I’ve found that a lot of people in the sciences tend to look askance at the humanities. This probably at least partially a product of them not being able to apply the same tools (that they have refined and are good at) in the problem domain of english comp etc. But there’s still something being missed. I think an interesting experiment for any english comp teacher who finds themselves teaching nerds would be to use as their books things by Steven Jay Gould or John Allen Paulos – those authors, along with Lakoff and many others really exemplify the process of using prose to help express a scientific point. Their books read well even though they are giving evidence in support of a thesis – and if you’ve ever read a scientific paper, then you know that can be a pretty unfun prospect.
I think some students might be really into this, some would still not care, but I think that there would be a small subset who would claim that studying their works as prose was total bunk – that these authors were scientists, not WRITERS, and how dare you sully them by studying their method of expression instead of their results.
It’s sort of like the stages of grief – and this group is firmly rooted in denial.
