First-Year Mechanical Engineering Students' Strategies Around Integrating Text and Image in Design Reports

Communication is enacted in diverse ways, and communication research has paid increasing attention to representational modes other than language (image, gesture, music, and so on). This paper examines the relationships between text and image in the discipline of mechanical engineering, the genre of the design report, and the context of a university first-year introduction to design module. The research question that underpins the study is: what do first-year engineering students' choices regarding integration of language and image in a design report suggest about their engagement in the design process? Over 50 design reports produced by three consecutive cohorts of first-year mechanical engineering students were collected. These design reports were analysed using the integrative multi-semiotic model as an analytical framework. The analysis reveals that the students struggle to effectively integrate text and image in their design reports, and that the decisions they make reflect misconceptions regarding the content and context of engineering design. The paper reflects on how this might be used to inform teaching and learning and prepare engineers in training to successfully communicate with a wide variety of audiences, as is required of engineering degree programmes.