In this issue we continue with a focus on writing, with Brian Paltridge's discussion of issues in academic writing in various contexts around the world. Paltridge examines language analysis, teaching, and assessment, and looks at how the relationships between these perspectives inform our ever-evolving construct of academic writing. In the abstracts section, we include abstracts from some new journals, and readers new to these may be interested to observe the different research styles which are represented. As always, our aim is to provide a window onto the richness and diversity of research work in our field.