ABSTRACT
The contemporary field of writing research includes substantial contributions from the disciplines and subdisciplines of education, psychology, linguistics, anthropology, cultural studies, computer science, communication, and composition. This research activity has illuminated the deeply interconnected grouping of cognitive processes and multilayered social, cultural, historical, and linguistic activities that make writing a complex and worthwhile human endeavor and object of study. The specialization of researchers and the differentiation of research within each of these fields have raised the awareness of the value of writing in the many arenas where writing is practiced and taught, and have helped set writing on an equal footing with reading in the literacy curriculum of schools today. Results of these studies have acted as qualifiers for each other and as warnings against the tendency toward reductionist approaches to writing. However, this wide range of approaches to writing research has created an enormous amount of data that can be difficult to synthesize. They have also called to attention the nontrivial and potentially problematic differences in the ways different disciplines think about writing theory, research, and practice.
