Optimizing a genre analysis framework to investigate engineering literature reviews

This brief paper chronicles the development and validation of a genre analysis framework as part of an ongoing research study that investigates how graduate engineering students compose literature reviews in an effort to enter into their disciplinary communities. The literature review in particular proves troublesome for graduate students in technical fields, as most engineering students have not been taught nor required to write a literature review until their master's thesis or dissertation proposal. The present research is timely and relevant, offering technical communication faculty strategies to demystify and better train engineers to communicate in academic settings.