Talk can be a way out of writing difficulties, and at the editing stage of writing we can help by conferring with writers, talking with them about one problem at a time. The teacher's role in this process-oriented, collaborative approach to the teaching of writing is an active one. Hillocks found also that in addition to such structuring of classroom activities, teachers should make specific assignments, help students learn criteria for judging writing, provide exercises in manipulating syntax, and engage students in examining data. The writing teacher is indispensable as a collaborator and audience, as facilitator and assignment-maker. Nor can currently available software read and respond to student writing on any satisfactory level.
Writers learn best when writing is taught as a process in decentralized classrooms.
In doing so, the collaborative method of instruction is most valuable as a primary mode of instruction. Computer-assisted instruction can help, but cannot take over the central roles played by writers and respondents. Microcomputers are counter-productive when used in a theoretical vacuum. We need to use great care when we integrate microcomputers into our classrooms. This means we avoid software which concentrates exclusively upon subskills or isolates them prematurely.