The Process Approach Approaches to Teaching Writing

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f. The Process Approach

Matsuda Silva 2010 defined the process approach as a recursive, exploratory and generative process wherein writers’ ideas were discovered and their meaning made clear. Writers are trained to generate their ideas for writing, think of their purpose and audience, and write several drafts in order to present written products that communicate their ideas. As a result, writing becomes a process of discovery for the students as they discover new ideas and new language forms to express them. In addition, writing as a process means giving students time to pre- write, write, post-write, proofread, and edit their paper Carroll Wilson, 1993. Moreover, the writing process approach requires that teachers give students greater responsibility for, and ownership of, their own learning. Students make decisions about genre and choice of topics, and collaborate as they write. During the writing process, students engage in pre-writing, planning, drafting, and post-writing activities. Moreover, Nunan advocates that a process approach to writing consists of seeing the act of composition from a very different perspective; the process approach focuses as much on the way the completed text was created as it does on the end product Nunan, 1989. Brown 2000 points out that the final product of writing should possess these criteria: 1 meet certain standards of prescribed English rhetorical style, 2 Reflect accurate grammar, 3 Be organized in conformity with what the audience would consider to be conventional. Here is a list of typical writing activities done in the process approach. 22 a. Focus on the processes of writing that lead to the final written product. b. Help student writers to understand their own composing process. c. Help them to build repertoires of strategies for prewriting, drafting, and rewriting. d. Give students time to write and rewrite. e. Place central importance on the process of revision. f. Let students discover what they want to say as they write. g. Give students feedback throughout the composing process not just on the final product as they attempt to bring their expression closer and closer to final intention. h. Encourage feedback from both the instructor and peers. i. Include individual conferences between the teacher and students during the process of composing. Brown 2000: 335-356 adapted from Shih 1986. The teachers who use this approach may provide time for their students to trade ideas and feedback on the content of what they write in their drafts. In this stage, writing becomes a process of discovery for the students as they develop new ideas and new language forms to express themselves. Furthermore, learning to write is a good way to develop and help students to write as professionals.

4. Writing Process