ABSTRACT
This chapter talks about social approach in analysing the written communication by consulting engineers. It focuses on the elaboration of an Energy Concept document written by a group of Danish engineers for the town of Wendenburg in the eastern part of Germany. The analysis of the revisions made to the introduction to the Energy Concept document has demonstrated that its composition was indeed a social activity. The chapter discusses the question as to what role discourse community, culture and social interaction play in the context of technical writing in a foreign language. It analyses of the revised versions of other parts of the Energy Concept also shows that due to the constantly changing context, expectations towards the document and the technical planning task are constructed in situ. The concept of 'discourse community' is based on the mutual dependence of language use and membership within a group. The work of the discourse community of engineers mainly serves to produce technical knowledge.
