“If we insist on being as sure as is conceivable... we must be content to creep along the ground, and can never soar” John Henry Cardinal Newman. Newman’s quote connects to the passage by stating that one will never break away and soar if they cannot understand failure. Originally this passage was based on the flu epidemic of 1918 hints the name of the title, The Great Influenza. Throughout the passage of The Great Influenza, John M. Barry establishes the message of embracing uncertainty and doubt. In the first section, John M. Barry establishes logos in an effort to explain the logical understanding of science. When talking about uncertainty Barry truthfully explains what uncertainty seems like to most people. The text explains, “Uncertainty …show more content…
Giving the audience a deeper understanding, Barry uses examples of what questions might arise in an experiment. Taken from the text, “A shovel can dig up dirt but cannot penetrate rock. Would a pick be best, or would dynamite be better—or would dynamite be too indiscriminately destructive?” (Barry). Throughout this passage Barry uses vivid images of a rock to display the effectiveness of questions a scientist might face. Consequently, Barry does not only uses imagery, but also metaphor’s to get his point across. Barry states, “Ultimately, if the researcher succeeds, a flood of colleagues will pave roads over the path laid, and those roads will be orderly and straight, taking an investigator in minutes to a place the pioneer spent months or years looking for” (Barry). While he uses a metaphor to create imagery about paths, Barry predominantly tried to express a deeper meaning about those paths and pioneers by giving the audience an in-depth scenery. Barry’s effectiveness of imagery helped the audience not only comprehend the passage verbally, but also …show more content…
Nevertheless, using another source of evidence, Barry was able to again persuade the audience from a different point of view. As seen in the text, “And just as Einstein refused to accept his own theory until his predictions were tested, one must seek out such findings” (Barry). This showed that the author is credible and persuasive by using a well known scientist to aid him in explaining uncertainty. Coincidentally, Einstein went through the struggle of uncertainty himself, he is better able to understand the importance of it. However, using all scientist’s as a source for understanding the importance of uncertainty, gives Barry the advantage of multiple sources. Barry also states, “All real scientists exist on the frontier. Even the least ambitious among them deal with the unknown, if only one step beyond the known” (Barry). Since he is using multiple sources for this example, he was able to show how every scientist has faced this problem or even larger problems. Barry, yet again, was able to persuade the audience by using other examples besides his own
and “hows?” Waldroff emphasizes the use of the rhetorical device of ethos, throughout his article. There are multiple examples of reliable sources, such as other researchers and those who have credible knowledge. The mention of these specific people makes it
At any time, a scientist's research can be torn apart by a new finding or experiment. In line 21 Barry says that "uncertainty requires a confidence
Barry also gives a couple of examples to show that although the science fair is created with educational intentions, it usually does not turn out that way. For example, hypotheses are a large part of the scientific process, but usually end up being very vague facts and statements like: “‘There is a lot of gravity on the ground’”. The title of the essay, “Science: It’s Just not Fair”, also displays the writer’s use of wordplay, and it shows the pointlessness of the science fairs as they don’t teach much to students as they rush the
Describe a problem you 've solved or a problem you 'd like to solve. It can be an intellectual challenge, a research query, an ethical dilemma-anything that is of personal importance, no matter the scale. Explain its significance to you and what steps you took or could be taken to identify a solution. In The Great Influenza, Barry states that one must “accept uncertainty”.
In an excerpt from The Great Influenza by John M. Barry, many rhetorical devices are used to fully represent the process of a scientist. Some of the most commonly used devices are metaphors, anaphoras, and imagery, these three devices help the reader understand the main ideas of the story. The metaphors allow the reader to perceive the process of a scientist in more simplistic ideas such as science being an undiscovered wilderness. The anaphora used in the beginning of the passage emphasises that the world of science is full of uncertainty and is constantly changing, this drives the idea into the mind of the reader. The imagery is used alongside the metaphors to assist the reader in grasping the foreign ideas.
Author John M. Barry, in The Great Influenza, claims that scientists must embrace uncertainty and doubt their ideas in order to be successful in their research. To support his claim, he first states that “uncertainty creates weakness”, then lists the traits required by scientists (including curiosity and creativity), and finally explains that experiments must be made to work by the investigator. The purpose of this is to further support his claim in order to encourage readers to embrace uncertainty because certainty creates something to lean on, while uncertainty forces one to manipulate experiments to produce answers. Barry adopts a formal tone to appeal to a worldwide audience, specifically those interested in scientific research, by using
Barry says, "a shovel can dig up dirt, but cannot penetrate a rock. Would a pick be best, or would dynamite be better- or would dynamite be too indiscriminately destructive?" Barry talks about science as if it was the wilderness. In the wilderness, there are many surprises that can occur at any moment. There are holes that you could step right over, not knowing it may have been the answer or may have been needed.
This is also an example of compare and contrast, he compares certainty with uncertantiy. By using these words he tells the reader that to be a scientist you need both certainty as well as uncertainty. The first paragraph also includes examples of logos; when Barry says “to be a scientist requires not only intelligence and curiosity, but passion, patience, creativity, self sufficient, and courage”. One can agree that the sentence is an example of logos because it is a logical statement that to be a scientist you have to have all of those traits. The whole passage is about scientists as well as scientific research, Barry writes with a purpose and the purpose is to tell people about scientists as well as what it takes.
Barry personifies a computer when he explains how “it sits there, humming impatiently, bored to death”. A computer is an inanimate object, and by giving it human abilities such as sitting, humming, and being bored, the author brings this example to life. Thirdly, the author uses imagery as a means to create humour. In his last section, Barry uses imagery when telling a personal story: “the kitchen floor has been transformed into GarbageFest USA”. The words he decides to choose in this section provides us with the ability to picture the extremity of a mess that was in his kitchen in our own minds.
By doing so, Gould demonstrated exactly his claim as readers saw how Broca’s belief was being continuously agreed upon or challenged by many individuals, and even experts. The diverse opinions on Broca’s research and conclusion proved that the seemingly “scientific truth” were merely based on his own
The concrete comparison between the uncertainty principle and the intrinsic uncertainty in the story cannot be justified. The fact that they both have the word ‘uncertainty’ in them is not enough to relate the two to such a great extent. Richard Feynman, in his autobiography What do you care what other people think?9 says , “I learned very early the difference between knowing the name of something and knowing
“Being Green at Ben and Jerry’s” Will’s use of analogy makes the essay interesting; it shows the reader how little the influence drilling would have on the ANWR. Will also makes excellent use of facts and statistics to persuade the reader that drilling in the ANWR would not be a bad thing. He also makes comments about environmentalists and their opinions, which makes the reader interested in his acknowledgment of his opposition, also making him a more credible source. In order to be more persuasive, Will needs to clearly state his position regarding the argument, as well as using more emotional appeal. Dear Representative, farming is by far the greatest industry in New Zealand.
This model added to the advancement of quantum mechanics. c. Reason for listening: This topic is important because people often only think about Einstein’s theory of general relativity, but he offered so much more. d. Credibility: For my informative speech, I have conducted extensive research on the scientific contributions of Albert Einstein. e. Thesis Statement: People view Einstein work as just if he has only contributed a few things to sciences and physics, but he did a greater amount then the majority of people know. Preview of major points: In this speech, I will show you
This text is taken from a lecture that was given by William Morris about the importance of the arts. In this lecture he tries to convince his audience why the arts are beneficial and should be available to not only the wealthy but also ordinary people. He uses personification and imagery in order to make what he is saying more interesting, and also uses inclusive language to appeal to the whole audience. The first paragraph begins with the personification of Science; “And Science - we have loved her well, and followed her diligently, what will she do?”.