technical and professional communication and laboratories

The recent call for articles for a special issue of Technical Communication Quarterly linking cultural studies and technical communication and the push to recognize the importance of narrative for professional and technical communication (see Blyler, 1996; David, 1999; Faber, 1998; Jameson, 2000; Perkins & Blyler, 1999; Sheehan & Rode, 1999) are two of the latest developments in the field that speak to a growing commitment to viewing professional and technical communication as socially mediated practices that validate some knowledges while excluding others. These developments are a far cry from technical and professional communication’s historical emphasis on concise, naked prose that cleanly conveys untouched science (see Longo, 2000 for an excellent overview of technical communication's evolution over the course of the 20th century). Naming the places in which students learn about professional and technical writing after the laboratory—a site whose discursive practices evolved out of a desire to erase all traces of persuasion and subjectivity—seems counterproductive if we are serious about embedding wireless technologies and professional and technical communication in personal, spatial, institutional, political, and cultural contexts. The laboratory metaphor has potentially unfavorable connotations for students and instructors of composition learning in wireless environments as well.