Researchers studying science communication often examine how texts addressed to different audiences contribute to the formation of knowledge on a given issue. This article examines how arguments on scientific issues travel from text to text by considering how certain figures of speech persist from version to version. It uses a specialized genre of…

This study investigates the practice of presenting multiple supporting examples in parallel form. The elements of parallelism and its use in argument were first illustrated by Aristotle. Although real texts may depart from the ideal form for presenting multiple examples, rhetorical theory offers a rationale for minimal, parallel presentation. The…

Explores the usefulness of identifying the stasis of an argument, that is whether it concerns an issue of fact, definition, cause, value, or action. Argues that while science articles open and reopen questions of fact, classification, and cause, articles in literary criticism assume the value of their enterprise. (RAE)

Studies the fate of scientific observations as they pass from original reports intended for scientific peers into popular accounts aimed at a general audience. (FL)