ABSTRACT
The grammatical features of written texts are a frequent focus of writing researchers, as written texts get their structure and meaning from the language that constructs them. This chapter is concerned with studies that analyze the language of a written text at the level of the clause, by looking both at structure within the clause and at structures that enable movement from clause to clause within a text. The focus is on the language choices of the writer and what those language choices can reveal to writing researchers. We first review the theories and constructs that researchers use to approach the study of grammar in writing. Then the foci of this research are presented, showing how researchers have looked at differences between speaking and writing, at development of writing in firstand second-language students, at how language changes over time, and at functional variation related to genre and discipline. As it has become clear that grammar varies in ways that are functional for constructing texts of different types, research is increasingly oriented toward analysis of writing in particular contexts of use. In addition, this research is currently contributing to our understanding of how the choices of the writer construct different kinds of meanings in written text.
