process

I had some issues with the readings on happenings. But with the readings on process, everything is starting to come together. I can remember charts in fifth grade describing how I should be writing my essays: brainstorm--> cluster--> outline--> first draft--> revise. So simple, so sweet, so stuck in my mind all these years. Granted, it's not a format I actually used all that much over the years, but I have always considered a variation of that process to be the ideal way to write a paper.
While reading the chapter by Tobin, it occurred to me that there might not be a completely wrong or right way to write. Everything has a process, a series of steps towards an end product. So, if the writing process is a means to and end, what, then is our end? A grade? The requirements and constraints of the college writing course, and even more so, high school English course, demand tangible evidence that students are learning.
But, setting that aside for a moment, it is clear that some kind of process for writing should continue to be taught. From the research, it seems that a writing process is innate. People have to think about the subject before they can write about it. And they have to go through a few revisions before the written piece is what they want it to be. The thing about writing is that, in a way, the project is never really completed. Most writers will always find a better way to say something even after the "final" draft. I can think of several stories and essays that I've written that I wish I could have continued to revise. But because of deadlines, the process has to end at some point.
There may be certain steps that have to be taken to produce the final written product, but I can also see how those steps don't necessarily need to be in any particular order. It is in the early "prewriting" part of the process that I can now see a better justification for the Happenings that we discussed earlier. If there is no fixed curriculum for a first-year comp course then the teacher should do whatever is necessary for her students to be inspired. I still think that grammar and structure should be addressed, as a foundation for the kinds of writing that will be done throughout the rest of the student's college career and his/her life. But it is becoming increasingly clear that personal writing is just as vital to students and shouldn't be put on the back burner just because it may not seem "academic."
The remaining question that I have now is, what to grade students on?