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…

Many students find writing extremely difficult and frustrating because they are not able to learn and apply the strategies used by skilled writers. Self-Regulated Strategy Development (SRSD) is a comprehensive, flexible model that explicitly helps students learn to manage the writing process. An extensive body of research has documented that SRSD…

The most used model for empirical research on the writing process is based on cognitive psychology and does not take into account affective phenomena, although it has long been recognized that affect (that is, the noncognitive aspects of mental activity) plays a large role in writing and learning to write. To understand the complete picture, it is…

Six teacher-researchers (three elementary school teachers, one teacher of hearing-impaired, one Chapter One teacher, and one university researcher) investigated how their membership in a community of writers affected their perceptions of themselves as writers. Three themes emerged in transcriptions of biweekly meetings held over one school year:…

A study investigated the writing done by third graders and the processes used when learning to use writing as a meaning-making activity. Four focal students were followed through composing episodes. The classroom was located in a suburban, upper middle class area in Ohio. Less than 3% of the school district population were members of a minority…

Scholars from varied disciplines--first language (L1) acquisition, second language (L2) acquisition, composition research, and cognitive psychology--have found a high level of permeability in their search for more effective classroom models of writing instruction. Among the most influential work in this area has been Stephen Krashen's theory of L2…

This study of the Apple Classroom of Tomorrow (ACOT) environment focused on the potential of a computer-saturated environment to facilitate students' thinking processes. Four approaches were used: (1) a longtitudinal approach to study student growth and development; (2) observations of students' behavior while writing with the computer to study…

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…

A study examined the influence of a humorous genre study on children's writing from writer's workshop and children's projects during a language arts period. The study explored the type of humor selected by children to assimilate into their writing and projects. Humorous material with ambiguous language was presented in multiple formats of print,…