Just as the topic limits and shapes what students include in their writing, the medium of writing also limits and shapes what they write. They begin to see this as they compare what they talk about with what they choose to put on paper. They can begin then to interact with their own texts in preparation for later interacting with the texts of others. Students can then work again with their partners, those with whom they had the oral-aural exchange, and function as each other's editors. As they already know the personal history in its oral form, they can now talk about what appears in the written text, what has been left out, and whether or not there are discrepancies between the oral and written histories.
Revisions follow, as writers adjust what they write to what they know.
When the writing is ready, it forms a pool of texts for the class to read. Twenty texts or so are passed around the room, and students are encouraged to exchange ideas or comments with the writers themselves. Gradually, they begin to respond to these texts. These texts eventually wind up in individual student folders. The folders become thicker as the semester progresses, and the cycle of talking, listening, writing, and reading repeats itself again and again.