I agree with Jamie entirely that a great deal of epistemic or
knowledge-generating writing happens in the workplace. The Bank of
Canada, as a research and policy institution is certainly a clear
example of this. To direct Canada's monetary policy, the Governor and
his senior colleagues need to know what has happened, is happening, and
likely will happen in the country's economy. And much of this knowledge
is generated inside the Bank by its economists through text-centered
activity. Similarly, as in any large organization, the people at the
Bank responsible for making decisions about its administrative
operations need locally produced knowledge of diverse and complex kinds,
and again much of this knowledge is produced through text-centered
activity. And while such writing is definitely instrumental, it's also
epistemic.
And not only is writing in the workplace frequently epistemic, but it
can in certain instances be highly creative, exploratory, heuristic, and
collaborative. I'd also argue that every time an economist or business
analyst or manager participates in knowledge-producing writing, they're
learning (as well as sharing with others) something important to their
work, and that this knowledge, or knowing, grows and evolves over time.
And given the implications for the organization and for individual
careers, the writers are personally connected--indeed, very
connected--to the activity as knowers. Further, in keeping with situated
learning theory (particularly Lave & Wenger, but also Orlikowsky and
Brown & Duguid and others), in organizational communities-of-practice,
knowledge-making and learning are happening continuously, both on
individual and collective levels.
I think in general that many of the distinctions made between
knowledge-making in workplace writing and knowledge-making in school
writing tend to break down when you look carefully at what's actually
happening in a particular classroom or worksite. More specifically, for
this discussion, I'd argue that the instrumental vs epistemic binary
isn't a very useful way to look at workplace writing.
Graham
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