Written Communication Jul 2010

Writing Material in Chemical Physics Research: The Laboratory Notebook as Locus of Technical and Textual Integration

Chad Wickman Auburn University

Abstract

This article, drawing on ethnographic study in a chemical physics research facility, explores how notebooks are used and produced in the conduct of laboratory science. Data include written field notes of laboratory activity; visual documentation of in situ writing processes; analysis of inscriptions, texts, and material artifacts produced in the laboratory and assembled in notebooks; and an in-depth interview with an expert chemist whose research and writing formed the basis of this investigation. Findings from this study suggest that the notebook occupies a negotiated space between the scientist’s contingent response to exigency in the laboratory and the genre-specific strategies that he or she deploys to communicate his or her work outside the laboratory. This text, the author argues, might therefore be understood as a locus in the sense that it facilitates a reflexive process whereby inscriptions are used both to interpret a-perceptual chemical phenomena in time, and, through their inclusion and integration in the notebook, to discipline that interpretation over time. Tracing the way inscriptions move between material synthesis, on the one hand, and text production, on the other, this article ultimately offers a methodical approach for investigating how the material, technical, and symbolic dimensions of writing and text converge in a modern scientific workplace.

Journal
Written Communication
Published
2010-07-01
DOI
10.1177/0741088310371777
Open Access
Closed
Topics
multimodality multilingual writers

Citation Context

Cited by in this index (15)

  1. Doody et al. (2022)
    “Everything Is in the Lab Book”: Multimodal Writing, Activity, and Genre Analys…
    Written Communication
  2. Halasek et al. (2022)
    The Methods Course as Access Point
    Pedagogy
  3. Lindgren (2021)
    Writing With Data: A Study of Coding on a Data-Journalism Team
    Written Communication
  4. Lillis et al. (2020)
    Time, the Written Record, and Professional Practice: The Case of Contemporary S…
    Written Communication
  5. Read (2020)
    How to Build a Supercomputer: U.S. Research Infrastructure and the Documents Th…
    Written Communication
Show all 15 →
  1. Russell (2020)
    Metaphor 2: Crossing: Retreading, Non-ing, and a TPC Rationale for Sub-discipli…
    College English
  2. Reid (2019)
    Compressing, Expanding, and Attending to Scientific Meaning: Writing the Semiot…
    Written Communication
  3. Clayson (2018)
    Distributed writing as a lens for examining writing as embodied practice
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  4. Cimasko et al. (2017)
    Multimodal Resemiotization and Authorial Agency in an L2 Writing Classroom
    Written Communication
  5. Swarts (2016)
    Composing Networks
    Written Communication
  6. Noy (2015)
    Writing in Museums
    Written Communication
  7. Angeli (2015)
    Three Types of Memory in Emergency Medical Services Communication
    Written Communication
  8. Wickman (2015)
    Locating the Semiotic Power of Writing in Science
    Journal of Business and Technical Communication
  9. Wickman (2014)
    Wicked Problems in Technical Communication
    Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
  10. Wickman (2013)
    Observing Inscriptions at Work: Visualization and Text Production in Experiment…
    Technical Communication Quarterly

Cites in this index (10)

  1. Bezemer et al. (2008)
    Writing in Multimodal Texts
    Written Communication
  2. Smagorinsky et al. (2006)
    Residential Interior Design as Complex Composition
    Written Communication
  3. Hull et al. (2005)
    Locating the Semiotic Power of Multimodality
    Written Communication
  4. Bracewell et al. (2003)
    Tasks, Ensembles, and Activity
    Written Communication
  5. Haas et al. (2001)
    Writing as an Embodied Practice
    Journal of Business and Technical Communication
Show all 10 →
  1. MEDWAY (1996)
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    Written Communication
  2. CHIN (1994)
    Redefining “Context” in Research on Writing
    Written Communication
  3. WINSOR (1994)
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    Written Communication
  4. WITTE (1992)
    Context, Text, Intertext
    Written Communication
  5. FAHNESTOCK (1986)
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    Written Communication
Also cites 16 works outside this index ↓
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  16. Tweney, R.D. (1991)
    Michael Faraday’s "chemical notes, hints, suggestions, and objects of pursuit" of 1822
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CrossRef global citation count: 21 View in citation network →

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