Becoming Writers draws on phenomenological and lifespan approaches to writing research, reframing writing as a lived process shaped by social contexts, evolving technologies, and a writer’s own sense of self and agency. It moves beyond familiar binaries and offers a more holistic account of what it means to become a writer today.

Bringing together scholars from across the fields of writing studies and rhetoric/composition to consider the ways “writing” is changing in the twenty-first century, this collection tracks how and why people talk about the various forms of writing they do. Contributors address how younger generations understand the role and place of writing in their lives, particularly amid increasing and dramatic economic, social, and political change, as well as the ever-evolving role of writing in what it means to be human.

Becoming Writers builds on the Wayfinding Project (https://thewayfindingproject.com), a multiyear study of writing development focused on college graduates. Rather than focusing solely on the classroom, Becoming Writers investigates how writing functions in people’s professional, civic, personal, and digital lives. By centering lived experiences across domains, it provides a model of the empirical depth and different methodological approaches being used by scholars interested in writing development across the lifespan.

Karen Lunsford is professor of writing and former director of the independent Writing Program at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Her most recent publication is a special issue of Kairos titled “Science Communication and Writing Studies in a Multimodal World”.

Carl Whithaus is professor of writing and rhetoric at the University of California, Davis, and a principal investigator for the Peer and AI Review + Reflection (PAIRR) project. His books include Swarms, Viral Writing, and the Local, Multimodal Literacies and Emerging Genres and Writing Across Distances and Disciplines.

Jonathan Alexander is Chancellor’s Professor of English and chair of the Department of English at the University of California, Irvine. He is the author, coauthor, or coeditor of twenty-three books. In 2023, he received the Conference on College Composition and Communication Exemplar Award in recognition of career achievements.