Writing: The Process of Discovering Meaning

Since writers do not seem to know beforehand what it is they will say, writing is a process through which meaning is created. This suggests composition instruction that recognizes the importance of generating, formulating, and refining one's ideas. It implies that revision should become the main component of this instruction, that writing teachers should intervene throughout the process, and that students should learn to view their writing as someone else's reading. Methods that emphasize form and correctness ignore how ideas get explored through writing and fail to teach students that writing is essentially a process of discovery. Research on composition has traditionally been concerned with the written product. The studies reported by Braddock et al. (1963) reflect this concern since, by and large, researchers investigated the effects that certain teaching methodologies had on writing. In many cases these studies sought to prove the efficacy of one grammar over another, thus perpetuating the belief that a better pedagogical approach, particularly one that focused on usage, structure, or correct form, would improve writing. Since this line of research depended upon the evaluation of compositions that students wrote after having received certain types of instruction, little attention was paid to other, more important considerations such as purpose, audience, and the process of composing itself. Questions dealing with why or for whom students were writing were not taken into account. The whole notion of how writers write-where ideas come from, how they are formulated and developed, what the various stages of composing entail--was ignored. And this state of the art was both influenced by and, in turn, influenced classroom practices and the textbooks that were written (Young 1978: 31-2). Given the emphasis on the composed product, teach