Becoming an Expert Writer: A Holistic Guide to Writing for Publication
By Dana Lynn Driscoll
Copy edited by Don Donahue. Designed by Mike Palmquist.
In Becoming an Expert Writer, Dana Lynn Driscoll explores the core concepts that create publication expertise. Informed by groundbreaking studies of successful emerging and expert writers as they seek to publish their work, this research-based guide illuminates the often-invisible dimensions of writing for publication. Driscoll describes strategies that move beyond conventional advice, allowing writers to craft a holistic process and relationship with their work. Each chapter integrates empirical research with reflective and practical activities, guiding writers from idea generation and flow to identity development and mentoring. The result is a transformative resource for developing sustainable, meaningful, and expert writing practices.
The following materials are available for download.
Web Guide for Using Becoming an Expert Writer. Written for faculty, writing centers, writing groups, and individuals mentoring emerging scholars, this guide provides suggestions and insights for the different ways this book can be used to support emerging scholars in doctoral education and beyond.
A Time Audit Chart and a Time Audit Sheet. These spreadsheets can be used in conjunction with the time audit activity described in Chapter 8.
About the Author
Dana Lynn Driscoll is Professor of Writing and Founding Director of the Center for Scholarly Communication at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. She has published widely on writing for publication, learning theory, writing transfer, expertise development, and supporting advanced writers in a range of disciplinary fields, including those in technology, science, and medicine. She teaches doctoral courses in writing for publication, quantitative and qualitative research methods, writing centers, and composition pedagogy in the doctoral program in Composition and Applied Linguistics at IUP. She has been the recipient of numerous field-wide grants and awards, including the 2023 Best WAC Article Focused on Research award and the 2012 International Writing Center Association’s Article of the Year award.
Publication Information:
Driscoll, Dana Lynn. (2026). Becoming an Expert Writer: A Holistic Guide to Writing for Publication.. The WAC Clearinghouse; University Press of Colorado. https://doi.org/1010.37514/PRA-B.2026.2753
Series Editors: Aimee McClure, Clarke University; Aleashia Walton, University of Cincinnati; Jagadish Paudel, Clemson University; and Mike Palmquist, Colorado State University
This book is available in whole and in part in Adobe’s Portable Document Format (PDF). It will also be available in a low-cost print edition from our publishing partner, the University Press of Colorado .
