Provides an innovative and multi-disciplinary approach to writing practices in institutions and organisations, and brings together research-based accounts of writing in a variety of settings to show how texts are constructed through the practices of social and institutional groups. A collection of specially commissioned essays on professional and academic writing by leading authorities from a wide range of disciplinary backgrounds, including linguistics, teaching, psychology, psychiatry and discourse analysis, which together integrate different approaches on writing - texts, processes and practices. Throughout the text an explicit link is made between the research discussed and the practice, while case studies illustrate how writing research can play a major role in the design of writing programmes.