ENGLISH IS TAUGHT all over the world is a variety of ways, for different aims and purposes and at different levels. Foreign language acquisition to a great extent depends on how a student comes to terms with the written word. Every teacher of English faces the necessity of teaching various types of writing activities to his or her students. Very often learners complain that they should have more  classes devoted to writing activities because for them it is one of the most difficult areas of English.
Learning is an active, cognitive process. As it was said by Melanie Williams: "no longer are learners seen as vessels  waiting to be  filled but the explorers actively working on language and ideas". For students to be  cognitively active participants in the learning process, they need to encounter challenges and take risks. The active involvement in learning is evident in relation to a second language: "A task-based approach  sees the learning process as one of learning through doing - it is  by  primarily engaging in meaning that the learner's system is encouraged to develop" (Skehan).  The goal of learning to write is to become a well-rounded writer, that is to develop the  students' ability to produce their own written texts (plans, summaries, notes, reports, thesis, annotation articles) in a coherent, logical way.

The main concern for a composition text should be to teach writing skills that are both relevant and adaptable to many writing situations and assignments.  Our response to this concern is to teach the thinking skills that underlie the various types of writing. The experience in teaching composition has convinced us that developing writers  benefit most from an understanding of  why people write. We are aware that composition is concerned with both process and product. In the familiar controversy concerning product versus process, the underlying question is whether a text should specify a certain type of  writing (a product) and let the students figure out the process of creating it or whether students should be guided through a series of steps (process) that will result in an appropriate product. We first  show  the  students examples of the type of  product they will be asked to write  and by means of questions for exercise and discussion, call attention to the key features that should appear in their own writing. This is the product emphasis and it is also the beginning of the process emphasis. A lot of time is devoted to a series of writing stages - selecting and refining a topic, inventing material needed for the purpose at hand and organizing and reshaping the material into the finished product.  We remind students that process - conscious writing can  always involve the systematic use of discussion groups of four or more students writing on related topics or for the same aim or purpose. Such mutual criticism and creativity often generate noticeably improved writing by each person in the group.  So we have  tried to call attention to different dimensions of writing that all writers must consider. The students should be  encouraged to adopt a methodical approach to writing involving the following sequence facilities.

•  the situation that motivates a person to write
•  the selection of tasks
•  the topic and the relevant perspective taken on the topic
• the genre or form of writing
• writing comparison with model
•  feedback, evaluation, editing
• conscious of the audience for whom they are writing and of the extent to which they are fulfilling the expectations of their readers in communicating their message
• the medium of presentation or publication.

However, the story could be more specifically of your relationship with a person or place, so you might prefer to write a description of that person or place. Or you might be discussing how you learned a particular idea or concept, so the  real topic would be a  definition of the idea or concept.  Finally, if you  were to explain how you  learned that something is bad or good, your topic would involve comparison and contrast and an evaluation of that "thing". As you search for possible topic, consciously try thinking of all four types - an event (narrative topic); a person, place, or other object (descriptive topic); an idea, concept, or category (classification topic); or a judgment about the quality of something (evaluative topic).  Although it is   not   possible to teach  you how   to write about all topis,  it is possible to teach you too look at your topics in a variety of a variety of productive ways. Most fields of study can be approached from different perspectives. Literature can be studied from the  perspective of  its historicans development,  from one or another theory of literature, or through criticism and evaluation of individual works, all of the works of an author or the works of the given period. Thus there are literary historical, literary theorists, literary analysts literary critics. The same divisions also apply, with the proper adaptations to other fields. It should be  mentioned that  each of these four strategies for handing topics is quite different from the others. The techniques for writing narrative are quite distinct  from those for describing the structure of something, from those for defining or classifying something, or from those for evaluating and criticizing a product or performance.

These forms can be distinguished from each other.  For example, we can see classification and definition, as will as description, as considering and organizing things that are static or without motion.  And whereas description  has to do with a collective body or group.  On the other hand, both narration and evaluation have an element of the dynamic - of motion and change - in them. Evaluation considers  action or  performance in terms of criteria or  goals that have or have not been met,  and narration views the active or dynamic as the development of a change.  These four ways of looking at objects have always occupied an important place in the study of writing. At various times they have been called the issues, the matters,  and the forms of discourse. They have also been called the modes and the strategies of  discourse. But regardless of the name , these forms, or modes, have nearly always been regarded as means to achieve the purposes or aims of writing.

Two other considerations important to successful writing have to do with the medium and the genre used. The research study on pollution  has consistently been referred to as an  article published in a scholarly journal. The article is a particular kind of  discourse, a genre used in professional and scientific circles, and such an article is usually published in a medium called a journal.  There are, of course, other kinds of scientific genres and other  media for disseminating scientific information (including, for example, the oral presentation of research results and videotaped lectures).  Similarly, the evaluation of Heathen! Is called a review (another genre), and it is published in the medium we call the newspaper. Clearly there are other journalistic genres (editorials, columns, news stories, classified advertisements) and  media (books, magazines, radio,  television). The  poem is just one of the many literary genres (including tragedies, comedies, epics, novels, and television sitcoms and soap operas), and creative authors may  choose books, theater, magazines, or other media. Finally, the student wrote a letter (he could have made a phone call or used a postcard), and he sent it through the United States mail as a medium.  Genres and media, although not quite as numerous as topics and situations, are also diverse and are becoming more  so with modern technology.