Writing

Writing as a process

Emphasis on writing has changed from that of a finished product to that of the process of creating a written product. While there is some variation in this process most agree to stages such as: drafting, revising, editing, proofing, and publishing.

Nancie Atwell's writers’ workshop is a popular means to facilitate children’s writing through the stages of the writing process.

Other emphasises of writing supported by research are:

Variables of writing

Research on Writing Instruction

  • 1874 was the first time composition was a university course (Harvard)
    English as a discipline in public schools began in 1958.
  • Before 1962 emphasis was on the product, the analysis of the discourse, and preoccupation with the essay form and term paper.
  • Birth of process of writing approach occurred in 1971 with Janet Emig’s dissertation, The Composing Process of Twelfth Graders.

Donald Murray wrote a book in 1968 A Writer Teaches Writing - in it seven skills - discovers a subject, senses an audience, searches for specifics, creates a design, writes, develops a critical eye, and rewrites (pp. 2-12) in a recursive process - repeating and fed back into each other. Writing is about student choice to write to clarify and understand their own thinking. Multiple drafts, portfolios borrowed from artists...

Highly interactive drama, writing for different audiences, peer review, editing and adaption over formal writing assignments.

Students responding to literature through a process approach actually caused rioting in Kanawha County, West Virginia.

Students choose their own content, they become part of a community of writers, they write to explore, they have something to say to us and each other, and they publish what they write. Standard Five IRA/NCTE Standards for the English Language Arts (1969).

Students become frustrated by what they can’t produce.

The Bay Area Writing Project became the site for the National Writing Project.

Workshop approach

Whole Language

Trends in writing

Holistic assessment

Portfolio assessment

Writing assessment big issues are - reliability and validity - what is the difference between 2-3 or 3-4. This is no trivial thing as differences of one level can mean the difference between a remedial label or not.

Technology and writing

Future writing

IM instant messaging