This thesis reports on a comparison of four genres of scientific writing: the research article, university textbook, popular science article and science books for children. The comparison is based on a functional linguistic analysis of what are taken to be exemplary texts from these genres and focuses on the levels of register (or context of situation), genre (or context of culture) and ideology (loosely used to mean power relations reflected in and achieved through discourse). The textbooks and research article examined are found to be similar in register but distinct at the level of genre. Allowing for the difference in age of the readers. the study also finds broad similarity between textbooks and science hooks for children at both the levels of register and genre. Differences between popular science texts and the other three genres are particularly marked at the interpersonal level, and can be explained in terms of the popular science texts in the study being primarily news genres. Specifically, two of the popular texts in the study are issues reports (characterised by White 1997 as 'the discoveries of some authorised source'), while one is an opinion piece. The basis of the examination of ideological differences between the four genres is from the perspective of how each genre establishes objectivity, what each regards as constituting a fact, and power relations between reader and writer. Research science achieves objectivity by universalising propositions by removing association with people, time and place (Latour and Woolgar 1979). The research article functions to persuade readers (who represent the powerful research community) to accept knowledge claims (Myers ) 989). This persuasion must be accomplished through an appearance of objectivity through removal of human participants and without the more usual interpersonal devices such as attltudinal texis. Propositions become fact when they are accepted, and cited as uncontroversial by the research community. Like the research article, textbooks appear objective by removal of association with people. However, by contrast with research articles, writers of textbooks are more powerful than their readers are. Textbook writers, in summarising all information accepted as fact by the research community, are representative and mouthpiece of that powerful community. In privileging facts (scientists' ideas) over scientists themselves, textbooks extend the power differential noted by Myers (1989) between research community and individual researcher. Textbooks reify the fact and further bury the individual, containing only generic references to scientists. Science books for children, like textbooks, contain only generic references to scientists. They do, however, try to engage readers through illustrations and by identifying readers with scientists. Popular science texts are distinct from the other three genres in establishing writer objectivity through the journalistic means of attributing ideas and utterances to authoritative human participants in the text. Popular texts, because they report on findings that the research community has not yet endorsed as fact, are distinct from research articles and textbooks in representing findings as provisional and even controversial, and thus provide an insight into science as a social activity that is absent from the other genres. This research finds little evidence that popular science represents a simpler or more accessible form than textbooks. Indeed the similarity in register and genre between textbooks and science books for children calls into question the commonly-held conception of factual texts as inherently more difficult than forms such as narrative. This research indicates that research articles and textbooks are target forms for tertiary students and students in the later years of secondary school. Motivated by this, the researcher suggests that importing features of popular science writing into textbooks would be counter-productive. Instead she suggests a greater role for popular science texts themselves at secondary and at tertiary level. In providing an insight into scientists as people and the social nature of how facts are established, popular science texts can go some way to dispelling the mystique of science as authoritative and difficult. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of Natal, Durban, 2001.

Information and communication technologies (ICTs) have, in the recent past, attracted enormous attention as important tools for socio-economic development. However, the role of ICTs in fostering development and addressing the needs of the poor, especially in developing countries, has become the subject of a heated debate. This contestation is due to the high failure rate of the ICTs for development projects and a widening gap between the expectations of what ICTs can possibly do and the experiential reality of how these technologies are actually being used. More often than not ICTs have been regarded as a panacea or a „magic bullet‟ that will solve all development problems, with ill-conceived expectations of how they would be used. This study examined the relationship between ICTs and sustainable livelihoods in selected rural areas of Tanzania. The aim was to investigate how and for what purposes ICTs are used by people in the selected rural areas of Tanzania and to study the effect that ICTs have had on the various aspects of their livelihoods. A combination of the sustainable livelihoods framework and other ICTs for development models formed the theoretical foundation of the study. The investigation was carried out using ICT services provided by the telecentres and mobile phone services. The study was conducted in four rural districts in Tanzania which have telecentres. It used a multi-case study research design. A mixed paradigm methodology was adopted and the qualitative research was used as a dominant paradigm. Data was collected through structured interview protocols administered to 203 users and non-users of ICTs in communities surrounding the telecentres. Semi-structured interview protocols were administered to four managers of the telecentres. In addition, eight focus group discussions were conducted in communities surrounding the telecentres. An observation checklist was used to verify data obtained from managers, users and non-users of the telecentres. The study administered semi-structured interview protocols to officers from the ministry responsible for ICTs in Tanzania, that is the Ministry of Infrastructure Development (MoID), The Tanzania Communication and Regulatory Authority (TCRA) and a national research institution (The Commission for Science and Technology- COSTECH). The findings of the study indicated that, contrary to the use of mobile phones, which was characterised by greater uniformity across socio-economic groups and gender, telecentre users in the researched areas were generally young. The majority were males with higher levels of education. It was found that telecentres management have failed to take into consideration the appalling conditions of the extremely poor and disadvantaged individuals in their provision of ICT services to the community. The study established that the urban rural digital divide still exists and is still a reality in the areas reviewed, despite some efforts that are under way to bring ICTs to those communities. Old ICTs such as radio and television are not universally available. It was observed that inadequate road infrastructure makes it difficult for farmers to transport their produce to markets outside the districts, even in cases where farmers are provided with information on the availability of those markets. Inadequate electricity supply hinders large-scale uptake of ICTs in rural areas. The findings show that telecentres managers were not aware of the information needs of the communities they serve and therefore they were not in a position to meet such information needs. Due to personnel‟s inadequate skills and capacity the Ministry of Infrastructure Development did not play its policy-making function effectively. This problem, coupled with delayed implementation of important policy objectives such as the universal access policy and even the national ICT policy itself, affects the development of the ICT sector in rural areas of Tanzania. The findings further show that while the necessary conditions for access exist in all the telecentres involved in the study, sufficient conditions for access are still lacking, especially with regard to skills, awareness and affordability. On the relationship between ICT and rural livelihoods the findings of the study show that while ICTs may not fully support and sustain socio-economic development in poor communities, the impact of these technologies extends to various aspects of the livelihoods of the rural people. Economically, these technologies lead to better earnings and savings. Socially, they help in community interaction and knowledge-sharing, better follow-up for remittances and creation of savings and credit co-operative societies. In relation to human capital, the technologies‟ implications extend to ICT literacy, improved farming techniques and better access to information on new cash crops. The use of ICTs in rural areas is still faced with many barriers. These range from affordability to language problems and the lack of basic infrastructure such as electricity. Language was particularly found to be a substantial barrier to effective use and application of ICTs. The study recommends that telecentre managers should re-design programmes with the aim of bringing the under-represented groups such as farmers back to the centre of their projects, rather than treating them as passive receivers of ICT services. On the issue of mobile phones, there is a need to develop services that are nuanced towards the real needs of the rural people and incorporate them into the mobile technology. The study recommends that universal access policies should involve old ICTs such as radio and television, or people in the rural areas, who have fewer resources, will eventually pay too much for basic communication services, as in the case of satellite television and radio. Capacity-building is important, not only in the regulatory authorities, but also in the ministries responsible for ICTs and other institutions involved with ICTs, so as to provide effective national ICT leadership. The study recommends that managers of telecentres learn about the different aspects of access, in order for them to go beyond the provision of physical access to ICTs. Continuous improvement and renewal of telecentre services is necessary to ensure survival of the telecentres. Collaboration of the telecentres and other organisations, such as academic institutions, is needed to create content both for the telecentres and the community radios. Telecentres and other information systems developed or adopted to serve the people must meet the needs of the people intended to be served. This can be done by regularly conducting information needs assessment. / Thesis (Doctor of Phil. (Information Studies)) - University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2008.

A fundamental problem which confronts Science teachers is the difficulty many students experience in the construction, understanding and remembering of concepts. This is more likely to occur when teachers adhere to a Transmission model of teaching and learning, and fail to provide students with opportunities to construct their own learning. Social construction, followed by individual reflective writing, enables students to construct their own understanding of concepts and effectively promotes deep learning. This method of constructing knowledge in the classroom is often overlooked by teachers as they either have no knowledge of it, or do not know how to appropriate it for successful teaching in Science. This study identifies the difficulties which students often experience when writing reflectively and offers solutions which are likely to reduce these difficulties. These solutions, and the use of reflective writing itself, challenge the ideology of the Sydney Genre School, which forms the basis of the attempt to deal with literacy in the NSW Science Syllabus. The findings of this investigation support the concept of literacy as the ability to use oral and written language, reading and listening to construct meaning. The investigation demonstrates how structured discussion, role play and reflective writing can be used to this end. While the Sydney Genre School methodology focuses on the structure of genre as a prerequisite for understanding concepts in Science, the findings of this study demonstrate that students can use their own words to discuss and write reflectively as they construct scientific concepts for themselves. Social construction and reflective writing can contribute to the construction of concepts and the development of metacognition in Science. However, students often experience difficulties when writing reflectively about scientific concepts they are learning. In this investigation, students identified these difficulties as an inability to understand, remember and think about a concept and to plan the sequence of their reflective writing. This study was undertaken in four different classes at junior to senior levels. The difficulties identified by students were successfully addressed by role play and the activities that are integral to it. These include physical or kinaesthetic activity, social construction, the use of drawing, diagrams and text, and the provision of a concrete model of the concept. Through the enactment effect, kinaesthetic activity enables students to automatically remember and visualise concepts, whilst visual stimuli and social construction provide opportunities for students to both visualise and verbalise concepts. In addition, the provision of a concrete model enables most students to visualise and understand abstract concepts to some extent. These activities, embedded in role play, enable students to understand, remember, sequence and think about a concept as they engage in reflective writing. This, in turn, enhances understanding and memory. Role play has hitherto been regarded as a useful teaching technique when dealing with very young students. This study demonstrates that role play can be highly effective when teaching Science at the secondary level. This investigation looks at the activities embedded in role play, and demonstrates how they can be effectively translated from theoretical constructs into classroom practice. Grounded theory (Glaser and Strauss, 1967; Glaser, 1978; 1998; 2002) was selected as the most appropriate methodology for this investigation. The problems of identifying and controlling variables in an educational setting were essentially resolved using this qualitative, interpretative approach. Students from four classes in Years 8, 10 and 11 were investigated. Data were gathered using classroom observations, informal interviews, and formal written interviews, focus group conversations and samples of student writing. / Master of Education (Hons.)

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Adelaide, School of Humanities, Centre for European Studies and General Linguistics, 2004? / Title from opening screen; viewed 19 May 2005. "May 2004" Includes bibliographical references. Also available in print format.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Adelaide, School of Humanities, Centre for European Studies and General Linguistics, 2004? / "May 2004" Includes bibliographical references (p. 264-284). Also available electronically via the Australian Digital Theses Program.

Thesis (PhD.(Communication management))-University of Pretoria, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references. Available on the Internet via the World Wide Web.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1963. / Typescript. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves [47]-[48]).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, Irvine, 1996. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 160-166).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Chicago, Department of Linguistics, December 2002. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (MPhil (Journalism)--University of Stellenbosch, 2008. / The media have a great responsibility to communicate more science to improve public understanding of science to help them make sense of their world. The aim should be to popularize scientific ideas and to create a better understanding of how science is daily altering lifestyles and culture. Scientific literacy is an important element of an all-round educated person, and the media need to fill whatever blanks have been left by his or her formal education. The function of the scientific journalist is to transform scientific ideas and results into a form that other groups can understand. This transformation is as much an intra-scientific as well as an extra-scientific matter, and the forms that such communication take and the consequences for intellectual development vary according to the sort of field involved, the audience addressed and the relationship between them. This transformation process must not affect the truth status of scientific knowledge, but it obviously changes the form in which this knowledge is expressed. Scientists need to unveil the secrets of nature, and need to explain to the public that science is always incomplete and incremental, that knowledge is imperfect. Communicating with the media is becoming an obligation, and popularizing of science is becoming an integral part of the professional responsibility of practicing scientists. This overview indicates that there is a need for scientists to increase their communication skills and activities across a broad field and for journalists to increase their understanding and training in science.