Toward 2000: Education, the Society, and the Profession

The last decade has seen the explosive growth of technical communication as a dynamic profession and as an innovative, multidisciplinary academic field. As information became a valuable commodity in itself, technical communicators found themselves increasingly specialized, involved, and valued in their organizations. Similarly, the sheer growth in the number of academic programs in technical communication suggests that we have all come of age. This special issues of Technical Communication, focuses on two central goals: To explore the issues, challenges, opportunities, and new responsibilities facing technical communication education and learning, and to assess—in view of rapid developing technologies, methods, and processes—the need for education innovation in academic programs.