Book excerpt: This revised and updated second edition is a rhetorical analysis of written communication in the mental health community. As such, it contributes to the growing body of research being done in rhetoric and composition studies on the nature of writing and reading in highly specialized professional discourse communities. Many compelling questions answered in this volume include: * What "ideological biases" are reflected in the language the nurse/rhetorician uses to talk to and talk about the patient? * How does language figure into the process of constructing meaning in this context? * What social interactions -- with the patient, with other nurses, with physicians -- influence the nurse's attempt to construct meaning in this context? * How do the readers of assessment construct their own meanings of the assessment? Based on an ongoing collaboration between composition studies specialists and mental health practitioners, this book presents research of value not only to writing scholars and teachers, but also to professional clinicians, their teachers, and those who read mental health records in order to make critically important decisions. It can also be valuable as a model for other scholars to follow when conducting similar long-range studies of other writing-intensive professions.