ABSTRACT
An understanding of composing is part of the dynamic of the writing group that teachers' experience and engagement with writing comes first and then the return to the classroom where assumptions and practices are reappraised and brought to the group for consideration. This chapter began with Pat D'Arcy in the 1970s, when she was part of the Schools Council's 'Writing Across the Curriculum' project and in the 1980s through her work with Wiltshire teachers. She introduced the thinking of key American writing teachers through the National Association for the Teaching of English (NATE) conferences of the time and through working closely with James Britton and Nancy Martin. The notion that authoring involves getting ready-made thoughts onto paper is present in the 2014 National Curriculum for English and was the main thrust of the writing textbooks which are challenged in the work of Emig (1983) and Berthoff (1981).
