Introduction to Special Issue: Research on Writing and Literacy

Abstract

During an interview several years ago, a fifth-grader provided us with a very cogent description of what good writers do when they write:Well, they take all of their brainstorming ideas and put them on a piece of paper and just the rough draft. Then, they come back and find mistakes and think of some other ideas and do it over again. This exposition reminded us of a more sophisticated description of the act of writing by Irving Wallace, a famous contemporary novelist. When writing a novel, he often began by making outlines, developing scenes and characters, and working out the sequence of the story in his head and then roughly on paper-making changes as he went along. Once a first draft was completed, he would return to it again and again, underlining story problems that needed additional work and revising as he went along (Wallace & Pear, 1977). Students with learning disabilities, however, often employ a different, less sophisticated, strategy when composing (Englert & Raphael, 1988; Graham, 1990). These students typically generate text as ideas come to mind, with each preceding phrase or sentence stimulating the generation of the next idea. Little attempt is made to evaluate or rework ideas or text in light of other goals, such as whole-text organization, the needs of the reader, or the constraints imposed by the topic. This retrieve-and-write process functions like an automated and encapsulated program, operating largely without metacognitive control (Graham & Harris, 1994a; McCutchen, 1988). An important goal in writing instruction for students with learning disabilities, therefore, is to steer them toward other modes of writing that require more reflection, resourcefulness, and goal-oriented behavior. How can we accomplish this goal? At the most basic level, we must provide opportunities for students to engage in frequent and meaningful writing. nineteenth century writer William Hazlitt maintained that, The more a man writes, the more he can write (Burnham, 1994). This axiom possesses considerable face validity. However, students with special needs are often provided few opportunities for writing during the school day. Palinscar and Klenk (1992), for example, observed that special education teachers often limit students' experiences with writing to filling out worksheets and copying words. Similarly, Christenson, Thurlow, Ysseldyke, and McVicar (1989) reported that teachers allocated only about 20 minutes a day to writing for students with special needs, and almost half of this time was aimed at helping students acquire the mechanics of writing. It is difficult to imagine that students will develop effective strategies for planning and revising, an awareness of the needs of the reader, or adequate knowledge about how to write, if they are not encouraged to frequently and for extended periods of time (Graham & Harris, 1994b). Any benefits that may result from increasing children's opportunities to may be undermined, however, if students do not value the topics and tasks they are asked to about. We are reminded of a conversation where the Peanuts character Charlie Brown asks Linus if he knows why English teachers go to college for four years? Charlie Brown answers his own rhetorical question by emphatically informing Linus that they do this so that they can make stupid little kids stupid essays on what they did all