Writing about the material world: communication tasks in engineering design

Reports the results of a study examining the communication tasks engineers typically face in the engineering design process. The data include self-reports and audio recordings of engineers working on a specific design project and copies of texts in which they wrote about the project. The analysis focuses on the place of communication tasks in the engineering design process and the way that references to the material world are inserted into these communications. Results suggest that communication tasks, including writing, dominate engineering design activities, and that referencing the material world poses special problems for engineering discourse