Scientific development, in the past centuries, due to lack of dissemination, that is, due to the almost impossibility of exchanging knowledge, progressed very slowly. The findings were recorded in manuscripts, and few people had access to them. Often, scientists from different countries worked on the same discovery, all of them traveling the same paths without being aware of each other.
It was in the year 1456 that the German inventor Johannes Gutenberg revealed his Bible, printed with movable types. The way was opened for the ever more rapid dissemination of knowledge through the text of scientific dissemination . A single copy of a discovery’s records might have required a few months of work. After Gutenberg’s invention, many copies could be made in a few days.
This expansion of knowledge, which occurred with immense speed, was still confined to scientific and university circles. The laity continued to see the world as their ancestors had seen it. It was only in the 17th century that newspapers began appearing regularly and, at the beginning, dedicated to local advertisements, and then began to report on the main political and economic events in the city and the country.
Newspapers and magazines were the vehicles that started the task of bringing scientific concepts to the general public, using a language accessible to all.
Context
According to THEINTERNETFAQS, newspapers and magazines realized the avidity with which the general public consumed scientific knowledge. For this reason, many of these journals have introduced, in their pages, sections of scientific dissemination. Articles on astronomy, physics and other subjects were published, as well as texts with recommendations for healthier habits, such as the value of certain foods, etc. All of this formulated based on research and scientific discoveries.
It is important to emphasize that scientific dissemination texts do not follow the formality that guides the scientific text. See an example.
Structure
Because they are transmitted by different means of communication, such as newspapers, magazines, books or electronic media, and intended for a public composed of varied interlocutors, the texts of scientific dissemination cannot present a rigid structure.
These texts are intended to bring the general public closer to scientific knowledge, so they need to be attractive, hence they distance themselves from the official standards of the scientific text.
In general, the opening paragraphs present the main theme or idea. In the following paragraphs, the subject is developed with the use of arguments and data subsidized by scientific sources, which may have as resources: comparisons, statistical data, cause and effect relationships, etc.
Language
Like any informative text, the text of scientific dissemination requires clarity and objectivity. It is worth noting, however, that even in scientific texts, formulated to circulate among specialists, there is interference from subjectivity, which appears from the choice of the studied subject to the final results of the research. However, the scientist should avoid, as much as possible, mixing personal opinion with research results.
In general, the scientific text is produced in the third person, that is, entirely impersonal. The text of scientific dissemination, on the other hand, being less rigorous, admits passages in which the sender’s self reveals itself. In any case, the language should be simplified in relation to the scientific text, as it is intended for laypeople in general.
