Tony Silva is Professor of ESL at Purdue University, where he has coordinated the ESL writing program. He is most widely known for his 1993 TESOL Quarterly article, which asserted the distinct nature of second language writing (as opposed to first language writing), thus legitimizing the existence of the field of second language writing.

Silva received his M.A. from the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign. After receiving his Ph.D. in Rhetoric and Composition from Purdue University, Silva took his first tenure-track position at Auburn University.

The term "second language writing" began to appear in the late 1980s as an alternative term for ESL writing. The term became widely recognized in the early 1990s, first with the publication of Second Language Writing: Research Insights for the Classroom edited by Barbara Kroll (1990), followed by the creation, in 1992, of the Journal of Second Language Writing, edited by Ilona Leki and Tony Silva.