Risk Communication and Miscommunication
Case Studies in Science, Technology, Engineering, Government, and Community Organizations
“This exemplary volume will provide unparalleled assistance to those instructing in these types of interdisciplinary collaborative constructs.”
—Liane Robertson, William Paterson University
“This volume provides a unique lens into a research area that has been neglected: the day-to-day effort in making collaborations between engineering programs and writing initiatives work.”
—Karen Lunsford, University of California, Santa Barbara
"Sojourning in Disciplinary Cultures is a valuable resource for a graduate class on technical writing pedagogy as well as for any humanities, engineering, and science faculty who may be engaged in interdisciplinary collaborations or who teach interdisciplinary classes, especially with a WAC/WID focus.”
—Technical Communication
Sojourning in Disciplinary Cultures describes a multiyear project to develop a writing curriculum within the College of Engineering that satisfied the cultural needs of both compositionists and engineers at a large R1 university. Employing intercultural communication theory and an approach to interdisciplinary collaboration that involved all parties, cross-disciplinary colleagues were able to develop useful descriptions of the process of integrating writing with engineering; overcoming conflicts and misunderstandings about the nature of writing, gender bias, hard science versus soft science tensions; and many other challenges.
This volume represents the collective experiences and insights of writing consultants involved in the large-scale curriculum reform of the entire College of Engineering; they collaborated closely with faculty members of the various departments and taught writing to engineering students in engineering classrooms. Collaborators developed syllabi that incorporated writing into their courses in meaningful ways, designed lessons to teach various aspects of writing, created assignments that integrated engineering and writing theory and concepts, and worked one-on-one with students to provide revision feedback. Though interactions were sometimes tense, the two groups––writing and engineering––developed a “third culture” that generally placed students at the center of learning.
Sojourning in Disciplinary Cultures provides a guide to successful collaborations with STEM faculty that will be of interest to WPAs, instructors, and a range of both composition scholars and practitioners seeking to understand more about the role of writing and communication in STEM disciplines.
Contributors: Linn K. Bekins, Sarah A. Bell, Mara K. Berkland, Doug Downs, April A. Kedrowicz, Sarah Read, Julie L. Taylor, Sundy Watanabe
