listserv/newsgroup recommendations for techwriting students

["Roberta J. Kirby-Werner" <rjkirby -at- MAILBOX -dot- SYR -dot- EDU>]

Hi, everyone.  I'm writing to ask your input regarding listservs,
newsgroups, or other on-line connections students could establish in an
undergraduate technical/professional  writing class to prepare them for
workplace
and/or graduate school writing demands.  Most students will be juniors or
seniors in engineering or science disciplines, but I can always
anticipate a handful of students majoring in Information Studies,
English, Management, Communications, etc.  I teach at Syracuse
University, and I'll have a maximum of 20 students.

What I hope to do is create a research project involving on-line
searches, correspondences with "expert practitioners" in a particular
field or discipline, analysis of sample documents (including e-mail)
within a field or discipline, etc.  Students will have sufficient
latitude to define projects in a way to serve their own academic and
professional interests.  This project will be one strand of a course that
also requires students to complete individual and collaborative
technical/professional publication projects.

Clearly, I'm in the early stages of thinking about this project, so I
welcome your input.  If any of you who teach have tried this kind of
thing before, please share insights.  **Also, if any of you in the
workplace would be willing to correspond with students preparing to enter
your field or, more generally, the workplace, please tell me who you are,
what you do, and who you think might profit from corresponding with you.**

TIA for your input.

Bobbi
rjkirby -at- mailbox -dot- syr -dot- edu