Teaching Writing Fundamentals

Study Notes

Writing involves the development of an idea, capture of mental representations of knowledge, and experiences with subjects.
It involves multiple thinking processes, including composing, transcribing, evaluating, and revising.

The ability to write well has a close relationship to academic and professional success in first language settings.
Mastery of the standard writing system is necessary for cultural and educational participation and maintaining one's rights and duties.

Permanence: written language is permanent, while spoken language is transitory.
Production time: writers have more time to plan, review, and revise their words before finalization.
Distance: written language requires greater explicitness due to the distance between the writer and reader in time and space.
Orthography: carries a limited amount of information compared to spoken language devices.
Complexity: written language tends to have longer clauses and more subordinators, while spoken language has shorter clauses and more redundancy.
Formality: writing tends to be more formal than speaking due to social and cultural uses.
Vocabulary: written texts contain a wider variety of words, including more lower-frequency words, than oral texts.

L1 writing instruction is relatively standardized within a particular culture, building upon linguistic resources students already possess.
L2 writing is more varied due to different learning situations and settings, requiring knowledge of grammar and vocabulary.

Content Knowledge: knowledge of concepts involved in the subject area.
Context Knowledge: knowledge of the context in which the text will be read.
Language System Knowledge: knowledge of aspects of the language system necessary for the task.
Writing Process Knowledge: knowledge of the most appropriate way of preparing for a specific writing task.