PROCESS-WRITING: A STRATEGIC APPROACH TO TEXT PRODUCTION

Presented by Miguel Or de los Santos State University of New at Buffalo, M. Ed. University of Leeds, Ed.M

Writing is not any more seen as a linear process. As reflected in real life, it is decisively recursive, that is, the writer continually moves forth and back, then back and forth, and so on, in a continuum, until the end product is ready. Now is this feature of real-life writing also reflected in classroom-writing? If not, why not? If so, to what extent? This presentation explores the so-called process-writing approach in contrast with the more traditional view of writing as product (productwriting), linking theory to practice and considering the benefits and advantages for both students and teachers of adopting such an approach. A practical exercise is developed to produce a sample piece of writing by applying process-writing along with the strategy of resorting to the students background knowledge.

WRITING Key concepts

As an influence of the audiolingual approach, as late as the 1970s second language writing so as listening-- was not viewed as a skill to be taught on its own right to learners but rather as a support skill in language learning. Writing was basically intended, for example, to help reinforce use of structures, answer reading comprehension questions or take dictations. At discourse level, writing consisted basically in producing compositions thru exposure to models that supposedly served as guides for learner-produced texts. Further attempts in the 1980s to move away from this picture progressively led to the process approach to writing. More recent advances built on previous experiences now pose the more novel need to view and approach writing from the perspective of genre. - Product-writing (or product approach to writing) is the typical form-based view of writing. Ss are requested to write on specific topics, following reference model texts. Writing is viewed as a product, centering attention on the form of the final product. Ts attention tends to be focused on correcting errors and instilling notions of correctness. - Process-writing (or process approach to writing) is an approach that focuses rather on the writer as a producer of texts, with specific attention on the cycle of writing steps which learners (should/tend to) take, departing from the generation of ideas and data collection to the publication of the final text. - Genre writing (or genre approach to writing) is an approach that departs from exposure to different types of texts, from narrative, to news columns to paper ads to restaurant menus, focusing the learners attention on the distinctive features of each of these pieces of genre. After exposure to different types of texts, the learners are led to produce different compositions in different genre. Reflection Questions Read and reflect individually. Then get in groups to exchange ideas. Think of any specific instance with writing in your own former experience as a student. What approach do you remember using to get to write your intended text? What feelings do you remember getting? What were your teachers attitudes and overall role? Departing from that experience, try to envisage any likely advantages or disadvantages of the three different approaches to writing with a view to your Ss needs? What factors could make you favor one or any of the others?

Product-writing and Process-writing: some theoretical views

The role of the teacher with product-writing is limited to responding to a paper, either judging or evaluating it, with no chance to influence it at all or any possibility left for the learner to learn from his/her mistakes and hence produce a newer and better draft. This limited role barely leaves room for the teacher to just (1) giving the paper a mark; (2) writing a comment; and (3) correcting errors. (Raimes, 1983) Contrary to what many textbooks advise, writers do not follow a neat sequence of planning, organizing, writing and then revising. For while a writers product the finished essay, story or novel is presented in lines, the process that produces it is not linear at all. Instead, it is recursive (Zamel, 1983; Raimes, 1985) In the process approach the students do not write on a given topic in a restricted time and hand in the composition for the teacher to correct --which usually means to find the errors. Rather, they explore a topic through writing, showing the teacher and each other their drafts, and using what they write to read over, think about, and move on to new ideas.

Teachers who use the process approach give their students two crucial supports: time for the students to try out new ideas and feedback on the content of what they write in their drafts. They find that then the writing process becomes a process of discovery for the students: discovery of new ideas and new language forms to express those ideas. (Raimes, 1983) Think back and exchange ideas Read the question and think back. Then get in groups to exchange ideas. What 2 or 3 theoretical foundations specified in the DCN can be used to justify the adoption of a process approach to writing in our schools?

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Suggested stages for process writing (Taken from Seow, 2002)

(a) Pre-writing. A phase to encourage Ss to write and stimulate thoughts, so as to specify the task, purpose (why are we to write this?) and audience (for whom is this text to be written? though in our regular classes it tends to be teacher for whom the text is written, it is advisable to vary or at least simulate alternative audiences), plan and outline the projected text and collect data. Tentative activities for this stage: - Brainstorming: spontaneous flow of ideas. - Clustering: word-mapping, mind-mapping. - Quick writing: Ss write down, freely and quickly, single words and phrases about the intended topic, in 1 or 2 minutes. - Wh- questions: Ss generate who, why, what, where, when and how questions about proposed topic. (b) Drafting (first attempt at writing). Attention is to be focused on fluency of writing with no specific concern for grammar accuracy. (c) Revising (re-drafting). Ss revise their first draft on the basis of the Ts feedback on first draft. Attention is focused, again, on the message and on how effectively the Ss have communicated intended meaning. Overall, revising aims at improving global content, logical organization of ideas and meaning (coherence). (d) Editing. The stage to prepare the final draft. Ss edit their own or their peers dr aft for spelling and punctuation features as well as the correct use of the grammatical and lexical relationships between/among the different elements of the text (cohesion).
REFERENCES Raimes, Ann. (1983). Techniques in Teaching Writing. Oxford: OUP. Raimes, Ann. (1985) What unskilled ESL writers do as they write: a classroom study on composing. TESOL Quarterly 19/2:229-58. Seow, A. (2202) The Writing Process and Process Writing, In Richards, J, & Renandya, W. (editors). Methodology in Language Teaching. Cambridge: CUP. Zamel, V. The composing processes of advanced ESL students. TESOL Quarterly 17/2: 165-87.

DEMO ACTIVITY 1 THE THINK ALOUD PROTOCOL

By recursive Raimes means thast at any given point in the preparation of a text, writers can loop backwards or forwards to whichever of the activities involved in text composition they may find useful. This could mean that when a writer is a short way into the task, he/she may find it necessary to go back top the library to collect data .... (...) to revise the style of earlier sections before going on to write later parts, etc. What writers actually do while composing has been established by direct reaserch using the think aloud protocol. The technique consists in audio recordings of write who volunteer to think aloud their mental processes while they are (attempting to) writing. (Tribble, 1996)

Reflection Question: Are the above considerations confirmed by the think aloud protocol weve just witnessed? What pedagogical implications do you see in the experience?

DEMO ACTIVITY 2

Goal:

Producing a sample piece of writing by applying process-writing. Strategy: Using the students background knowledge.

Scenario 1: (Adapted from White and Arndt, 1991. Process Writing. Harlow: Logman) Think of a personal experience you would like to write about. Set up a purpose and a (tentative) audience for your writing. Draw a word-map and brainstorm to generate ideas to describe the experience. Departing from the word-map decide which elements will be more or less relevant interesting or significant for the particular experience you plan to describe. As the rermaining problem is to structure the composition, proceed to produce a first draft to respond to the ideas suggested in the word-map. Do not worry at this stage for the form of your composition (grammar, spelling or punctuation doubts). Do center your efforts on producing contents (ideas). Share your first draft with your teacher (and/or group members, as instructed by tthe teacher). Try to react positively to his/her response and proceed to progressively produce a second or third draft if necessary. Care for the form of your composition (always exchanging ideas with your teacher and/or group members) and turn in your paper. Scenario 2: (Adapted from Chamot, A. et al, 1999. The Learning Strategies Handbook. New York Addison Wesley / Longman). Write a composition about a (your) family. Set up a purpose and a (tentative) audience for your writing. Move around the class asking questions in an informal fashion about the students families.Draw a word-map and brainstorm to generate ideas to describe the family. Proceed with the next steps as in Scenario 1 above.

Reflection Question: What differences would a product-approach to this exercise make for the students / teacher? What about its likely effects on the end product?