A PROCESS MODEL OF WRITING DEVELOPMENT ACROSS THE LIFE-SPAN

In this article, we provide an overview of writing development from a product perspective and from a process perspective. Then we discuss mo difications of the most influential process model of skilled adult wri ting to explain beginning and developing writing including a proposed developmental sequence of the emergence of cognitive processes in writ ing. Next we report the results of two recent dissertations by the sec ond and third authors supervised by the first author aimed toward cont rasting developmental issues: (a) specifying the algorithms or rules o f thumb beginning and developing writers may use during on-line planni ng; and (b) investigating the further development of writing processes among skilled adult writers. In the first study, development was conc eptualized as a linear process across age groups. In the second study, development was conceptualized as a horizontal process within skilled adult writers who expanded their expertise. Finally, we consider the developmental constraints and the instructional constraints on writing development and argue for a model of writing development in which end ogenous and exogenous process variables interact to determine the outc ome of the writing development process.