The Plain Style in the Seventeenth Century: Gender and the History of Scientific Discourse
http://baywood.metapress.com/link.asp?target=contribution&id=MRQQK2U6LTQU0X56
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  peer-reviewed

Tillery, Denise
Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
2005

Abstract:

This article analyzes the statements on plain style made by Royal Society writers and seventeenth-century women writers. Using scholarship in feminist rhetorical theory, the article concludes that Royal Society plain stylists constructed scientific discourse as a masculine form of discourse by purging elements that were associated with femininity, such as emotional appeals. The article also discusses how women writers, particularly Margaret Cavendish, embraced a plain style more out of concern for their audience than out of a desire to eliminate undesirable feminine attributes. The implications of this historical study for understanding of current practice are noted.