Assembling arguments: multimodal rhetoric and scientific discourse

by Buehl, Jonathan

Type Book

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Full title :Assembling arguments : multimodal rhetoric and scientific discourse / Jonathan Buehl.

Summary

"Scientific arguments--and indeed arguments in most disciplines--depend on visuals and other nontextual elements; however, most models of argumentation typically neglect these important resources. In Assembling Arguments, Jonathan Buehl offers a concentrated study of scientific argumentation that is sensitive to both the historical and theoretical possibilities of multimodal persuasion as it advances two related claims. First, rhetorical theory--when augmented with methods for reading nonverbal representations--can provide the analytical tools needed to understand and appreciate multimodal scientific arguments. Second, science--an inherently multimodal enterprise--offers ideal subjects for developing general theories of multimodal rhetoric applicable across fields. In developing these claims, Buehl offers a comprehensive account of scientific persuasion as a multimodal process and develops a simple but productive framework for analyzing and teaching multimodal argumentation. Comprising five case studies, the book provides detailed treatments of argumentation in specific technological and historical contexts: argumentation before World War I, when images circulated by hand and by post; argumentation during the mid-twentieth century, when computers were beginning to bolster scientific inquiry but images remained hand-crafted products; and argumentation at the turn of the twenty-first century--an era of digital revolutions and digital fraud. Each study examines the rhetorical problems and strategies of specific scientists to investigate key issues regarding visualization and argument: 1) establishing new instruments as reliable sources of visual evidence; 2) creating novel arguments from reliable visual evidence; 3) creating novel arguments with unreliable visual evidence; 4) preserving the credibility of visualization practices; and 5) creating multimodal artifacts ++.