Academic Literacy and the Nature of Expertise: Reading, Writing, and Knowing in Academic Philosophy. Cheryl Geisler. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1994. 354 pp. Computer Ethics: Cautionary Tales and Ethical Dilemmas in Computing. 2nd ed. Tom Forester and Perry Morrison. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1994. 347 pp. A Practical Guide to Usability Testing. Joseph S. Dumas and Janice C. Redish. Norwood, NJ: Ablex, 1993. 412 pp. Managing Your Documentation Projects. JoAnn T. Hackos. New York: Wiley, 1994. 629 pp. Hypertext in Hypertext. George P. Landow. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP, 1994. 242 pp. Available in either MS Windows or Apple Macintosh versions on two 3.5 inch diskettes.

Understanding Scientific Prose. Jack Selzer, ed. Wisconsin UP, 1993, 388 pp. A History of Professional Writing Instruction in American Colleges: Years of Acceptance, Growth, and Doubt. Katherine H. Adams. Dallas: Southern Methodist UP, 1993. xi + 192 pp. Technical Writing: Contexts, Audiences, and Communities. Carolyn R. Boiarsky. Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 1993. 652 pp. Technical Communication. 3rd ed. Rebecca E. Burnett. Belmont: Wadsworth, 1994. 742 pp. Technical Communication: Problems and Solutions. Roy F. Fox. New York: Harper Collins, 1994. 610 pp. Communicating Technical Information: A Guide for the Electronic Age. Donald Pattow and William Wresch. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall, 1993. 600 pp.

EDUCATION and training. Scholarly and vocational. Theoretical and practical. These terms describe traditionally divergent points of view that converge in technical communication curricula and courses. The directors of those programs and the teachers of those courses perform often delicate balancing acts to encourage that convergence. Creating and maintaining a balanced point of view is the theme for the two essays in this issue's Education and Training department.

The syllabus for a course in teaching technical writing is presented. The course is intended for graduate students, who will in turn use the course material to teach technical writing to college undergraduates.

Writing last year in a Carnegie Foundation special Report, Nell Eurich reported that “more and more companies are teaching analytical skills and critical thinking” in corporate training classrooms (Corporate Classrooms, p. 77). A recent Associated Press story tells of Xerox Corporation's decision to spend $5 million to start a nonprofit institute at its Palo Alto Research Center that will “study how people think and learn and … try to develop new, more effective ways of teaching.” David Kearns, Xerox chairman and chief executive officer, is quoted as saying that “one of every three major corporations now is teaching new workers basic reading, writing, and mathematics.”

The question of what makes technical communication a profession and its practitioners professionals is discussed. Technical communicators as professionals are urged to replace practices and standards of proficiency influenced by the technical aspect of the profession with a concept of professionalism based on elegance, as derived from the humanities.