Developing writing skills through process tasks

Abstract

This project is an action research centered on writing difficulties in students of eleventh grade of a private high school in Sogamoso. The starting point was a need analysis which revealed the lack of writing skills. The purpose of this research was to study the application of nine tasks based on writing as process for developing composing strategies, the sense of audience and communicative purposes. Findings indicate that the procedures and tasks proposed allow learners to rethink or understand the act of composing. Learners benefit from knowing about the stages of it such as planning, drafting, feedback, revising and editing. Besides, the evidence shows that by conceiving writing as a process, students can express themselves by being aware of what and whom they write for without the pressure of time or grades. During and at the end of project, writing was perceived as a meaningful process of continuous improvement and students who before, were only centered on isolated words, text form, surface errors and so forth became aware of their own individual process of writing.