In this course students are introduced to the history and theory of technical and professional communication as well as a variety of problem-solving strategies for technical scientific communication. The course also introduces students to principles of effective writing and includes practice in writing short reports, proposals, and other documents in technical and scientific fields. This course is designed to introduce students of technical and professional communication to some central works in the field, familiarize them with some of the prominent theorists and present some of the notable theoretical approaches. Our inquiries will be grounded in application, with frequent references to the practice of technical and professional communication, and to the artifacts (manuals, online help, Web pages, Social media, and so forth) that technical and professional communicators produce on the job.