Genre and precision in engineering: A case study of undergraduate writing

Abstract

Writing genres for specific purposes is instrumental in the enculturation in the discipline for undergraduates (Gardner, Nesi & Biber, 2019). In a technical discipline such as engineering, learning how to assess and convey precision in writing is essential. However, the relationship between genre and precision has not been thoroughly investigated in this earliest stage of disciplinary learning. In addition, the interplay of the types of engineering knowledge entailed and linguistic resources employed appears under-researched. This qualitative case study compares how a civil engineering undergraduate communicated technical precision in his laboratory report on construction materials and in his technical design report on a building structure. Analysis of linguistic features was based on metadiscourse (Hyland, 2005) and APPRAISAL (Martin & White, 2005). Textual investigation was triangulated against engineering literature, and semi-structured interviews with the student and disciplinary experts in the engineering faculty. Findings show that a variety of linguistic resources was employed to convey technical precision at different levels in the two reports. It is argued that pursuing a high level of precision is not always desirable for engineering students. Contextual influences and pedagogical implications of this study will also be discussed.