Coordinating Distributed Memory An Environmental Engineer’s Proposal-Writing Process Using a Product Calculator

This case study of an environmental engineer’s proposal-writing process reveals how the engineer (Beatrice) reifies, archives, and accesses her distributed memory across physical and digital sources in order to write proposals. Based on the authors’ observations of Beatrice’s proposal-writing proces...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inJournal of business and technical communication Vol. 32; no. 3; pp. 285 - 307
Main Authors Bivens, Kristin Marie, Cook, Kelli Cargile
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Los Angeles, CA SAGE Publications 01.07.2018
Subjects
memory
proposal writing
distributed cognition
engineering communication
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Summary:This case study of an environmental engineer’s proposal-writing process reveals how the engineer (Beatrice) reifies, archives, and accesses her distributed memory across physical and digital sources in order to write proposals. Based on the authors’ observations of Beatrice’s proposal-writing process and their interviews with her, they arrived at three key conclusions: Beatrice distributes her memory across multiple physical and digital sources, the (spreadsheet) product calculator helps Beatrice to manage her cognitive load and relieve her working memory, and the product calculator allows Beatrice to reassemble her distributed memory and coordinate her cognition.
ISSN:1050-6519
1552-4574
DOI:10.1177/1050651918762028