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Write to Communicate
In order to meet the text-based demands of being a worker, a learner and a family and community member, adults need to communicate ideas and messages in writing.
Writing is an area of adult learning that may sometimes be overlooked, or regarded simply as an area for skill instruction rather than as an essential context for learning and developing thinking processes. Less attention has been given to research and theory in writing than in reading, but there is a now a growing body of knowledge that can be used to understand the development of adult learners’ expertise in writing.
The research that led to the writing process models (described below) investigated writers writing in their first language and also writers writing in their second or additional language. These studies established both differences and similarities in the way in which the two groups carried out the writing process (see Appendix A: Second language learning of reading and writing).