WRITTEN EXPRESSION AS RECONTEXTUALIZATION - CHILDREN WRITE IN SOCIAL TIME

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.