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One of the issues that interests me most as a teacher is the relationship between professional writing and professional *development*. This is an indirect way to go at a definition, but I think the various ways of teaching professional writing say something about the various ways it can be defined: Some courses focus on standard genres/formats for novices, while others teach rhetorical strategies assuming that novices becoming managers need more rhetorical awareness; still others focus on big-picture, ethical issues placing students in the position of corporate leaders and policy makers, or at least consultants/spokespeople. While I don't like the hierarchical bent of this description, I think the question of writing for professional/career development is an important one. I, personally, prefer to subordinate issues of form and genre to rhetorical and ethical issues. Change is the only constant: writers in the professions, I think, need to be able to adapt to volatile technical and economic environments. So for me professional writing is less about particular genres and conventions and more about rhetoric and ethics.