"Flight of the Kuaka" - Uses of Rhetoric

Don Stap, in his piece “Flight of the Kuaka,” uses strategies of rhetoric to his advantage.  He mixes both descriptive, “storybook” writing and factual, scientific findings in order to enrich his work.  From the beginning of the passage, Stap envelops the reader in the world of the Firth of Thames more than a standard classroom textbook ever would;  “In February, at 37 degrees 12 minutes south latitude, the sun sets late, but night has fallen and the darkness is thick and close.  In the hills to the west I see a few dull globes of light from distant houses.” Although not straying far from his scientific mindset (in the use of the exact numeric values of temperature and latitude), he manages to first get the reader into an intimate setting to later on introduce all the data necessary to call the work ‘scientific.’  Had he not employed this technique, the words would be very dry and would read like an encyclopedia.

Another technique Stap uses is the use of personal experience in his writing.  Instead of simply “reading off” the experiment and the results, he goes so far as to write in the first person: “With the birds out of sight, we stand for a moment enjoying the night air.  I look up, once again drawn to the starry sky.”  This intimacy from the author is seldom seem in science pieces, and it creates for a much more fluent read.  Stap also personally relates how he had to wade through thick mud and how he released some of the endangered godwits on a deserted beach;  “Flight of the Kuaka” not only describes the interesting phenomena of the strange migratory patterns of these birds, but it also becomes a mediation between science and literature in its composition.