ABSTRACT
This chapter has two main goals. First, to perform a content analysis of the Writing Curricular Standards in all school levels of the Chilean educational system, comparing these results with Ivanič's (2004) discourses of writing (DoW). Second, to examine national research evidence about how the Writing Standards are implemented in Chilean schools, regarding student's performance and teaching methods. The results show four main categories present in the Curricular Standards: writing approaches, text characteristics, language system and conventions, and technological resources and use of sources. These categories present different weights throughout school levels, combining various writing discourses from those proposed by Ivanič (2004) with a predominance of the genre and process DoW. The results of writing research show a higher focus on the skills DoW, with an emphasis on students learning of text characteristics and language conventions. The scarce research on teaching practices suggests a mechanical pedagogy, disconnected from the preferences of students. The Chilean curriculum reveals a conception of language that goes from the linguistic substance of texts to their communicative events. However, it does not include the sociopolitical and critical aspects involved in written productions, which could open the curriculum to non-standard forms, characteristic of socially and culturally diverse groups.
