The Act of Writing

This book is a wide-ranging exploration of the act of writing which focuses on a variety of ways in which the experience is framed by academic and literary writers. With a primary focus on academic writing, Dr Chandler outlines the importance of the media and processes of mediation involved, referring in particular to language, the written word, textual genres, writing tools, academic disciplines and roles, publishing systems and personality.

Daniel Chandler has produced an exhaustive study of the writing process from a variety of perspectives, his seventeen-page bibliography being a testament in its own right to the size of his undertaking. The range of writers quoted is fascinating, and the extracts which illustrate what they have to say about their craft are a never-ending source of delight. There is much in this work which will be useful to writers, particularly those in academic settings, whose needs are held in mind throughout the text.

The Author

Dr Daniel Chandler is now a lecturer in the Department of Theatre, Film and Television Studies at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth. Co-editor of Computers and Literacy (Open University Press) and author of Semiotics: The Basics (Routledge), he has published extensively and lectured in many countries on this topic since 1981.

ISBN 0 903878 44 5

First published April 1995; currently out of print though copies are occasionally available on Amazon.co.uk. Click here for selected sources of copies of this book in UK reference libraries.

The whole text is currently available online in Word 6 format. You may download this for your own personal academic use only. The electronic version has the great advantage of being searchable; on the other hand, who would want to read such a book via the screen?

Some On-Line Extracts

• Processes of Mediation
  
• Texts and the Construction of Meaning
  
• The Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis
  
• Writing Strategies