This report identifies 11 elements of current writing instruction found to be effective for helping adolescent students learn to write well and to use writing as a tool for learning. It is important to note that all of the elements are supported by rigorous research, but that even when used together, they do not constitute a full writing curriculum.

1. Writing Strategies, which involves teaching students strategies for planning, revising, and
   editing their compositions
2. Summarization, which involves explicitly and systematically teaching students how to
   summarize texts
3. Collaborative Writing, which uses instructional arrangements in which adolescents work
   together to plan, draft, revise, and edit their compositions
4. Specific Product Goals, which assigns students specific, reachable goals for the writing they
   are to complete
5. Word Processing, which uses computers and word processors as instructional supports for
   writing assignments
6. Sentence Combining, which involves teaching students to construct more complex,
   sophisticated sentences
7. Prewriting, which engages students in activities designed to help them generate or organize
   ideas for their composition
8. Inquiry Activities, which engages students in analyzing immediate, concrete data to help
   them develop ideas and content for a particular writing task
9. Process Writing Approach, which interweaves a number of writing instructional activities in
   a workshop environment that stresses extended writing opportunities, writing for authentic
   audiences, personalized instruction, and cycles of writing
10. Study of Models, which provides students with opportunities to read, analyze, and emulate
    models of good writing
11. Writing for Content Learning, which uses writing as a tool for learning content material

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