How I Became the Kind of Writer I Became: An Experiment in Autoethnography

In his exploration of his development as one of the most prolific and thoughtful writers in the field of writing studies, Charles Bazerman considers how, like all writers, he has been shaped in distinctive and unique ways by his literate experiences. ＂Each of our stories is particular,＂ he writes, calling this book ＂my experiment in saying what I can from my perspective about my development as a writer.＂ How I Became the Kind of Writer I Became poses questions about the lifespan development of writing and, in particular, how writing emerges within the ＂conditions, relations, and needs of life.＂ Observing that his autoethnography does not offer a norm or an ideal, Bazerman calls attention to the need for more of these kinds of reflections. ＂We need many such stories from many kinds of writers,＂ he notes, ＂reflecting on what opportunities, needs, experiences, and resources came their way and how they iteratively solved the problem of what to write and how to write it, as they saw it.＂ As the first book in the Lifespan Writing Research book series, Bazerman’s work serves as both a model for reflective inquiry and a call for additional work in this area.

Charles Bazerman is Emeritus Professor of Education at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where he served as Chair of the Program in Education for six years He is the author of numerous research articles and books on the social role of writing, academic genres, and textual analysis, as well as textbooks on the teaching of writing.