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Grounded in Lewin's notion that there is "nothing so practical as a good theory," applied communication scholars have been encouraged over the last 25 years to address practical problems and to do so in ways that simultaneously test or develop theoretically-informed interventions to solve problems and contribute to theory building. With this growing emphasis on the role of theory in applied communication research, traditional concepts of social science theory have also been questioned. Scholars have proposed various new forms of theory or theorizing practices intended to be more "useful" or "practical" than traditional theory; however, no consensus has emerged on how to make theories of communication more practical. This paper shows how recent metatheoretical work on the concept of practical theory offers several alternative ways for applied communication scholars and practitioners to address practical problems and also build useful theory. Elaborating and applying Barge's distinctions among practical theory as mapping, engaged reflection, and transformative practice, we examine the concepts, assumptions, and methods of each approach as they are lived out in recent theory and research conducted by applied communication scholars. Theory already is widely used for practical purposes in applied research. The contribution of explicit practical theory approaches, as we show, is to provide normative models and exemplary lines of work that can be used to articulate, critique, and further advance already existing practical tendencies in the use of theory in applied communication scholarship. We conclude with a consideration of issues affecting the future development of practical theory in applied communication scholarship. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]