Abstract :
In this paper, the author looks at text production from a social perspective, drawing on concepts of social interaction and discourse community. The discourse community in question is that of engineering. The texts analyzed here are products of a group of Danish consulting engineers working together to develop an energy concept for a German municipality. The paper mainly aims to show writing as a social action in a discourse community, which is constructed by the interactive work of its members. Important aspects of this work occur in the processes of text production, feedback, and text revision. Three examples of qualitative revision analyses illustrate the interplay of participating in current chains of communication with manifesting membership in a discourse community.
