Writing is omnipresent in our lives, yet, according to USU’s Joyce Kinkead, Distinguished Professor of English, we too rarely stop and consider its history, tools, technologies, and mythologies. A Writing Studies Primer, just published by Broadview Press, seeks to rectify that by guiding readers through the development of writing across time and societies.
The book incorporates autoethnography and asks readers to consider writing histories, influences, processes, and tools in their own lives. Short readings and writing exercises are included for each chapter, and illuminating visual images are incorporated throughout. Designed for composition courses with a Writing about Writing focus or courses in writing studies, A Writing Studies Primer is a unique introduction to writing through its material culture.
Comments on A Writing Studies Primer
“Joyce Kinkead has written an enormously engaging, insightful, and valuable book on the history, technologies, materials, and conditions of writing, from ancient China to the 2020 pandemic. I underscore engaging, because while this book is encyclopedic in the very best sense, it is also deeply personal, with a lively style and personal anecdotes drawn from Kinkead’s expert experiences and travels, literally around the world. Beyond the wealth of fascinating information and insightsabout writing (Scratches on bones? Multiple alphabets? Rags into paper? Why books are books? Patron saints and muses? Letters? Ancient schools?), she includes questions and hands-on activities that are invariably engaging. I found myself consistently intrigued, and I imagine that everyone from students to writers to casual readers will be too. A Writing Studies Primer is a bountifully important and entertaining gem—a Red Letter Book.” —Douglas Hesse, The University of Denver
“Joyce Kinkead’s helpful, broadly focused primer is written by a scholar who is clearly in love with the field of writing studies, even after being immersed in it for 40 years. In this book, which is pitched toward both graduate and undergraduate students, she speaks in clear, compelling, and creative prose about diverse topics encompassed by our discipline, including the writing process, the history of writing and alphabetic/print culture, and the material culture of writing. While her book is rich in history and concepts important to the study of writing, it is at the same time written with accessibility in mind, and students and faculty will appreciate Kinkead’s smart and translucent writing. Writing studies is a discipline that is often hard to describe to students and faculty, andthis book can help not only introduce it but also encourage students to take it up.” —Cydney Alexis, Kansas State University
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