Book excerpt: Scientific and Technical Communication is a major textbook that represents a new focus area in communication studies. It integrates multidisciplinary perspectives on the relations among rhetoric, science, technology, and public policymaking to the process and product of technical communication. The text is inspired by science and technology studies (STS), a field emerging from the history, sociology, and philosophy of science and technology--which also has roots in economics, political theory, and rhetoric. Reformulating the issues raised by STS within the context of technical communication, Scientific and Technical Communication is composed of three highly integrated parts. Part I provides a summary, critique, and alternative to recent theoretical perspectives developed in the rhetoric of science and the sociology of scientific knowledge. Part II applies these critical alternatives to the traditional practices of scientific and technical communication and shows how these new practices can be applied to the communication that is vital in forming national and local science and technology policy. This hands-on, introductory textbook will supply students and professionals in the areas of scientific and technical communication, rhetoric, and media studies with broad-based and applicable knowledge in this area.