Written Communication Oct 2019

Disciplinarity and Literate Activity in Civil and Environmental Engineering: A Lifeworld Perspective

Sarah Durst University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Abstract

Too frequently, representations of disciplinary writing foreground static notions of knowledge creation and literate practice in science and engineering. Rooted in discourse community theory, such representations present normative tropes of scientific practice that background notions of disciplinarity and obscure people’s lived experience and practice. Drawing on a case study of one woman, a civil and environmental engineer, this article argues for a lifeworld perspective of disciplinary becoming: a perspective that foregrounds notions of disciplinarity, lived experience, and literate practices as constantly mobile and in flux. The study suggests, specifically, that the woman’s work as an engineer cannot be separated from the people with whom she works, or has worked, and that her development as a writer extends beyond typical accounts of disciplinary enculturation. The author concludes by offering implications of this research for studies of disciplinarity and school science.

Journal
Written Communication
Published
2019-10-01
DOI
10.1177/0741088319864897
Open Access
Closed
Topics
discourse analysis qualitative research

Citation Context

Cited by in this index (5)

  1. Ware (2022)
    “God’s Absence During Trauma Took Its Toll”: Dialogic Tracing of Literate Activ…
    Written Communication
  2. Fisher (2021)
    The Fact of the Text: Exploring Misalignment in Undergraduate Lab Reports
    Research in the Teaching of English
  3. Wilder (2021)
    Another Voice in the Room: Negotiating Authority in Multidisciplinary Writing Groups
    Written Communication
  4. Lillis et al. (2020)
    Time, the Written Record, and Professional Practice: The Case of Contemporary S…
    Written Communication
  5. Olinger (2020)
    Visual Embodied Actions in Interview-Based Writing Research: A Methodological A…
    Written Communication

Cites in this index (4)

  1. Mallette (2017)
    Writing and Women’s Retention in Engineering
    Journal of Business and Technical Communication
  2. Woodard (2015)
    The Dialogic Interplay of Writing and Teaching Writing: Teacher-Writers’ Talk a…
    Research in the Teaching of English
  3. Roozen (2010)
    Tracing Trajectories of Practice: Repurposing in One Student’s Developing Disci…
    Written Communication
  4. PRIOR (1994)
    Response, Revision, Disciplinarity
    Written Communication
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CrossRef global citation count: 8 View in citation network →

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