Advantages of Teaching Writing As A Process.
For decades writing was taught in a manner that was very counter-productive to getting suitable results. Instructors used diagrams of essay forms and outlines to educate students. While these diagrams do portray the correct finished form of documents, they fail to address the steps needed to arrive there. In other words, the instructors were teaching the product, while ignoring the essential process of writing. This method of teaching held back the student as well as the teacher. There is now a large shift taking place in the way writing is being taught. This shift involves the emphasis of composition being moved from the product of writing and being placed on the process. Donald Murray see the process as "discovery through language(Murray.)" There are many reasons that this progressive approach is superior to the conventional one. These advantages include: the role of the instructor being transferred from that of a utensil to a mentor, the teacher gaining a more clear knowledge of students problems, and becoming a better instructor overall. .
The pattern that conventional writing instruction usually follows involves an assigned topic being given. This is commonly accompanied by a due date that is all too soon. The papers are then turned in when time is up and given back a few days later, some full of red marks, other relatively clear. Grading criteria is based on spelling and correctness with little or no emphasis placed on innovative or interesting content. This teacher has effectively limited himself to a blackboard with a red pen; a tool that no student can possibly use. No one is being taught anything except that he or she is good or bad writer, and even this is based on a false standard. This is usually a frustrating experience for student and teacher alike(Murray.) By adopting process oriented techniques of teaching this frustration can be reduced.