o provide students/learners the
ability to learn the processes that leads to the acceptable finished text or product together with
a degree of freedom of expression based on their own fluency of language. The quote
“process cannot be inferred from the product, any more than wheat can be inferred from
bread” (Murray, 1982:18) aptly describes the importance of this approach while teaching
English writing in the classroom. Before discussing the process approach further, a brief
account of the research that guided the attention of teachers on the process of writing wouldbe relevant here. The main influence on the development of process approach was the work
of two cognitive psychologists Flower and Hayes, who proposed a writing model based on
their research on L1 writers (Flower and Hayes, 1981) that became the basic tool for the
further research on the process of writing and is widely used since then by researchers.
However, the writing model of Flower and Hayes was found incompatible considering the
writers as skilled and unskilled (Raimes, 1985) and thus led to the development of another L1
writing model that emphasizes on the two types of writing styles - knowledge-telling (writing
style of 12 year old) and knowledge-transforming (synthesis and interpretation of knowledge)
and hence follow different writing processes (Bereiter and Scardamalia, 1985). The other
significant research that influenced the development of process approach was the work of
Grabe and Kaplan (1996) who suggested other dimensions to research such as education,
cognitive side of writing, discourse analysis and the rhetorical study (led to genre approach).
The process approach is more to develop a cyclical and recursive style of writing
which involves continuously and simultaneously the pre-writing (planning), writing and rewriting
processes (Smith, 1982: 104). The proponents of teaching writing with greater
5 TEACHING
emphasis on the ‘writing as the process’ Escholz (1980), White (1988) and Jordon (1997)
indicate towards the drawbacks of ‘product approach’ such as model-based learning that
fosters the sense of imitation in students with little scope for students to actually learn the
processes involved in obtaining the acceptable final product as the main reasons behind the
emergence of this approach (Escholz, 1980:24).
The process approach provides ample opportunities to students to make their own
choices related to the direction of their writing by series of classroom discussions, tasks,
drafting and re-drafting their writings and with the formative feedback provided by teachers.
The approach also enables students to make improvements in their own composition (Jordan,
1997: 168) unlike in the product approach which leaves the task of correcting and
improvement to the teachers. As this approach puts more emphasis on the purpose, the
audience and the writer’s process it involves significant brainstorming to put together the
thoughts and ideas, drafting and re-drafting and an increased focus on both the content and
the language simultaneously encouraging students to devote time to writing and provide peer
feedback.
The two critical component of the process approach to writing are awareness and
intervention
