Charles R. Cooper is an emeritus professor at the University of California, San Diego. He served as coordinator of the Third College (now Thurgood Marshall College) Composition Program at the University of California, San Diego, and co-director of the San Diego Writing Project, one of the National Writing Project Centers. He advised the National Assessment of Educational Progress—Writing (1973-1981) and coordinated the development of California's first statewide writing assessment (1986-1991). He taught at the University of California, Riverside; the State University of New York at Buffalo; and the University of California, San Diego. He is co-editor, with Lee Odell, of
Evaluating Writing and
Research on Composing: Points of Departure, and he is co-author, with Rise Axelrod, of the best-selling textbook
The St. Martin's Guide to Writing as well as
The Concise Guide to Writing and
Reading Critically, Writing Well.