Lucas Trujillo and Adrián Brito

Teaching WRITING: Brown vs Scrivener. Comparison and contrast.

Writing
Both Brown and Scrivener compare the views of the relevancy of teaching writing
throughout the years. While Brown compares it as a survival skill just like swimming,
Scrivener relates it to our current word, exposing the fact that writing has become
more present in our everyday life for communication purposes. He even says that
sending a cartoon on social media to express how we feel could be considered as
writing.

Product vs Process
Brown and Scrivener both agree on the fact that it is necessary to maintain a
balance between the process and the final product when writing. In the past writing
was seen exclusively as a product, a device where teachers could contemplate
correct or incorrect uses of grammar. While it is still important to focus on the
product, both Brown and Scrivener claim that the process has to take center stage.
Prewriting, drafting, revising and editing are key to create a successful and enriching
writing experience. The process approach allows students to express their ideas
without the limitation of language, being assisted and following feedback presents a
less frustrating environment for learners to write. In addition the skills learnt are
helpful not only for L2, conscious writing is an ability useful for countless aspects of
daily life.
Brown warns that we should not lose sight of the product by concentrating too much
on the stages of the process; after all, that’s what the students want to achieve, a
correct, well-written product.

Teacher as facilitator.
During this procedure both authors express the importance of the teacher as
facilitator. offering guidance when needed without interrupting the learner’s freedom
to create.

Feedback
Scrivener claims that feedback is mostly useful when the piece of writing is evolving,
rather than when it is finished. Whenever Ss have the final product ready, it is likely
that they will not want to pay attention to more than just a brief comment. Even so,
sometimes that kind of feedback is necessary and for that he gives a couple of
pieces of advice to make it less abrasive, for example underlining mistakes instead
of correcting, using other pen colors besides red, writing useful commentary,
planning activities focused on mistakes, correction codes etc. They also agree on the
need to let Ss evaluate each other’s work (peer feedback).
Text diversity
While Scrivener focuses more on practical assessment Brown goes in depth on
many theoretical aspects of writing, for example types of performance. Some of
these include: Imitative or writing down, Intensive or controlled, self writing and
display writing. Jim Scrivener talks about the different options while teaching writing
but does it in a more relevant, direct and meaningful way using real-life examples
such as: writing emails, creating advertisements, questionnaires, magazines etc.

Overall, it appears to be that there are more similarities rather than differences when
comparing these authors. It's easy to notice the difference between their styles but
most of their priorities while teaching writing seem to concur.