The fact that technical writing is a form of discourse and not just a craft to be learned for a specific purpose means that it has at least three implications for the structure of writing programs. First, it is a method of writing development that is "you-centered" rather than "I-centered." Second, it is a heuristic for perceiving and organizing experience in a technological society. Third, it is a pragmatic alternative to the traditional and sometimes stale approaches to composition. Knowing and building on these implications, teachers of technical writing should seek to synthesize concepts of traditional freshman composition with concepts of traditional technical communication to revitalize their writing courses and to provide students with practical, lifelong learning skills. Communication is the basis of society's existence; and writing teachers must aid the development of their students' abilities to become parts of the system. Teachers can do this only by showing students the devices with which the system operates--the rhetoric that underlies technical writing. (RL)