Post 260: Should Writing as a Product or Writing as a Process be taught separately?

Post 260: Should Writing as a Product or Writing as a Process be taught separately?

 No, you do not have to teach both methods separately. I believe you can teach both writing as a product and as a process both in one writing class. I believe that both are complementary, not mutually exclusive.

When you teach writing as a product, you are teaching the rhetorical modes of writing such as narration essay, cause/effect essay, classification essay, process essay and as a teacher you are pointing out student grammar errors all the time as you teach the class. The teacher then grades the essays the students hands in. Students do one draft of an essay and teachers give a final grade where the teacher marks up the paper with red marks indicating mistakes. When you teach writing as a product, the focus is on teaching students the correct form of the essay and on teaching students grammar rules and correct their errors.

When you teach writing as a process, students have a portfolio where they hand in multiple drafts of the same essay. Each time the student hands in another draft, the teacher uses mini lessons to point out student mistakes and gradually the students improve on their essay performance and with each draft students get a higher and higher grade. When students compose the essay, rather than focusing on form, students focus on the process of creating an essay--pre-write, write and re-write.

Many researchers have said that writing teachers should teach writing only as a process by having students have portfolios and structuring the class as a workshop.  Many teachers think you either teach writing as a process or as a product and that both are mutually exclusive.

I say that teachers can teach both writing as a process and as a product together in one writing class and that both methods are complementary. In my online writing class, I teach students the 5 paragraph essay structure, the grammar rules (writing as a product) and I teach the Writing Process of Pre-writing, Writing and Rewriting in my class to help students come up with a topic, refine their thesis statement and make their topic sentences match their thesis.

I like to use both writing methods in my writing class and that when you teach writing as a product, you teach correct form and grammar and when you teach writing as a process, students get to peer edit each other's work to improve their rough draft to final draft and students understand the creative process of writing a paper to help prevent writer's block.