ABSTRACT
For many decades researchers have investigated the development of writing abilities (Britton, 1975; Applebee, 2000). While this research has included attention to children’s acquisition of print literacy prior to schooling as well as writing in the workplace and the professions, a good deal of this research interest has been sustained by the need for an evidence-based foundation for the teaching and learning of writing in schools. Longitudinal studies in particular with their emphasis on change over time and across contexts have proven a particularly appropriate method in understanding writing development. As Emig (1971, p. 95) noted in her pioneering work
Longitudinal case studies of a given sample of students, following them from the time they begin to write in the earliest elementary grades throughout their school careers, up to and including graduate school . . . would make better known the developmental dimensions of the writing process, both for the individual and for members of various chronological and ability age groups.
