ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the early steps of becoming a writer, specifically on the development that allows crossing the participation threshold. It shows that emerges from writing research, taking writing development in alphabetic writing systems as an analyzer of literacy in general. In literate environments an initial step that most children take informally is to notice that writing exists out there in the world, that it can take multiple forms and is given many uses, and that writing is a curious object ruled by a huge number of conventions. In other words, the child has to gain what has been called print awareness. The cognitive tradition of writing research, tracing back to the pioneering studies of J. Emig and J. Hayes and L. S. Flower, is responsible for foregrounding a view of writing as an inherently complex and demanding activity.
