Spurious Coin: A History of Science, Management, and Technical Writing

by Bernadette Longo

Spurious Coin constructs a cultural history of technical writing in the United States and the system of scientific knowledge and power it controls. Embedded in this history are tensions between scientific and liberal arts knowledge-making that render technical writing both the genuine and counterfeit coin of scientific knowledge within our culture. When scientific knowledge is made by scientists and engineers, it can circulate as genuine currency in an economy where communication makes knowledge. When scientific knowledge is made by liberal-arts trained technical writers, however, it circulates as spurious currency and threatens the purity of the knowledge economy. Because the stability of the scientific knowledge economy is at stake, scientists and technical writers often find themselves at odds over the value of scientific knowledge minted by non-scientists.

Longo constructs this cultural history around a framework of five intellectual the use of clear, correct English; maximum efficiency of production and operation; the need to contribute to a general fund of scientific knowledge for the betterment of the human condition; the tension between the role of science and art within a culture; and a redemptive urge to purify language and standardize practice. She also explores the role of mechanical engineers in designing management systems which rely on technical writing to control operations and profits.

Genres: Grad School, Nonfiction

204 pages, Hardcover

First published May 1, 2000

Reviews

[Jamie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Packed with info. Not particularly readable.

[K.T · Rating 4 out of 5]

Packed with lots of info about technical writing. I found it informative and helpful, but with any kind of textbook, it was kind of boring lol.

[Erin · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was one of the textbooks for my MA-WRD technical writing class in the spring quarter, 2011. It was a bit redundant-- I think the author might have intended for her readers to read just certain chapters of the book and not the entire book, itself-- but the information was useful. I really had no idea about tensions existing between different types of knowledge before-- like those "science"-based versus "humanities" or "non-science"-based--which makes a lot of sense.

[Diana · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well that was intense.