Writing in Nonacademic Settings

When we think of writing we tend to think of journalism, fiction and poetry, or academic articles and books, forgetting that most writing is never intended for publication. Rather, it is prepared by white-collar employees in the daily performance of their jobs. Ironically, until quite recently composition has been taught be academics who, by and large, were ignorant of the sorts of writing their students would be called upon to do after college in the extra-university settings for which they were being prepared. Recognizing the critical need among composition instructors for more specific information about nonacademic writing, editors Odell and Goswami present the findings of leading investigators in composition research and suggest how these data might be used to inform writing curricula. This volume offers important insights into the many contexts, forms, and audiences for nonacademic prose, as well as the impact of new communications technologies on the writing process and the written document. Providing a broadening of the concept of writing, and the effect it has on workers in a wide range of settings, this volume will be useful for composition researchers, linguists, students of survey methodology, and all teachers of rhetoric and composition.