Modes and Purposes of Public Science Writing

The "mode" is the primary form of a text's expression. If I tell you a story about something I have done, I am narrating, though I may also incorporate other modes (such as describing or informing) into my narrative. Note that the mode of a text is not the same thing as its purpose: I may use narrative for several purposes (to entertain; to inform; to persuade; to confuse), but I may just as easily use other modes, such as exposition or description, to achieve some of the same purposes.

Here is a (suggestive, but not comprehensive) list of some common modes of science writing, followed by a list of some common purposes that science texts may seek to accomplish. I offer these lists because, sometimes, names make things easier to pinpoint. For instance, if you're examining a text that is primarily narrative, you might use this list to help you to imagine how the text would differ if it relied instead on exposition or description or historicization. Likewise, it's a useful exercise to discriminate among the sometimes competing goals of a text. Is it possible for a text to both educate and entertain? Do narrative texts serve the purpose of informing rather than persuading? Use these lists as heuristics as you scrutinize the scientific messages that cross your path, and also as you imagine the options available to you as a writer of new texts.

Modes of science writing
	Narrative Exposition/Information Description Question-and-answer Problem-and-solution History Biography Case study

Purposes of science writing
	to inform to educate to entertain to enlighten to persuade to question to challenge conventional beliefs to raise questions to alert to sway opinion to call to arms to antagonize

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