Phillips Co-Edits Book on Approaches to Lifespan Writing Research

Dr. Talinn Phillips

Approaches to Lifespan Writing Research: Generating an Actionable Coherence was co-edited by Talinn Phillips (Associate Professor of English at Ohio University) and Ryan Dippre of the University of Maine and published by the WAC Clearinghouse/University Press of Colorado.

This edited collection represents the work of the Writing Through the Lifespan Collaboration, an international collaboration of researchers in Writing Studies who are interested in understanding how people’s writing changes across their lives and what triggers those changes. Dippre and Phillips established the collaboration in 2016 and are its co-chairs.

In this new book, contributors take stock of the various research methods that are needed to truly tackle a research subject as complex as writing across the lifespan. Chapters showcase specific research methods that the contributors argue are valuable for lifespan research and also demonstrate lifespan research in action through a set of studies that investigate writing in third grade classrooms, in college, within families, and among older adults. Dippre and Phillips then use these diverse methods and groups of participants to chart a path forward for developing coordinated lifespan research studies with multiple populations at sites around the globe.