When pondering how to contribute to this special issue, the author was startled to realize that their career, the journal's history, and the development of the discipline--rhetoric and composition/writing studies (RCWS)--had run in parallel for 50 years. This essay tells a story of how "generation" came to matter in rhetoric and…

This research aims at exploring in an irregular orthographic system like French, if spelling is related to written composition. French spelling is particularly interesting because it includes phonographic irregularities (i.e., inconsistencies), lexical difficulties and numerous morphological silent marks (e.g., plural noun, adjective, and verb…

A primary goal of educational settings in the United States is to produce competent writers. However, most students do not receive adequate instruction and practice beyond grade three. Furthermore, only 29% of high school graduates without disabilities, and 5% with disabilities exit with proficient writing skills (U.S. Department of Education,…

Evaluative language is crucial in English for Academic Purposes (EAP) writing, particularly in expressing authorial stance and supporting arguments. Among various linguistic frameworks, appraisal in Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) has been extensively used to map and assess evaluative linguistic features. Since its inception in the early…

Metaphors situated within critical reflections provide powerful insight into how preservice teachers (PSTs) understand their experiences and the world around them, particularly in areas like writing which is consistently understudied in teacher education programs. The present qualitative study uses metaphor data from Fall 2021, Spring 2022, and…

"What works?" As teachers, it's a question we often ask ourselves about teaching writing, and it often summarizes other, more specific questions we have: (1) What contributes to an effective climate for writing? (2) What practices and structures best support effective writing instruction? (3) What classroom content helps writers develop?…

In this article, two transnational scholars of English studies engage in a collaborative autoethnography to illustrate the generative potential of translingualism as a scholarly common ground for writing studies and the history of English language studies. The argument hinges on the notion that translingualism's open-endedness to, and welcoming…

This work provides a chronological and thematic account of empirical studies and position papers on second language (L2) writing scholarship from a complex dynamic systems theory (CDST) perspective. As a theoretical framework, CDST was formally introduced into applied linguistics research by Diane Larsen-Freeman in 1994 (Larsen-Freeman, 1994).…

Multiple factors simultaneously interact during the writing process. The effect of these interacting factors must be considered if writing is studied as a dynamic and complex process that constantly changes. Based on that premise, the study aims to determine how the interaction between the reading medium and the communicative purpose of a writing…

In the present study we examined the contributions of transcription and foundational oral language skills to written composition outcomes in a sample of kindergartners. Two hundred and eighty-two kindergarten students from 49 classrooms participated in this study. Children's writing-related skills were examined using various tasks. Latent…

Most second language writing studies have approached the L2 Writing phenomenon through the cognitive theoretical lens that situates writing as a mental activity that resembles psychological and mathematical problem-solving (Cumming, 2016, p. 69). "While research on second language writing has expanded exponentially in recent years, it has for…

With the digital revolution of artificial intelligence (AI) in language education, the way how people write and create stories has been transformed in recent years. Although recent studies have started to examine the roles of AI in literacy, there is a lack of systematic review to inform how it has been applied and what has been achieved in…

This paper explores the feature of dynamicity (a composite of temporal and local properties) in research on collaborative digital writing (CDW) in academic writing assignments. The paper traces the ways in which current research typically approaches CDW and identifies the underlying elements of current and technological inquiry in this field:…

Research on second language (L2) collaborative writing (CW) has proliferated over the recent decade and will continue to bloom due to the changing landscape of writing and learning in the digital age. This article provides a research agenda on CW in L2 classrooms. We illustrate six research themes for future research inquiry by pointing out the…

The invention of composition as a required course in the United States, a booming textbook industry, and an increased focus on nationalism perpetuated the standardizing of English language practices and curriculums in secondary and postsecondary schools in the late 19th century and early 20th century. Composition textbooks circulated both standard…