Before taking an English class for science majors, I never considered making a science blog. I did not even know that it was something that scientists did. I heard of people making fashion blogs and food blogs for fun, but not science blogs. Even though this blog was created for a class, I hope that it will become more than that and that I will stick to it. My first assignment was to find 2 STEM blogs and write a rhetorical analysis of both. I am a marine science and a geological science major, so I chose to analyze Deep Sea News (http://www.deepseanews.com/) and The Climate Reality Project’s blog (https://www.climaterealityproject.org/blog?_ga=2.4764336.221559318.1581045885-1002785097.1581045885) by looking at the features of ethos, purposes, audience, and graphic presentation. Writing Science in the Twenty-First Century by Christopher Thaiss provided a guide for this rhetorical analysis.
Deep Sea News
Ethos
The ethos of Deep Sea News is established by the writers’ education and background, which the blog creators make readily available. The blog is written by “five marine scientists with advanced degrees (M.S., Ph.D.) in marine biology, environmental science, and oceanography from reputable universities in the United States and the United Kingdom”. As stated on the “Disclaimer and Information” page, the writers volunteer to publish blog posts and are not paid for the work they do. In fact, some of the authors personally cover the costs of hosting the website. These writers make blog posts for fun and for the love of marine science; they are not being persuaded by money in any way. By advertising this information, the writers build up the ethos of the blog.
There is an information page listing the credentials of each writer and a little biography about them. At the bottom of each article, there is a paragraph about the writer. The writers use ethos to convince their readers that the information in the blog posts could be trusted and that their information is backed up by science.
Purposes & Intended Audience
The writers of Deep Sea News make the purposes of the blog very clear. Under the “About” tab, there is a page called “The DSN Mission.” The page lists a mission statement, eight core values, and their vision of the future. The mission statement of Deep Sea News is “Demystifying and humanizing science in an open conversation that instills passion, awe, and responsibility for the oceans.” The writers want to provide an honest and reliable source of marine science news and connect readers more to science. By being outright with the the goals of the blog, the writers attract an audience who resonate with what the writers want to accomplish.
Science can feel unreachable at times due to the rigid structure of scientific papers and a lot of statistics. When reading some articles of Deep Sea News, I felt included in the science because of the informal tone of the writers. For example, one of the blog posts says, “I’m speechless. Even knowing this was going to be one of the toughest dives of my career, I’m still not prepared. “. The use of first person connects the reader to the writer and makes the post more personable. Even with the informal tone, the blog does not lose credibility. There are still statistics and citations throughout the posts. The tone allows the writers to reach a wider audience. Experts and people just interested in the topic would enjoy reading the posts of this blog.
One thing I did not particularly like about Deep Sea News is that it was not that organized. There were no categories for the posts, which I feel like would be useful.
The Climate Reality Project Blog
Ethos
Unlike Deep Sea News, The Climate Reality Project’s blog was created by an established organization (Climate Reality), giving the blog instant credibility. The Climate Reality Project is a known non-profit organization in the science community. However, for those who do not know about it, there are pages on the menu explaining who they are and what they do.
Purpose & Graphic Presentation
Similar to Deep Sea News, The Climate Reality Project has its mission statement readily available and easy to find. The statement is, “Our mission is to catalyze a global solution to the climate crisis by making urgent action a necessity across every level of society.” The main purpose of the blog is to get people to take action against the climate crisis. The blog is a way to reach a wider array of people.
The layout of the blog was designed to make the purpose more achievable. In the top right corner, there is a bright red button that says “Donate.” It stands out among the relaxing theme colors of white and light green. On the left side of every blog post, there is a prominent red box with a speaker icon that says “Join Us. Receive the latest on the movement for climate solutions from Climate Reality” and has a sign up button. It is hard to miss that red box. At the bottom of each post, there is a box outlined in green titled “Before You Go” that reiterates what Climate Reality does and how they cannot do it without your help. There is a red button in the box that says “Support Our Work,” which is another way of saying “give us your money.” The purpose of the Climate Reality Project’s blog is to find more people to donate, and the layout of the website makes it more convenient to do so.
Something I would add to The Climate Reality Project’s blog is more information about the writers. Most of the posts just say “By: The Climate Reality Project.” When reading something online, I am always curious about the background of the author, so I think having a small biography at the bottom of each article would be a nice element.
With this STEM blog, I hope to make science more readable for people who are interested, but may not have the resources to access the information or cannot understand the ways that scientists write. As a scientist myself, I have to admit that I get bored reading about studies because of the way that scientists tend to write. Scientific papers have a specific structure that can definitely be confusing if you do not know the vocabulary used. I will try to recontextualize research while not damaging the integrity of the science.
Deep Sea News and The Climate Reality Project’s blog differ mostly because of the fact that one is a stand-alone blog and the other is a part of an organization. The purpose of Deep Sea News is to communicate ocean science honestly without any barriers, while the purpose of the Climate Reality Project’s blog is to get people concerned about climate change and in the end, donate money. Analyzing blogs is important for other blog creators because they get to see what works and what does not work. There is a lot involved physiologically with making a blog, which I never thought about. By critically examining these two blogs, I have a better idea about what I want to do with mine.
Thanks for reading!
Thaiss, C.J. (2019). Writing science in the twenty-first century. Peterborough, Ontario, Canada: Broadview Press.
Hayley's Blog 