Introduction

The types of research that fall under the scope of L2 writing research are varied and broad, and different volumes divide up the field in different ways. Probably the most basic distinction between types of research is related to a pedagogical distinction, namely the difference between writing as way to learn language and writing for real-life purposes. These have been described as writing-to-learn and learning-to-write approaches (e.g., Manchón, 2011). A writing-to-learn-language focus would be on activities or tasks not done outside of the classroom. One example of such an activity is a dictocomp, an activity in which students reconstruct a text after listening to it. Although the associated text could be related to real-life purposes, the activity is often used to get students to learn to use the language from the text. We also might include here studies that focus on corrective feedback. Although grammar feedback might be given on any type of assignment, research in this area focuses on language learning, not on the task as it is used outside the classroom. On the other hand, a learning-to-write activity might teach students how to write a literature review for an academic paper. There would be a focus on the language used, for example through explicit instruction or feedback, but also a focus on the content, organization, and audience. The goal is for students to be able to write a literature review in their respective academic fields. In the classroom, these approaches are not mutually exclusive. In research, they may not be either, but there is often a focus on one or the other. For example, consider a study that manipulates task complexity and then examines the effect on writers’ language (e.g., Kuiken & Vedder, 2008). The goal of the study is to understand what teachers can do to help students produce more complex language without necessarily considering students’ real-life goals. Conversely, consider Lillis and Curry’s (2010) volume on the politics of publishing in English. They studied scholars with real-life writing goals and how those scholars went about producing English texts within their research networks. There was little emphasis on how such scholars’ language learning was affected. Both of these studies fall within the area of L2 writing. Although we are considering only writing research in which learners produce texts beyond the sentence level, we include both research in which the writing is used for real-life purposes and writing that is done only for the purposes of language learning.