Product Approach

The procedure in a product approach begins with controlled writing exercises and gradually
moves towards freer writing once the learner has memorized the underlying models s/he is
intended to follow. The students first learn how to write simple and complex sentences, and
then start constructing paragraphs from models, frames, and other guides. Finally, they write
a text by expanding an outline or summary provided.

One of the most explicit descriptions of product approaches is provided by Pincas (1982, cited in
Badger & White, 2000). She views writing as being mainly about linguistic knowledge, with attention
paid on the proper use of vocabulary, syntax, and cohesive devices. Badger, Richard. & White,
Goodith. (2000). A process genre approach to teaching writing. ELT Journal, 54(2): 153–160

Process Approach
Intended to stimulate students’ thinking, to create and organize ideas, and to compose the raw
materials into a text.
1. Thinking individually To develop resources for what to say and how to sayin a
composition, we first allowed students five minutes for individual thinking to tap their
imaginations for all the information or fresh ideas required for a given topic in
English writing. The aim of the five-minutes’ thinking is to sharpen students’ minds
and get something ready for writing.
2. Verbalizing ideas in pairs or groups On the basis of the information and ideas
obtained in step 1, the students were asked to do pair work (usually deskmates) or
hold a group discussion. During a pair work or group discussion, each individual
exchanged his/her information or ideas with others. All the students were told that
there were no criteria for what is right or what is wrong, and that what they needed to
do was to pour out whatever they may have in their mind. The objectives were to
share and organize their ideas into a clear order so as to get ready to take part in the
activities of step 3.
3. Brainstorming ideas in oral and note forms In step 3, students were encouraged to put
forward their ideas to the class, and develop them publicly. If an idea was challenged,
fresh ideas were welcomed. In addition, the students were asked to brainstorm ideas
on the blackboard in note form. This ensured that the information was easily
accessible to the students for subsequent activities.
4. Classifying ideas into proper categories After brainstorming ideas, students were
expected to classify them according to their intrinsic nature. For example, when
 students had finished brainstorming ideas for a writing task about how to get rid of
poverty in a developing country, they had a lot of ideas covering a variety of fields.
One of these was education. Therefore they were asked to put all the key terms or
phrases relating to education into this category. After that, the students were asked to
use logical connectors to organize these key terms or phrases into sentences to form a
specific discourse.
5. Completing the writing task in 30 minutes As soon as the raw materials had been
presented, the students started writing and were required to finish their composition in
30 minutes. This was the stage where students were expected to refine their ideas,
polish their language, and complete their writing task.

Post Process

The term post-process arose in composition studies during the early 1990s and quickly became one
of the significant keywords, shaping the development of an intellectual current in the field. Atkinson
locates the origin of the term in Trimbur‘s (1994, cited in Matsuda, 2003) review article in College
Composition and Communication, although, as he notes, the critique of the process movement had
begun much earlier. Atkinson ( 2003) defines post process as including everything that follows,
generally speaking, the period of L2 writing instruction and research that focused primarily on
writing as a cognitive or internal, multi-staged process, and in which by far the major dynamic of
learning was through doing, with the teacher taking a background role.

Genre Approach