Making the Writing Process Work: Strategies for Composition and Self-Regulation (Cognitive Strategy Training Series)

This book is unique among current books on writing in two important ways. First, it presents cognitive strategies for writing: sequences of specific steps which make the writing process clearer and enable students to organize their thoughts about the writing task. The strategies help students know how to turn thoughts into writing products. This is especially important for students having difficulty producing acceptable writing products, but all students benefit from learning these procedures. Second, the authors focus on helping the student become a self-regulating writer—aware and in control of the writing processes. The combination of composition and self-regulation strategies adds critically important dimensions to a whole language program because the strategies help students think about and organize writing products at the same time, while they learn to manage their writing!

Actual samples of student writing—before, during and after instruction in individual strategies—chart the radical improvements in content and organization. Tips for teaching the strategies and supporting their use in the classroom are presented throughout the text. A chapter on evaluating the effectiveness of the classroom writing program concludes the book. (Previous edition published as Helping Young Writers Master The Craft.)