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Dorothy A. Winsor. Engineering Writing/Writing Engineering.

Winsor, Dorothy A. "Engineering Writing/Writing Engineering." CCC 41.1 (1990): 58-70.

Abstract:

The author, using both a file of engineering documents and interviews with a engineer with his PhD in mechanical engineering, seeks to discredit the notion held among engineers that language is only a way to transmit knowledge, not to discover it. She claims that engineers need writing in order to analyze their physical data and convert it into knowledge that can be shared with others and used in conjunction with other information in later experiments. Engineers also use language to "write themselves as engineers": their reports transform their often creative, non-linear decisions in an experiment to an ostensibly logical progression of choices, since engineering values facts and data, not tacit knowledge.
Works Cited
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