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Rhetorical Spectrum of a Scientific Textbook - A Rhetorical Criticism of Percy Buck’s Acoustics for Musicians -

KU JA HYON 1

1영산대학교

Accredited

ABSTRACT

It is possible that a rhetorical analysis of a scientific writing may be carried out by a variety of methods. The paper tries to analyze Acoustics for Musicians, a scientific textbook which Percy Buck wrote in order to teach musical students musical acoustics. This analysis employs a variety of methods which have been used in rhetoric: Bitzer’s rhetorical situation, Aristotle’s three artistic proofs, five canons of the classical rhetoric, the metaphor analysis, and the narrative analysis. Through the analysis, various features of Buck’s textbook are revealed. The author regards the rhetorical situation as an exigence in which the established textbooks of acoustics cannot transmit such mathematical knowledge to students unfamiliar with mathematics and physics that they may misunderstand the sound waves and may be unable to treat temperaments. As for logos, the textbook provides a logical approach by means of arranging chapters dealing with mathematics, and as for pathos, it bestows the senses of safety and easiness through guiding students kindly. The textbook arranges the chapters dealing only with mathematics, and uses metaphors in order to teach the concepts of sound waves and the sensical nature of sound, and to emphasize the importance of mathematics. As for the evaluation of the narrative rationality of the textbook, its probability of narrative is secured by helping understand physical concepts but its fidelity of narrative is suspected by a few scientific and historical errors.

Citation status

* References for papers published after 2023 are currently being built.