Edinburgh Sociolinguistics Series Editors: Joan Swann and Paul Kerswill Designed for newcomers to the field as well as postgraduates and academics with an interest in socially oriented approaches to language, this series covers the core topics in sociolinguistics. Volumes are discursive, accessibly written and offer both a critical overview and insights derived from the authors' own research. As a whole, the series provides a comprehensive introduction to sociolinguistics. 'With clear vision and a broad reach this book provides a powerful contribution to understanding the nature of writing. Equally important is its contribution to sociolinguistics, showing how the study of written language belongs at the centre of contemporary sociolinguistics.' David Barton, Lancaster University This book puts writing at the centre of sociolinguistic inquiry drawing on a range of academic fields including New Literacy Studies, semiotics, genre studies, stylistics and new rhetoric. The key question the book explores is - what do we mean by 'writing' in the twenty-first century? Using examples - such as blogs, academic writing, fanfiction, poems, texting, newspaper articles, souvenir labels, advertisements, wikis, political banners, letters, YouTube comments, asylum applications - the book argues that writing, involving both old and new technologies, is a pervasive and complex communicative feature of contemporary life. The book is organised around the following areas: - The multimodal nature of writing - The verbal dimension to writing - Writing as everyday practice - Writing as a differentiated semiotic and social resource - Writing as the inscription of identity A range of analytic tools for analysing writing as text and practice are illustrated including genre, register, discourse and metaphor, as well as notions which emphasise the mobile potential of writing such as genre chains, networks, literacy brokers and text trajectories. This book seeks to redress the neglect of writing in the field of sociolinguistics by introducing readers to the nature and consequences of what it means to do writing in a globalised world. Theresa Lillis is Professor in English Language and Applied Linguistics at the Open University, UK. Cover design: [EUP logo] www.euppublishing.com

Bringing the study of writing to the heart of sociolinguistic inquiry, this textbook illustrates and challenges the 'great divide' between speech and writing and raises questions about what's involved in viewing any stretch of language as 'written/writing'. The book is organised around four main areas: 1) socially oriented text analyses of written texts; 2) modality inflected analyses of texts and practices; 3) writing as identity and performance; and 4) the analysis of literacy practices in relation to networks, access, participation and resources. Further topics covered include: what we mean by 'writing'; specific functions of writing and written texts within academic knowledge in sociolinguistics; and key practical questions about carrying out research into writing from sociolinguistic perspectives. Core sociolinguistic approaches to writing are explored throughout the book, including, for example, different aspects of the politics of orthography and writing systems.