A review of the history of writing instruction reveals that current instructors face essen
tially the same problems as did their counterparts in previous generations and that
their complaints remain essentially the same as well. With the commonly used
methodologies for writing instruction, many students fail to learn as much as their in
structors expect, and composition classes are typically endured rather than enjoyed by
student and instructor alike. This paper discusses the advantages and disadvantages
of several common methodologies for the teaching of writing and suggests that the tech
niques of behavior analysis offer the best hope for developing instructional
methodologies that will provide the best results for both writing students and their
teachers. Students participating in a pilot study employing behavioral strategies
showed a significant decrease in the frequency of errors between pre- and posttest letter
samples. Similar testing across instructional methodologies may indicate consistently
effective instructional techniques.
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