Teaching writing: a systematic approach - 18

The traditional approach to teaching writing concentrates on mastering the different aspects of writing in the hope that these will eventually unite as a set of integrated skills.

More 'progressive' teachers emphasise that writing is a total process which is 'caught' intuitively rather than explicitly taught.

Both models are partially unsatisfactory, and consequently a third approach has evolved which seeks to combine the best of both.

This book considers this 'systematic' approach, which seeks to retain the emphasis on writing as a total process but identifies within each communicative context the set of sub-skills involved.