In 1975, Newsweek published the article "Why Johnny Can't Write" which advocated for a back-to-basics movement in education and challenged researchers, scholars, and practitioners to re-examine the most effective methods for writing instruction. The Dartmouth Conference took place in 1966 prior to the Newsweek article and has been heralded as the major event that encouraged a shift in attention to the process of writing. In the four-plus decades since these two events took place, several studies have been conducted on the process and post-process movement as well as on the role of audience and publishing. However, missing from the literature is the experience of students as they write. Understanding their experiences with writing has the potential to inform writing practice and writing instruction.

This study used van Manen's (1990) Human Science Approach to interpret the meaning of the post-publication experiences of secondary urban students as they wrote for publication. In this instance, publication is a book that is produced by the Student Press Initiative (SPI) at Teachers College, Columbia University. The research question—What is the "essence" of the experience for students of writing for publication in an SPI project—was a deliberate attempt to bring the students' voice to the existing research on writing and publication. The ultimate aim of this study was to uncover the meaning and acquire a deeper understanding of the meaning or essence of writing for publication in an SPI project. The 10 participants were a mix of high school and college students, all from the South Bronx, all of whom contributed to a publication within 6-24 months prior to this study. Using a phenomenological design, data were collected primarily during multiple interviews with each participant and focus groups with them. From these data, multiple themes emerged and those presented in this dissertation that have the greatest implications for practice and best articulate how students experienced writing for publication in an SPI project.