Writing in the Real World: Making the Transition from School to Work (Language and Literacy Series)

How can we prepare the workforce of tomorrow to meet the increasing writing demands placed upon them in the Information Age? In this timely text, Anne Beaufort provides a multidimensional response to this critical question. Through analyzing the knowledge domains writers draw upon in specific writing situations, Beaufort illuminates the conditions that contribute to the ongoing development of writing skills.

Using findings gathered in a longitudinal study of four women, Beaufort renders a richly drawn ethnographical account of how writers are socialized into ways of communicating according to the conventions of their workplace. Beaufort offers a vital view of the developmental process entailed in attaining writing fluency in school and beyond, and the conditions that contribute to acquiring such expertise. Her book illuminates what it takes to foster the flexibility and versatility writers must possess in the workplace of the twenty-first century.

Anne Beaufort is an assistant professor and director of the College Writing Program in the Department of Literature at American University.