SUNY - Buffalo Word processing is a versatile tool for helping writers learn how to write, with the powerful potential to change radically the ways we teach, learn and perceive writing. As teachers and researchers, we need to devote serious attention to introducing word processing into composition instruction based on sound pedagogical theory. My own integrative use of word processing is presented and exemplified in this article. In my college writing classroom, the individual student-teacher conference advocated by composition theorists is the primary method of instruction.
Writers begin by creating a first draft, either with prewriting help or alone.
When they are ready for reaction, they confer with me or with a partner before deciding how to continue work. With skillful help, writers are able to understand their problems and potential solutions in their writing, and begin refining their work by drafting and redrafting. A complete piece is gradually built from this series of partial solutions. A heirarchical level of priorities is observed, although the writing process is never the clean, linear pattern presented in writing textbooks. In contrast, writers use a recursive process, often dealing simultaneously with multiple levels of concerns.