Responding to Technical Writing in an Introductory Engineering Class: The Role of Genre and Discipline
http://www.attw.org/TCQarticles/7.4/7-4Miller.pdf
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Miller, Paul, Jaye Bausser and Audeen Fentiman
Technical Communication Quarterly
1998

Abstract:

A case study of an experienced professor's comments on a design report in a first-year engineering class was conducted over the period of an academic year. When compared with the commenting styles of technical writing teachers, the engineering professor's comments were found to be highly directive, and thus at odds with the preference for facilitative comments that prevails in composition studies. However, differences in genre conventions explain much of the discrepancy.