Blurring the boundaries: bringing students, faculty and business partners into mutual learning spaces

Technical writing teachers partnering with corporate clients for classroom projects find themselves in the position of negotiating expectations and outcomes for students, corporate partners, department faculty, administrators, potential employers, university research centers, etc. In this network of needs and influences, teachers need to maintain a safe environment where students can learn course content supplemented by the project component of the class. This paper explores the outcome of one such industry/academic partnership at Clemson University and the lessons we learned from our experience