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One of the issues not raised here so far is the use of the term "professional writing" as a new kind of god-term to include or subsume technial and business writing as well as writing done in workplace settings. In an academic context, this new term is used to create a sort of locus of power for those who have been marginalized in their own departments, be those English or Business or Engineering. And I really think that is where the term came from more than the other really facinating explanations and discussions that I've had the pleasure to read on this topic. If you start with the idea that "professional writing" is that kind of term and meant for that kind of purpose, then it is easier to live with the discontinuities that everybody has been pointing out--who considers what they write to be "professional writing"? what kinds of writing do we (academics) not count as professional" and so on. The term "professional writing" doesn't make much sense except as a move to establish power in the academic community; outside the academic community they don't really care what you call it. Roger Graves