For more than 20 years, I have taught writing, or the teaching of writing, or edited other peoples' writing. For far longer than that I've been a writer. All of it is messy and agonizing work. But it's also exhilarating and human. It's instinctual and idiosyncratic; it's practiced and regimented. I have learned along the way that good writing teachers bring an awareness of the writing process into the classroom. They know that writing is about making and conveying meaning for a variety of purposes and audiences, that writers make choices about the formal conventions of language and the necessary level of correctness based on what, and for whom, they need to write. Good writing teachers bring these assumptions into their classrooms to help students understand that writing is more than grammar exercises and correct spelling. However, they also recognize that you can't teach writing without including mechanics. Attending to the conventions of written discourse, to strategies for correct spelling, and to the review and practice of grammar rules all come with the territory of writing instruction. Good writing teachers recognize that dichotomies like correctness vs. creativity, process vs. product are useless constructs that hold us back from doing good work in the classroom.

Good writing teachers help students see that writing functions in a variety of ways: it helps us learn difficult reading material (summarizing); it helps us reflect (journaling); it helps us pass tests (GED essays); it helps us explain, describe, persuade (expository writing); it helps us tell our stories (narrative); and it helps us express emotions, desires, and dreams (poetry, fiction). Further, good writing teachers assist students in making choices about where and why they need to write and then to help them develop as writers within those choices.

This issue of Field Notes offers articles from writing teachers who continue to explore ways to approach this often neglected literacy practice in ABE. Content includes the practical and the expressive, the reflective and the functional, the global and the specific. Experienced teachers David Stearns and Carey Reid write collaboratively about their successful experiences using authentic materials for teaching writing in an ABE class; Linda Werbner draws from the guidance of Jack Kerouac in her writing classroom. New teacher George Cannella shares journal entries about his experiments approaching grammar points and using writing prompts in his ESOL class.

While Mary Ann Sliwa offers practical suggestions for using the computer in teaching writing, poet and writer Tzivia Gover contributes an article entitled "Words That Pull at the Heart" and describes an exercise that "took on a life of its own." Teachers Amie Cressman and Julie Franke provide an overview of dialogue journals, and Andy Nash's visual representation "Convey Ideas in Writing" is an adaptation of the Equipped For the Future (EFF) standard on writing.

Further, you will find some suggestions for useful web sites on teaching writing and a few Tools for the Classroom that offer structured suggestions for implementing some new ideas.

Lenore Balliro is the editor of Field Notes. She can be reached at: lballiro@worlded.org