recent books. . .

I once thought it would be a thing to do to become a writer.  At that time being a writer was more an identity claim about one's interests and proclivities - maybe even lifestyle, though we didn't use that word then - than it was a description of the actions of writing.  One read good books and had beers at Chumley's if you ever got to New York.  One talked with friends about the nature of the world in a sagacious and despairing style.  Now with my name on quite a few books, I guess I could say I've become a writer.  But not the kind of writer I imagined then.

I would never have imagined what sort of books I would write and that's probably a good thing.  The short CV gives the titles of the most recent books - the past 10 years or so.  Here are the most recent three.

Scollon, Ron and Suzie Wong Scollon.  2003.  Discourses in Place: Language in the Material World.  London: Routledge.

Signs mean what they mean to a large extent because of where they are placed on the earth.  A stop sign means stop only when placed at a possible vehicle stopping point.  Any other place the meaning is entirely potential.  We call this study of the in place meaning (not the potential) meaning of signs geosemiotics.   It's our first book on geosemiotics.  We found this a lot of fun to do and to write.  My newest book project is trying to extend these ideas.

Scollon, Ron and Suzie Wong Scollon.  2004.  Nexus Analysis: Discourse and the Emerging Internet.  London: Routledge.

'Mediated discourse analysis' and 'geosemiotics' are theoretical positions.  Nexus analysis is the practical and methodological arm of these.  To develop our ideas in this book we went back to our work  25 years ago in Fairbanks (5 years before the invention of the internet) when we set up the first academic courses for credit offered via email.  We show how that project was connected to Alaska Native Language research in small rural communities throughout the State of Alaska.

Ron Scollon.  2007.  Analyzing Public Discourse:  Discourse Analysis in the Making of Public Policy.  Abingdon: Routledge.

Public consultations like the ones involved in preparing Environmental Impact Statements are required by law in many cases of public policy development  in the US, the UK, Europe, Australia & New Zealand and quite a few others.  Most often the agency holding the consultation must publish their responses to public testimony or written submissions.  This book shows for undergraduate-level students how to prepare a discourse analysis of policy documents which are being considered and how to enter that analysis into the public consultation process.