Written Communication Oct 1996

Virtual and Material Buildings

PETER MEDWAY

Abstract

The article offers a fresh perspective on semiotic approaches to writing. It endorses recent arguments for more study of writing that shapes and directs the production of material artifacts and for considering writing as one semiotic mode among others. The main purpose, however, is to consider a case of nonwritten symbolic production, architectural design, for what it may suggest for the study and the teaching of writing. A constructivist account is proposed whereby the design (like equivalent written texts) not only proposes and foreshadows a new object in the world but creates one, bringing into existence, through acts of representation, a virtual object that is real in its social effects. Transcripts from design conversations are drawn on to elucidate the characteristics of such virtual artifacts, and implications for writing are drawn.

Journal
Written Communication
Published
1996-10-01
DOI
10.1177/0741088396013004002
Open Access
Closed
Topics
multimodality

Citation Context

Cited by in this index (18)

  1. Pennell (2025)
    Making the Invisible Visible
    Pedagogy
  2. Doody et al. (2022)
    “Everything Is in the Lab Book”: Multimodal Writing, Activity, and Genre Analys…
    Written Communication
  3. Weedon et al. (2021)
    Embodied Genres, Typified Performances, and the Engineering Design Process
    Written Communication
  4. Swarts (2019)
    Open-Source Software in the Sciences: The Challenge of User Support
    Journal of Business and Technical Communication
  5. Weedon (2017)
    Representation in Engineering Practice: A Case Study of Framing in a Student De…
    Technical Communication Quarterly
Show all 18 →
  1. Rivers (2011)
    Future Convergences: Technical Communication Research as Cognitive Science
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  2. Wickman (2010)
    Writing Material in Chemical Physics Research: The Laboratory Notebook as Locus…
    Written Communication
  3. Swarts (2008)
    Information Technologies as Discursive Agents: Methodological Implications for …
    Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
  4. Swarts (2007)
    Mobility and Composition: The Architecture of Coherence in Non-places
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  5. Prior (2005)
    Moving multimodality beyond the binaries: A response to Gunther Kress’ “Gains a…
    Computers and Composition
  6. Swarts (2004)
    Technological Mediation of Document Review
    Journal of Business and Technical Communication
  7. Anderson (2004)
    The Textualizing Functions of Writing for Organizational Change
    Journal of Business and Technical Communication
  8. Swarts (2004)
    Textual Grounding: How People Turn Texts into Tools
    Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
  9. GEISLER (2001)
    Textual Objects
    Written Communication
  10. Geisler et al. (2001)
    IText
    Journal of Business and Technical Communication
  11. Winsor (2001)
    Learning to Do Knowledge Work in Systems of Distributed Cognition
    Journal of Business and Technical Communication
  12. HALLER (2000)
    Rhetorical Invention in Design
    Written Communication
  13. WINSOR (1998)
    Rhetorical Practices in Technical Work
    Journal of Business and Technical Communication

Cites in this index (11)

  1. OLSON (1995)
    Conceptualizing the Written Word
    Written Communication
  2. CHIN (1994)
    Redefining “Context” in Research on Writing
    Written Communication
  3. SMAGORINSKY et al. (1994)
    Cultural Tools and the Classroom Context
    Written Communication
  4. Doheny-Farina (1994)
    Rhetoric, Innovation, Technology
    College Composition and Communication
  5. McCARTHY et al. (1994)
    Revising Psychiatry's Charter Document
    Written Communication
Show all 11 →
  1. WINSOR (1994)
    Invention and Writing in Technical Work
    Written Communication
  2. ACKERMAN (1993)
    The Promise of Writing to Learn
    Written Communication
  3. WITTE (1992)
    Context, Text, Intertext
    Written Communication
  4. HAAS (1990)
    Composing in Technological Contexts
    Written Communication
  5. WINSOR (1989)
    An Engineer's Writing and the Corporate Construction of Knowledge
    Written Communication
  6. Herrington (1985)
    Writing in Academic Settings: A Study of the Contexts for Writing in Two Colleg…
    Research in the Teaching of English
Also cites 11 works outside this index ↓
  1. Braverman, H.
    Labor and monopoly capital
     ↗
  2. Callon, M.
    Mapping the dynamics of science and technology: Sociology of science in the real world
     ↗
  3. 10.2307/469101
     ↗
  4. 10.1057/9780333984215_1
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  5. 10.1007/BF01197585
     ↗
  6. 10.1080/1358684960030203
     ↗
  7. 10.1080/10464883.1993.10734581
     ↗
  8. 10.2307/357405
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     ↗
  11. Vygotsky, L. S.
    Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes
     ↗
CrossRef global citation count: 51 View in citation network →

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