Writing as Knowing: Creative Knowing Through Multiple Messaging Modes in an Engineering Technical Communications Course

Abstract

Writing, speaking, and listening are skills integral to securing a job and performing the work of an engineer. We assert that these communicative activities and abilities are not just tools and channels by which engineering concepts and processes are transferred from one individual to another. Rather, writing and communicating engineering concepts and processes constitute what engineers know. We argue that technical writing courses, and all engineering curricula, should foster the development of communication skills and technical engineering knowledge in tandem by providing students with writing and communicative scenarios in which audience, purpose, and context are understood to be inseparable from the technical subject matter conveyed. In this chapter, we establish our argument in two moves. First, we review the existing literature on writing as knowing, communicating in multiple modes, and the transferability of communication skills to a variety of contexts and purposes. We then illustrate how our engineering students develop transferrable communication skills through three assignments taught in our technical communication courses. By asking students to engage with and communicate their engineering knowledge in this way, students are better poised to understand, engage, and create in the complex and demanding world of engineering.