The Revolution in Teaching

Murray, D. (1972). Teaching writing as process not product 

Murray, D. (1979). The listening Eye: Reflections on the writing conference. 

Donald Murray argued that writing should be taught as a process, rather than a product.  His emphasis on the “unfinishedness” of writing and the endless nature of discovery through language contradicted an earlier belief in the sole importance of the finished result.  In 1972, Murray summarized the writing process by describing three loose stages most writers pass through: prewriting, writing and rewriting, and stressed that teachers must patiently wait and listen as their students explore this process.  

In 1979, Murray expanded upon the writing teacher’s role, which should be, according to him, to “shut up” and not interfere with students’ writing, but rather point out to them what they had already learned on their own.  He described student-teacher writing conferences and a process he went through himself, ultimately to discover that his job is that of a reader and listener.  He taught and followed the writing process in his conferences and believed in his responsibility to refrain from doing the work which belonged to his students.  In other words, he allowed them to explore their own writing, with their own words and in their own way.  


Though I can see how this might have seemed “crazy” at the time, many of Murray’s ideas must have stuck, since I can recall being taught in a similar way in the past.  I have distinctive memories of a 12th-grade writing class in the 1990s which overemphasized the process of writing to the extent that we did not receive grades on our writing assignments.  We were encouraged to revise endlessly and to write for the purpose of learning something from the process, rather that focus on what would result from a perfect final product.  I actually remember being extremely motivated by this idea, and for some reason, suddenly wanted to put more effort into the process of my writing at that time.  

Since I enjoyed learning this way, I have attempted (as a clueless ESL instructor thrown into a writing classroom) to motivate students to see value in the writing process, and have always failed at doing so.  I would think it would take an extremely experienced and wise teacher to know when and how to be a patient reader and listener, as Murray describes, and to create situations in which students have the opportunity and ability to explore on their own, as the teacher steps back.  I suppose there are some classroom environments in which more blatant intervention and direction might be needed on the part of the teacher. 

I can certainly see a lot of value in Murray’s arguments, yet I’ll be interested in learning more about post-process theory and ways to effectively incorporate other aspects of writing (such as mechanics, which might not be so process-related) into a learning environment which places importance on the writing process as well.