Recontextualization in engineering laboratory report and machine workshop training record

Abstract

Writing genres in the discipline is essential in the learning and enculturation in the discipline for undergraduates (Gardner, Nesi, & Biber, 2019). While previous studies have generally focused on the laboratory report, this study comprehensively compares the epistemic, rhetorical and linguistic features between the laboratory report and under-researched machine workshop training record equally common in undergraduate engineering curricula. Adopting a multi-dimensional engineering epistemic framework (Figueiredo, 2008), this qualitative case study analyses the intra-disciplinary nature of engineering knowledge and rhetoric in a written assignment from each genre above co-selected by the researcher and a mechanical engineering undergraduate in a university in Hong Kong. Textual analysis was based on metadiscourse (Hyland, 2005) and APPRAISAL (Martin & White, 2005), and was triangulated against engineering literature, and semi-structured interviews with the student and disciplinary experts in the engineering faculty. Findings show that although both genres highlight method recount as a major rhetorical function to perform, it is realized in different linguistic resources. The two genres also facilitate the uptake of additional and different types of engineering knowledge and rhetorical strategies. Contextual influences will be presented and pedagogical implications will also be discussed in the form of learning materials developed and a lesson conducted.