Virtual and Material Buildings

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

Citation Context

Cited by in this index (18)

  1. Pedagogy
  2. Written Communication
  3. Written Communication
  4. Journal of Business and Technical Communication
  5. Technical Communication Quarterly
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  1. Technical Communication Quarterly
  2. Written Communication
  3. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
  4. Technical Communication Quarterly
  5. Computers and Composition
  6. Journal of Business and Technical Communication
  7. Journal of Business and Technical Communication
  8. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
  9. Written Communication
  10. Journal of Business and Technical Communication
  11. Journal of Business and Technical Communication
  12. Written Communication
  13. Journal of Business and Technical Communication

Cites in this index (11)

  1. Written Communication
  2. Written Communication
  3. Written Communication
  4. College Composition and Communication
  5. Written Communication
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  1. Written Communication
  2. Written Communication
  3. Written Communication
  4. Written Communication
  5. Written Communication
  6. Research in the Teaching of English
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  3. 10.2307/469101
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  5. 10.1007/BF01197585
  6. 10.1080/1358684960030203
  7. 10.1080/10464883.1993.10734581
  8. 10.2307/357405
  9. 10.1086/444095
  10. 10.1080/10862969509547884
  11. Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes
CrossRef global citation count: 51 View in citation network →