After completing his PhD at Texas Tech, he spent three years at Northeastern University before joining the rhetoric and composition program at Purdue. His research explores professional and technical writing and rhetoric, particularly ethical issues related to writing with digital technology in academic and nonacademic settings. He leads a group of usability researchers who test Purdue’s online writing lab (OWL). With Thomas Rickert, Salvo recently explored the contribution of sound to the making of new media worlds that people can inhabit.