I am  interested in the practice and teaching of writing, understood in a socio-historic context. Using socially based theories of genre, activity system, interaction, intertextuality, and cognitive development, I investigate the history of scientific writing, other forms of writing used in advancing technological projects, and the relation of writing to the development of disciplines of knowledge. 

I hope to contribute to our understanding of the importance of writing in all domains of modern life, and I hope to contribute to the teaching and learning of writing at all levels of schooling, as writing is a major medium of participating in society and developing one's life with the contemporary complex literate world. In these webpages my goal is to make accessible and available as much of my work as possible, and I grant permission for free use and reproduction as long as appropriate attribution is granted to the source.

In a number of other editorial projects (such as the Handbook of Research on Writing  and the series of Reference Guides to Rhetoric and Composition) and organizational initiatives (founder of the International Society for the Advancement of Writing Research and its Writing Research Across the Borders Conference; founder of the Research Network Forum; organizer of the ILEES project)  I also hope to support the aggregation and dissemination of all the knowledge my colleagues have gained about the power and potential of writing.

ESSAYS AND INTERVIEWS REFLECTING ON MY OWN DEVELOPMENT AS A WRITER AND SCHOLAR

Looking at Writing; Writing What I See. Living Rhetoric and Composition. ed. Theresa Enos and Duane Roen. Mahwah NJ: Erlbaum, 1998: 15-24.

A Reflective Moment in the History of Literacy. Multiple Literacies for the Twenty-first Century, ed B. Huot, B. Stroble, and C. Bazerman. Hampton, 2004. 

Rhetorical Research for Reflective Practice: A Multi-Layered Narrative. Research & Practice in Professional Discourse. City University of Hong Kong Press, 2003. 

The Work of a Middle-class Activist: Stuck in History. Activism and Rhetoric: Theories and Contexts for Political Engagement Ed Seth Kahn (pp. 37-46) Routledge, 2011. Revised updated version 2019.

‘Writing is Motivated Participation’: An Interview with Charles Bazerman. Writing on the Edge 6:2 (1995): 7-20. Reprinted in J. Boe, D. Masiel, E. Schroeder, and L. Sperber (eds.), Teachers on the Edge: The WOE Interviews, 1989-2017. Routledge, 2017. Pp. 181-193.

Circles of Interest: The Growth of Research Communities in WAC and WID/WIP. (with Anne Herrington). Inventing a Profession: WAC History. (ed. S. McLeod). Parlor Press, 2006.