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Introduction This issue explores writers' and readers' sense of audience and authority. Authors examine how and when writers read and represent texts during composing, how representations of readers influence text production, and how issues of authority enter reader/writer relationships. Keith Grant-Davie synthesizes research that examines when writers read and represent texts during composing processes. Grant-Davie classifies writers' purposes for rereading their own texts, such as generating ideas and anticipating readers' responses, and he outlines areas for further research. Patricia Sullivan reports on a study of writing done by graduate students in English, students who often write for dual audiences: readers of professional journals on the one hand and professors/teachers on the other hand. Presenting four case studies, Sullivan argues that such conflicting audiences problematize writing for graduate students. Peter Mortensen explores another dimension of authority in reader/writer relationships in his study of graduate students who read and wrote about pairs of texts. Mortensen describes how writers' different reading strategies lead to different textual representations, how writers locate authority in readings, and what kind of evidence they do or do not accept as proof for arguments. I examine writers' sense of audience and authority during composing. Drawing on current theories of audience and providing examples from a protocol study, I describe writers' ways of establishing authority and addressing readers. Gesa Kirkish |