Writing Like An Engineer: A Rhetorical Education (Rhetoric, Knowledge, and Society Series) - Softcover

Winsor, Dorothy A. A.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0805819584 ISBN 13: 9780805819588

Publisher: Routledge, 1996

Synopsis

Comprised of a study spanning over five years, this text looks at four engineering co-op students as they write at work. Since the contributors have a foot in both worlds -- work and school -- the book should appeal to people who are interested in how students learn to write as well as people who are interested in what writing at work is like. Primarily concerned with whether engineers see their writing as rhetorical or persuasive, the study attempts to describe the students' changing understanding of what it is they do when they write.

Two features of engineering practice that have particular impact on the extent to which engineers recognize persuasion are identified:
* a reverence for data, and
* the hierarchical structure of the organizations in which engineering is most commonly done.
Both of these features discourage an open recognition of persuasion. Finally, the study shows that the four co-op students learned most of what they knew about writing at work by engaging in situated practice in the workplace, rather than by attending formal classes.

About this title

About the Author

Dorothy A. Winsor

Edition details

• Publisher: Routledge
• Publication date: 1996
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0805819584
• ISBN 13: 9780805819588
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 132