Blog #13

1. Who is talking/writing?
2. Who is the primary audience for this text?
3. What does the text say (or imply) “rhetoric” is? What does this text say (or imply) “genre” is?
4. What is the main argument or message of this text? 
5. What does this text say about the importance of rhetoric in the sciences?

Robert R. Johnson is professor of rhetoric, composition, and technical communication in the Humanities Department at Michigan Technological University. The primary audience for this text is the general public/anyone interested in atoms/atomic bombs. This is a mix of an audience because the reading “For the Love of Pretty Things” is for the general public because this texts explains and informs what happened with workers of a radium factory that concentrated on painting watches. For the other reading “Introduction to Romancing the Atom” is for people that are concentrating/interested in atoms and science because it goes into detail about history with atoms and Einstein. The text implies that rhetoric is the persuasion to prove real facts. They imply this by the lawyer of the radium girls having proof and evidence about the death of one of the girl workers of the factory, by using her dental records and her own dead body to prove it. Genre is medical records and research of radium harm. The main argument of this text is to prove that radium can harm people and that the start of atoms are and affect everyone and everything around us. The text says that the importance of rhetoric in the sciences is critical because in order to prove and show science through lab tests, microscopes, and diagnostics it is recorded and finalized through writing which is a big part of science in and of itself.