Understanding the Language of Science

by Steven Darian

Overview

2004 — A Choice Outstanding Academic Book

From astronomy to zoology, the practice of science proceeds from scientific ways of thinking. These patterns of thought, such as defining and classifying, hypothesizing and experimenting, form the building blocks of all scientific endeavor. Understanding how they work is therefore an essential foundation for everyone involved in scientific study or teaching, from elementary school students to classroom teachers and professional scientists.

In this book, Steven Darian examines the language of science in order to analyze the patterns of thinking that underlie scientific endeavor. He draws examples from university science textbooks in a variety of disciplines, since these offer a common, even canonical, language for scientific expression. Darian identifies and focuses in depth on nine patterns—defining, classifying, using figurative language, determining cause and effect, hypothesizing, experimenting, visualizing, quantifying, and comparing—and shows how they interact in practice. He also traces how these thought modes developed historically from Pythagoras through Newton.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780292716186
Publisher:	University of Texas Press
Publication date:	08/01/2003
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	262
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Steven Darian is Professor Emeritus of Linguistics and Education at Rutgers University. He has also been a Fulbright Visiting Professor in India (1992), Uzbekistan (1997), and Ukraine (2001).

Table of Contents

• Introduction
• 1. The Development of Scientific Thinking
• 2. The Language of Definitions
• 3. The Language of Classifying
• 4. The Role of Figurative Language
• 5. Cause and Effect
• 6. The Language of Hypotheses
• 7. The Language of Experiments
• 8. More than Meets the Eye: The Role of Visuals
• 9. The Language of Quantifying
• 10. The Language of Comparison
• Bibliography
• Index

What People are Saying About This

Celest A. Martin

To my knowledge, there has never [before] been a volume that analyzes, in one place, the actual language of science--those elements of thinking that are acknowledged to be the basis of scientific thought. . . . [Thus] this is a very important book, contributing to several fields: science, education, rhetoric, medicine, and perhaps even philosophy. . . . Darian's erudition is truly astonishing.
— Celest A. Martin, Associate Professor, College Writing Program, University of Rhode Island