Creating a community history Web site is a way for technical communication practitioners, students, and teachers to improve their expertise while performing a valuable public service. Developers of this kind of Web site combine personal interest in the history and culture of their chosen communities with professional interest in a wide range of skills: for example, online research, Web site design, creation of artwork, photography, graphics editing, collaboration, professional/technical writing, as well as site publication and promotion. Technical communicators working on community history Web sites enjoy creative freedom that makes these projects especially engaging and fun. While learning about subjects of particular interest and improving professional skills, developers gain the satisfaction of trying to help communities increase civic pride and heritage tourism. Also, the technical communication profession benefits when its members demonstrate good citizenship to employers, other constituencies, and the public.

Service learning, an expanding pedagogical movement, educates students to volunteer their expertise for the benefit of society. Teachers of business and technical writing can apply this pedagogy by assigning students to write for nonprofits. Such assignments prepare students for both workplace writing and responsible citizenship. To help our profession consider the appropriateness of this pedagogy, this article describes the origins of the movement and proposes a rationale for it in our field. This article then explains sequential projects and teaching methods intended to reduce problems related to collaborative writing for nonprofits. Last, resources are identified to help prepare grant proposals, perhaps the most beneficial kind of document for nonprofits.

Promotional writing for industrial and high-tech products, or technical copywriting, is gaining more and more attention in the profession of technical communication. In contrast, higher education has largely neglected to prepare students for this major form of written communication. One reason for this neglect may be that some academics do not well understand the role and importance of technical copywriting. Another reason may be the stigma of unethical writing associated with copywriting for consumer products. This article testifies to the significance of technical copywriting and suggests that dialogical audience analysis and an emphasis on the rational appeal will contribute to ethical writing performance. Also, resources are cited of common interest to instructors, beginning practitioners, and researchers. Last, these groups receive recommendations appropriate for their individual activities.

Professional Writing in Context: Lessons from Teaching and Consulting in Worlds of Work. John Frederick Reynolds, Carolyn B. Matalene, Joyce Neff Magnotto, Donald C. Sampson, Jr., and Lynn Veach Sadler. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, 1995. 186 pages. Writing High‐Tech Copy That Sells. Janice M. King. New York: Wiley, 1995. 275 pages.

Conceptual and empirical research were combined to develop information concerning the kinds of papers appropriate for lower-division technical writing in various kinds of institutions: the community college, the technical institute, the four-year college or small university, and the multi-purpose university. Relationships were studied between types of papers rated highly appropriate by teachers of technical writing and types of institutions as well as instructional aims. Also studied were those teachers' suggestions for specialized kinds of papers. The author discusses the implications of this research for determining instructional aims of lower-division technical writing courses in four-year institutions.