Writing and the teaching of writing

This morning while responding to a student's draft article on the teaching of writing, I wrote the following:

"Writing is hard; teaching writing is harder. The more formulas we devise, the more they don’t fit our students’ writing processes or interests. Argh^3"  


So many books on the teaching of writing complicate an already complicated process. My favorite and most uncomplicated advice on the teaching of writing comes from the NCTE (National Council of Teachers of English) Beliefs about the Teaching of Writing:

  

1.      Everyone has the capacity to write, writing can be taught,
         and teachers can help students become better writers.

2.      People learn to write by writing.

3.      Writing is a process.

4.      Writing is a tool for thinking.

5.      Writing grows out of many different purposes.

6.      Conventions of finished and edited texts are important to
          readers and therefore to writers.

7.      Writing and reading are related.

8.      Writing has a complex relationship to talk.

9.      Literate practices are embedded in complicated social
         relationships.

10.     Composing occurs in different modalities and technologies.

11.     Assessment of writing involves complex, informed, human
           judgment.