Writing is complex, and the more researchers understand the cognitive processes and engagement for writing, the more complex the relationships between cognition and producing writing appear. Writing theory is constantly shifting from a focus on mechanics and form to a focus on creativity and sociability. This literature review analyzes four…

Recounts a teacher's involvement with students in the spontaneous process of learning to write. Presents the benefits of such an approach as preferable to conventional structured methods of writing instruction. (HTH)

Demonstrates how an integrated approach toward writing evaluation works at each stage of the writing process and presents a checklist teachers can use to assess whether their students use specific behaviors of the writing process as they compose. (FL)

According to James Britton, too much emphasis is being placed currently on revision. In his essay, "Shaping at the Point of Utterance," Britton notes that (1) concentrating on the reader in teaching writing can disturb the writer's ability to formulate what he or she wants to say; (2) the essence of the writing process is not writing…

To determine the designs, procedures, and findings of studies related to an investigation of the developmental aspects of the writing processes of children, a literature search was made of documents indexed in "Current Index to Journals in Education" (CIJE) and "Resources in Education" (RIE). A search was also made of the literature in…

Examines recent research that uses protocol analysis to determine the cognitive processes used by writers in planning their work. (FL)

Studies in developmental pragmatics have demonstrated that language learning is a fundamentally social (rather than fundamentally cognitive) phenomenon. It would seem, then, that teachers of writing need to find ways to create situations in which written language serves purposes the students see as real and is supported by an authentic, pragmatic…

Presents a model that predicts writing growth in children as a logical outcome of language acquisition. Provides a list of the kinds of language learning underway in the elementary school years and suggests that teachers may use this list to anticipate where and how such learning will influence the writing processes of children. (FL)

Noting that educators need to capture the interest of primary students early on to make lifelong writers out of them, this paper discusses ways to encourage the writing process in the primary grades. The paper discusses the philosophy of the writing process, what experts say about writing, setting up the environment, writing with lower primary…

The key ideas developed by the Writing across the Curriculum Project begun at the University of London in 1965 center on the ways in which discourse is acquired by children in a psycholinguistic sense. Among those ideas are (1) knowledge is socially determined through the interweaving of individual consciousnesses, each of which is busy construing…

A study examined the subtle impact of word processing (used alone) on the way students approach their writing tasks. Nine elementary school teachers were trained in techniques of naturalistic observation and received a kit containing important guidelines for their observational task, daily log sheets, and journal forms. The teachers then observed…

This booklet contains selected proceedings of the 1979 conference entitled "Competency Testing and Beyond: Improving Student Writing" held in Albany, New York. Topics covered in the 17 selections are: the "real" world and the teaching of English, what has been learned about competency testing in writing, the composing process, diagnosing student…

Demonstrates the complex social nature of literacy by examining research on the influence of social interactions on reading and writing development. Illustrates these findings with examples from the environment and activities of a kindergarten classroom. (MM)

Claims that there are many writing teachers, not just a few English/language arts teachers who are so designated, and that writing is already taught across the curriculum. Argues that teacher educators must reconsider their exclusive concern with methods and focus on teachers' theories of teaching and learning. (MS)

This paper describes three alternative perspectives--information processing, social constructivism, and Piagetian/naturalist--of reading/writing connections and suggests instructional implications influenced by the three perspectives. The paper explores each theory in terms of basic assumptions, related research, and strengths and limitations and…