Multiple Writing Processes

If Howard Gardner’s ideas about multiple intelligences have done nothing more, they have at least pointed up the commonsense notion that everyone learns in his or her own way. It follows, therefore, that those who write also approach that task in a way particularly suited to their own learning/idea-processing styles. About twenty years ago in a small publication titled Model for Teaching Writing: Process and Product, I argued that there is no single “writing process” but many processes, all equally capable of producing successful writing when suited to the individual writer.

Despite my efforts and those of others, the teaching of writing in many classrooms is codified as a linear/logical process. This ignores, in particular, students who are visual, auditory, or kinesthetic learners. Consequently, a couple of years ago I published a book specifically to address the needs of these students. Titled Teaching Writing to Visual, Auditory, and Kinesthetic Learners, this book offers strategies for teaching students who learn best by seeing, hearing, or doing/moving. (More about this book at http://www.corwinpress.com/booksProdDesc.nav?prodId=Book228025&)

William Zinsser, in his classic On Writing Well (2001) said this: “There are all kinds of writers and all kinds of methods, and any method that helps you to say what you want to say is the right method for you. Some people write by day, others by night. Some people need silence, others turn on the radio. Some write by hand, some by word processor, some by talking into a tape recorder. Some people write their first draft in one long burst and then revise; others can’t write the second paragraph until they have fiddled endlessly with the first” (p. 5)

It’s a good idea to keep this sort of diversity in mind in other fields of endeavor as well. A wide range of work and idea-processing styles also can be found among visual artists, from painters to filmmakers; composers; dancers and choreographers; and others who strive for creative expression.