This work brings together internationally recognized scholars in a collection of original articles that delineates and explores central issues with regard to theory, research, instruction, assessment, politics, articulation with other disciplines, and standards. There has been a dramatic growth of interest in second-language writing and writing instruction in many parts of the world. Although an increasing number of researchers and teachers in both second-language studies and composition studies have come to identify themselves as specialists in second-language writing, research and teaching practices have been dispersed into several different disciplinary and institutional contexts because of the interdisciplinary nature of the field. This book allows second language writing specialists to systematically address basic issues in the field and to consider the state of the art at the beginning of the 21st century.