Readings | The Science Essay | Comparative Media Studies/Writing

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.