Course Title: Writing with Data (Scientific & Technical Writing)
Author: Marie Pruitt, University of Louisville
Date Published: 2025
Course Level: Upper-Level Undergraduate
Course Description: We are persuaded by and persuade with data every day. Today, we live in what’s known as the Zettabyte era, a period of human and technological history characterized by our collective wealth of information. In 2016, global internet traffic surpassed one zettabyte (the equivalent of about 1 trillion gigabytes);1 In 2023, we produced 120 zettabytes of data globally.2 Unfortunately, we also live in a post-truth era, characterized by our wealth of mis- and dis-information. Truth cannot be found withing data itself; truth is instead discovered by collecting, investigating, interpreting, interrogating, representing, and contextualizing data. As Hans Rosling writes, “The world cannot be understood without numbers. And it cannot be understood with numbers alone” (p. 128).3
In this class, we will learn how to compose effective arguments using the data that makes up our world. By examining how data is created and collected, how it’s interpreted and sometimes misrepresented, and how writers wield the power of data to craft effective writing, we will explore the ways data can be used to influence individuals, groups, institutions, and even entire populations. We will also further interrogate the concept of data in general, exploring the material effects that the creation and existence of data has on people and the planet. Throughout the class, we’ll look at scholarly articles, popular press articles, books, videos, images, podcasts, and more to develop a deeper understanding of the reciprocal relationship between writing and data in a variety of contexts.
Learning Outcomes:
Rhetorical Knowledge: Students will produce writing that responds appropriately to a variety of rhetorical situations. Their writing should:
- Demonstrate knowledge of audience, which includes the ability to determine appropriate scope, genre, technical vocabulary and detail, and tone when writing for both technical and non-technical audiences
- Demonstrate knowledge of context, which includes analyzing professional cultures, social contexts, and audiences to determine how they shape the various purposes and forms of writing
- Demonstrate an ability to use, explain and integrate quantitative information with verbal prose to achieve particular rhetorical purposes
- Demonstrate knowledge of research methods that produce professional documents, including analyzing professional contexts and assessing and summarizing information resources
Processes: Students will produce writing reflective of a multi-stage composing and revising process. Their writing should:
- Demonstrate knowledge of the writing process, which means engaging various strategies for planning, researching, drafting, revising, and editing documents that respond effectively and ethically to scientific and technical situations and audiences
- Demonstrate knowledge of collaborative strategies, such as writing in a team setting, working and communicating on-line, setting and achieving project goals, and responding constructively to peers’ work
Conventions: Students will produce writing that strategically employs appropriate conventions in different writing situations. Their writing should:
- Demonstrate knowledge of document design, including the implementation of various principles of format, layout, and design of professional visual/verbal documents that meet multiple needs and integrate a variety of written, visual, and oral elements of design
- Demonstrate control of the editing process, including the production of documents which exhibit concise language, appropriate technical vocabulary, appropriate format, proper sentence structure, and standardized grammar
Teaching Philosophy: In the classes I teach, I follow a “networked pedagogy” that encourages students to identify, trace, and sometimes disrupt the networks that contribute to their writing processes. This approach encourages students to engage with these systems, such as the social networks that inform their revision processes, the environmental networks that facilitate their access to information, and the digital networks that shape the afterlife of their writing. By implementing these ideas into my classroom activities, assignments, and assessment practices, my goal is to help students learn to use writing as a tool for understanding, navigating, and shaping the world around them.
