Drawing upon reading and text comprehension theories and the sociolinguistic studies of M. A. K. Halliday and R. Hasan, this paper builds theoretical links between the reading and writing processes. The major portion of the paper discusses the five language concepts that undergird both processes: (1) text processing in both reading and writing…

Prewriting involves the entire period of time (and necessary activities) which extends between knowing that one is going to write on something and knowing that one has found something specific and substantial to say about it. In classical rhetoric, prewriting is expressed by such terms as "inventio" (whereby the writer discovers ideas to…

Two major factors have shaped writing research from the cognitive processing viewpoint. The first factor contains the strategic decisions about the course of such research, suggesting what is interesting and how best to proceed. The decisions made in regard to writing as a cognitive process have been to focus on the act of writing, to seek a…

A review of descriptions of the composing process and of the analytical tools developed to measure, describe, and judge student writing suggests that a comprehensive theory of evaluation is an important next step for composition theorists and researchers who want to understand how people learn to write. A study involving three groups of…

The task of writing teachers is to convince the reluctant developmental writer to see writing not just in terms of grammatical correctness, but in terms of process or of discovery. Once the writer begins to see composition in this way, he or she may see that grammar is not irrelevant or arbitrary. By being taught the revision process, students can…

One of the most disconcerting findings of researchers who have looked at the way writers write is that their processes bear little resemblance to what is expected of students in the classroom. Some aspects of the lesson that do not correspond to our current understanding of the composing process are (1) providing no time for the conception and…

A committee of the National Council of Teachers of English collected data on the elementary composition teaching perspectives observed in literature between 1900 and 1950. The committee's report on two categories of their collected data--position statements and state-of-the art reviews--shows that English teachers have trended from emphasizing…

Empirical and theoretical research and a teacher's own writing experience provide equally valuable resources in the composition classroom. Current research on the composing process suggests a conceptual change from that of a rigid sequence of clearly demarcated stages to a more recursive, hierarchically structured model. Until recently, the role…

A series of 13 questions is offered for sequencing student writing activities according to a problem solving model of the composing process. The questions are organized in a cyclical framework for approaching any problem solving task that writing students may face. The questions fall into four progressively developed categories, including…

Proposes that a unified theory of writing be sought as a basis for teaching composition, and that such a theory come from theories of mind and learning already developed. (RL)

An 11-year-old's discussion of five school writing assignments sheds light on the composing process and on learning-through-writing. (AA)

Describes children's views of the contexts surrounding their writing and examines five contextual factors: ownership, setting, audience, purpose, and genre.

Presents a process-oriented method for teachers of stylistic editing workshops that allows them to (1) focus on individual students, (2) start with students basic repertory of responses and build from there, (3) work with freely emitted behavior, (4) ensure frequent and brief responses, and (5) achieve desired behavior through sequential steps.…

Discusses the major elements of writing process instruction and the positive influence they have on learning-disabled and inner-city high-risk students. Argues that such process-writing programs might serve as a preventative measure for children likely to be categorized as learning disabled in the future. (HTH)

Describes a "writing workshop" for eighth graders which focuses on the writing process as well as the finished product. Reports the approach's effectiveness by noting students' improvement on standardized exams and syntactic maturity of student compositions (as measured by the increase in number of words per T-unit). (MM)