Unlocking the Secrets of Communication in Science and Engineering

Abstract

MIT Press, 2010. 256 pages. Xiaoqiong YouLearning to Communicate in Science and Engineering explores four related elements of learning and communication in science and engineering: faculty, students, learning contexts, and communication tasks and process. As a newcomer in the field of writing across the curriculum (WAC) and writing in the disciplines (WID), I find that the case studies in each chapter offer detailed description of subjects and participants (students and their communication instructors and subject faculty), as well as theoretical and pedagogical insights. The chapters are grounded in theories and concepts familiar to professionals in the field, such as process pedagogy and multimodality, and they introduce the specific contexts in science and engineering, such as authentic communication genre and process, visual data, and collaborative learning. The book will be useful to researchers and educators in both composition/communication and science and engineering.Mya Poe, Neal Lerner, and Jennifer Craig understand that the case studies are "part of a national trend in engineering and science education toward achieving communication outcomes" (2). Since 2002 this trend has Pedagogy: Critical Approaches to Teaching Literature, Language, Composition, and Culture Volume 15, Number 2