Analyses of the developing writing process frequently assume that novi
ces' written communication skills are deficient in the transformative
power of planning and revision (sec, for example, Bereiter and Scardam
alia, 1987). However; research reports of process-writing investigator
s provide descriptive evidence of such ability in very young writers (
e.g., Graves, 1991). This division in the writing field reflects inade
quacies both in current theories and in the methods used to examine wr
iting development. When written expression is understood as recontextu
alization, textual generation transforms, and is transformed by knowle
dge accessing and expression verification. This analysis implicates th
e importance of textual expression support, especially for immature wr
iters, whose recontextualizations are more obviously transformative in
scaffolded contexts. The parameters of a maximally favorable textual
expression support system need to be more Extensively delineated.