Contexts, Relationships, Writers: Toward a Complex Model of Studying and Teaching Writing

Abstract

The professionalization of writing studies, through the contributions of pedagogic, cognitive and socio-cognitive, sociolinguistic, discursive, rhetorical or critical approaches, has let us broaden our understanding of writing beyond simple transcription. This progress has implied problematizing the defined object of study, and attending to processes, human activities, social practices, emotions, and identities. Such approaches pose theoretical and methodological challenges. The development of robust research design informed by complex epistemologies about writing is now a central topic in the study of communication and written culture around the world. In this thematic issue, “Beyond the Text: Situated Writing Research”, we called for research that would seek to understand context as an integral part of the writing phenomenon, and to develop writer-centric epistemologies and methodologies. The call resulted in seven papers from four countries, addressing literacies from early childhood to adult education. With a common theoretical horizon and renewed methodological designs, these articles identify the forces that structure writing practices and tend to challenge the institutional and evaluative regimes in which writing takes place. Their contributions enrich the advances made by writing studies in the last two decades and allow us to project future directions for development, specifically in terms of applying these research findings to learning inside and outside the classroom.