ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews theoretical perspectives on writing and writing development as they relate to instructional practice, and focuses on the mismatch between theoretical depictions of writing development and current assessment and curriculum regimes. It advocates for theoretically reframing writing and writing development in assessment and curriculum—aligning guidance for writing instruction to the trans-disciplinary theoretical perspectives that depict writing as emergent, multidimensional, relational, dynamic, and driven by human desire. The chapter reviews the theory which is neither exhaustive nor meant to be definitive; rather, it is one telling of some of the modern waves of writing's transdisciplinary theory building across time in response to recent theoretically starved educational standards and policies regarding writing, its development, and instruction. It reviews several modern waves of theory building in relation with their instructional implications, focusing on four mutually constitutive and dynamic dimensions of writing: products, processes, practices, and pathways.
