarly writing is anything but uniform and monolithic, and worth reading.