Display cases, catalogues and clock faces : multimodal social semiotic analysis of information graphics in civil engineering

Abstract: This paper investigates the social semiotic practices surrounding use of information graphics within the specialized discourse of civil engineering. It combines the theoretical considerations of multimodal social semiotics and New Literacy Studies, which offers a conceptualisation of meaning-making as social practice. Methodologically, the paper draws on data collected as part of a two-year ethnographic investigation into the meaning-making practices introduced to students in a civil engineering higher education program offered by a large, public university in Johannesburg, South Africa. Data was collected through observation and reflection on the part of the researcher, as well as through collection of documentary artefacts..