Teaching Writing

Abstract

Writing is a complex activity. Understanding this complexity is the key to effective teaching of writing. In this chapter, I will present a brief historical overview of various approaches to teaching writing, including the controlled approach, process approach, and genre approach. Essential to implementing these approaches is understanding the recursive nature of the writing process and knowing what constitutes competent writing. Indeed, writing competence encompasses not only word choices, sentence variations, punctuation choices, and other linguistic tools for cohesion and coherence, but also ways to structure and develop arguments at the micro and macro levels. It is important to adopt a writing pedagogy that explicitly trains students in the kinds of thinking processes that are conducive to good writing. To this end, this chapter presents the socio-cognitive approach to teaching writing. I will discuss guiding principles and pedagogical implications of the approach. I will also highlight strategies for enhancing the quality of second language writing, drawing upon insights from the literature of writing research.