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...