The authors report an investigation of the discourse practices of the “affiliated professions” of software engineering design. Lists of design issues generated by students in computer science and technical communication were compared to lists produced by experts affiliated with software engineering and by students entering an unaffiliated profession. The results suggest that (a) the affiliated experts addressed a more balanced set of issues, (b) the students in computer science looked more like the affiliated experts in their attention to technical issues and more like the unaffiliated students in their attention to human issues, and (c) the students in technical communication looked more like the affiliated experts in their attention to the human issues and more like the unaffiliated students in their attention to the technical issues. The results are discussed in terms of a landscape of highly clustered, fractured, and stratified affiliated professions over which students travel during their educational and professional careers.

The ways in which technical writers can team up to make a video on a technical subject are discussed. The authors' experiences are described to illustrate methods for planning video and writing a script using visual and aural metaphors to represent technical concepts; the production process, and tips and techniques to enhance the presentation. The production of videos using in-house resources, the videotaping of live presentations, and video editing, packaging, and distribution are discussed.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>

The authors of Technical Writing believe that students best acquire technical writing skills through imitation. They state in their preface that the purpose of their text is “to give students access to models that truly represent papers in technical disciplines.” The concept of learning by imitating is certainly not new, but Brinegar and Skates have selected, organized, and presented their material with creativity and imagination, and the result is a technical writing text that is innovative and interesting, as well as accessible and adaptable for instructors and students alike.