The analysis of language is basic to the enterprise of composition studies: every study in the field is based implicitly or explicitly on the analysis of text and/or talk in their various contexts. Yet within this robust tradition of the analysis of language in composition studies, surprisingly little has been published about different approaches to the systematic analysis of discourse. The present volume aims to fill this gap in the research literature of the field, with a collection of 18 chapters synthesizing and situating the systematic study of discourse more explicitly in the field of composition. Each chapter in the volume follows a common tri-partite structure: a description of a particular approach to discourse analysis, a case study using that approach, and a discussion of the value of this approach in the field of composition studies.