ABSTRACT This special issue examines generative AI’s impact on technical editing, addressing evolving editor roles, ethics, accessibility, and pedagogy. Five articles offer complementary perspectives: Agbozo, Cummings, and Reilly reconceptualize editors as content designers; Sapienza surveys practitioners on AI in editorial workflows; Bryson et al. examine care ethics and generative AI in an undergraduate technical editing course; Mallette, Gray, and Krohn integrate AI literacy with social justice in editing education; and Baker and Weech advocate human-centered approaches in the classroom. We conclude with a research agenda for sustaining human editorial judgment.

ABSTRACT This article examines the evolving role of technical editors in an era of generative AI through the lens of machine rhetorics – the study of how computational systems engage in communication and persuasion. Drawing on structured interviews conducted in late 2024 with 12 practicing editors, writers, and content designers, the article documents how professionals are integrating AI tools into their workflows and compares their insights with current scholarship on AI and technical editing. Findings reveal that although AI tools enhance speed and efficiency in routine editing tasks, they require sustained human oversight for substantive editing, fact-checking, and contextual judgment. Participants identified a persistent expectation gap between what AI tools promise and what they deliver, particularly regarding factual accuracy and rhetorical nuance. The article argues that AI is prompting a reconfiguration of the technical editor’s role toward that of a content designer skilled in deploying machine rhetorics, and it offers implications for both workplace practice and pedagogy. Follow-up interviews conducted in early 2026 reinforce these findings while highlighting evolving concerns about access, tool integration, and the mental health impacts of routine AI use.

ABSTRACT This study investigates the Glow fertility app’s design through a cognitive walkthrough and user review content analysis to assess its impact on user empowerment. We frame our analysis within user experience and design justice, and find that Glow’s ad-heavy, cluttered interface, and limited personalization hinder menstrual health management. We argue that FemTech apps must prioritize inclusive and user-centered design, offering personalized content aligned with diverse menstrual goals to support user empowerment.

ABSTRACT This study analyzes 200 technical communication job postings from three U.S. cities to examine how employers define artificial intelligence (AI) competencies. Findings reveal increasing demand for AI familiarity, especially in content-focused roles and larger markets, though language describing AI skills remains inconsistent. Traditional skills remain essential. We conclude with recommendations for integrating AI instruction into technical communication curricula to better prepare students for a workplace shaped by emerging AI technologies.

ABSTRACT This article examines Requests for Funding Proposals (RFPs) as boundary objects at the intersections of scientific research, technical, and professional communication (TPC), and social justice. Focusing on one NASA RFP, we analyze how inclusion, diversity, equity, and access (IDEA) requirements compel writers to reimagine how scientific work is conducted and how with interdisciplinary teams work across social justice and scientific research.

ABSTRACT This article is the result of a multiyear collaboration between a tech comm professor, agricultural education faculty, an Extension agent, and 12 producers, and explores agritourism as a form of tactical technical communication (TTC), whereby agricultural producers advocate for themselves and their communities through communication about complex food systems with farm visitors. Through interviews, surveys, and observations, we learned what forms of TTC producers are already doing, what research is needed, and what our next steps need to be in supporting their communication goals with regard to agritourism. Our research offers key insights for technical communication practitioners working in Extension or in other capacities where they may be able to train producers, park rangers, or subject-matter experts in other fields who may not yet regard themselves as technical communicators, but who are poised to practice TTC with an attentive audience.

ABSTRACT Group negotiation of terms of service, community guidelines, and state and federal laws can be a site for investigating how power is reinforced through overlapping networks of compliance. As Technical and Professional Communication (TPC) seeks to rectify its complicity in oppressive practices, “queer use” may be a lens to analyze a digital sex work safety guide in consideration of online sex workers’ navigation of compliance documents. This analysis adds to queer scholarship in applied social justice, demonstrates how “refusing an instruction” is queer use, and centers user advocacy concerns about how platform governance disproportionately impacts hypermarginalized communities such as sex workers.

ABSTRACT This article introduces the Relational Approach to Archiving (RAA) as a vital framework to combat the issues posed by data colonialism in traditional archival practices. RAA emphasizes the active involvement of communities in the archival process, ensuring that their cultural knowledge and values guide how materials are preserved and described. The article begins by exploring the challenges of data colonialism and the risks and opportunities of machine-learning technologies in archiving. It then presents RAA as a solution that prioritizes community agency and cultural sensitivity, while also discussing how new technologies can empower community-run archives with careful oversight.