In the past, adult literacy programs often focused primarily on teaching people to read materials written by others. More recently, adult educators have emphasized writing as an important skill. This is because writing can be exciting and rewarding.
Writing is much more than just putting words on a page.
Thoughtful writing pushes the learners to think about who their audience is and what information, ideas, and feelings they want to communicate. Writing can help the learner to think critcally and creatively, analyze problems and issues, and communicate in a clear way to convince or help others to understand and act. Learners are creating newsletters and collections of poems, stories, and essays. They are writing to public policy makers and others to gain support for adult education and other issues which learners feel are important. Learners are writing personal correspondence to family members and friends, and using writing to communicate more clearly on the job.