Advances In Writing Research Volume 2

The authors report research that considers writing in all levels of schooling, in science, in the public sphere, and in the workplace, as well as the relationship among these various places of writing. The authors also consider the cultures of writing—among them national cultures, gender cultures, schooling cultures, scientific cultures, and cultures of the workplace.

The 30 chapters in this edited collection were selected from the more than 500 presentations at the Writing Research Across Borders II Conference in 2011. With representatives from more than 40 countries, this conference gave rise to the International Society for the Advancement of Writing Research. The chapters selected for this collection represent cutting edge research on writing from all regions, organized around three themes?cultures, places and measures. The authors report research that considers writing in all levels of schooling, in science, in the public sphere and in the workplace, as well as at the relationship among these various places of writing. The authors also consider the cultures of writing?among them national cultures, gender cultures, schooling cultures, scientific cultures and cultures of the workplace. Finally, the chapters examine various ways of measuring writing and how these measures interact with practices of teaching and learning.

The current volume aspires to add to previous research on the connection between writing and language learning from a dual perspective: It seeks to reflect current progress in the domain as well as to foster future developments in theory and research. The theoretical postulations contained in Part I identify and expand in novel ways the diverse lenses through which the varied, multi-faceted dimensions of the connection between writing and language learning can be explored. The methodological reflections put forward in Part III signal theoretically-grounded and pedagogically-relevant paths along which future empirical work can grow. The empirical studies reported in Part II illuminate the myriad of individual, educational, and task-related variables that (may) mediate short-term and long-term language learning outcomes. These studies examine diverse forms of writing, performed in varied environments (including pen-and-paper and digital writing), conditions (writing individually and/or collaboratively), and instructional settings (academic settings – including secondary school and college level institutions – as well as out-of-school contexts).

For the most part, those who teach writing and administer writing programs do not conduct research on writing. Perhaps more significantly, they do not often read the research done by others because effective reading of articles on empirical research requires special knowledge and abilities. By and large, those responsible for maintaining and improving writing instruction cannot -- without further training -- access work that could help them carry out their responsibilities more effectively. This book is designed as a text in graduate programs that offer instruction in rhetoric and composition. Its primary educational purposes are: * to provide models and critical methods designed to improve the reading of scientific discourse * to provide models of effective research designs and projects appropriate to those learning to do empirical research in rhetoric. Aiming to cultivate new attitudes toward empirical research, this volume encourages an appreciation of the rhetorical tradition that informs the production and critical reading of empirical studies. The book should also reinforce a slowly growing realization in English studies that empirical methods are not inherently alien to the humanities, rather that methods extend the power of humanist researchers trying to solve the problems of their discipline.

Now in paperback, Tune In is the New York Times bestseller by the world’s leading Beatles authority – the first volume in a groundbreaking trilogy about the band that revolutionized music. The Beatles have been in our lives for half a century and surely always will be. Still, somehow, their music excites, their influence resonates, their fame sustains. New generations find and love them, and while many other great artists come and go, the Beatles are beyond eclipse. So . . . who really were these people, and just how did it all happen? 'The Beatles story' is everywhere. Told wrong from early on, rehashed in every possible way and routinely robbed of its context, this is a phenomenon in urgent need of a bright new approach. In his series All These Years, Mark Lewisohn – the world-recognized Beatles historian – presses the Refresh button to relate the entire story as it’s never been told or known before. Here is a full and accurate biography at last. It is certain to become the lasting word. Tune In is book one of three, exploring and explaining a period that is by very definition lesser-known: the formative pre-fame years, the teenage years, the Liverpool and Hamburg years – in many ways the most absorbing and incredible period of them all. The Beatles come together here in all their originality, attitude, style, speed, charisma, appeal, daring and honesty, the tools with which they’re about to reshape the world. It’s the Beatles in their own time, an amazing story of the ultimate rock band, a focused and colorful telling that builds and builds to leave four sharp lads from Liverpool on the very brink of a whole new kind of fame. Using impeccable research and resources, Tune In is a magisterial work, an independent biography that combines energy, clarity, objectivity, authority and insight. The text is anti-myth, tight and commanding – just like the Beatles themselves. Here is the Beatles story as it really was. Throw away what you think you know and start afresh.

Busy academics must publish. To fulfil research output, they must write to a specific journal style and high standard while juggling other professional tasks. This book develops understanding of how writing happens, what good writing looks and feels like, what gets published and what does not and why.

Writing in Social Spaces addresses the problem of making time and space for writing in academic life and work of the professionals and practitioners who do academic writing'. Even those who want to write, who know how to write well and who have quality publications, report that they cannot find enough time for writing. Many supervisors are unsure about how to help postgraduates improve their writing for thesis and publication. Whilst the problem does presents through concerns with ‘time’, it is also partly about writing practices, academic identities and lack of motivation. This book provides a research-based, theorised approach to the skill of writing whilst retaining a link to writing practices and giving immediate yet sustainable solutions to the writing problem. It supplies new theory and practice on: socializing writing-in-progress and writing with others exploring the alternation of conscious and unconscious, internal and external processes in academic writing whilst in a social grouping Applying social processes in the writing process Using case studies and vignettes of writing in social spaces to illustrate the theory in practice, This book is a valuable resource for academics, scholars, professionals and practitioners, as well as researchers at all stages of their career, and in all disciplines.