Includes bibliographical references and index.

Front Matter / Perry D. Klein , Pietro Boscolo , Lori C. Kirkpatrick and Carmen Gelati -- New Directions in Writing as a Learning Activity / Perry D. Klein , Pietro Boscolo , Carmen Gelati and Lori C. Kirkpatrick -- Writing to Argue: Writing as a Tool for Oral and Written Argumentation / Silvia Del Longo and Lerida Cisotto -- Writing as a Vocabulary Learning Tool / Kenan Dikilitas and Jerome C. Bush -- Supportive Writing Assignments for Less Skilled Writers in the Mathematics Classroom / Markus Linnemann and Sabine Stephany -- Writing to Engage Students in Historical Reasoning / Jannet van Drie , Carla van Boxtel and Martine Braaksma -- Writing to Learn from Multiple-Source Inquiry Activities in History / Jennifer Wiley , Brent Steffens , M. Anne Britt and Thomas D. Griffin -- Strategy Instruction in Writing in Academic Disciplines / Charles A. MacArthur -- Writing a Synthesis from Multiple Sources as a Learning Activity / Mar Mateos , Isabel Solé , Elena Martín , Isabel Cuevas , Mariana Miras and Nuria Castells -- Summary Writing as a Tool for Improving the Comprehension of Expository Texts: An Intervention Study in a Primary School / Carmen Gelati , Nicoletta Galvan and Pietro Boscolo -- Moving from “Fuzziness” to Canonical Knowledge: The Role of Writing in Developing Cognitive and Representational Resources / Brian Hand , Mary Grace Villanueva and Sae Yeol Yoon -- Writing about Reading to Advance Thinking: A Study in Situated Cognitive Development / Charles Bazerman , Kelly Simon and Patrick Pieng -- University Students’ Knowledge Construction during Face to Face Collaborative Writing / Minna Nykopp , Miika Marttunen and Leena Laurinen -- Knowledge Construction in Collaborative Science Writing: Strategic Simplicity, Distributed Complexity, and Explanatory Sophistication / Perry D. Klein -- References / Perry D. Klein , Pietro Boscolo , Lori C. Kirkpatrick and Carmen Gelati -- Indexes / Perry D. Klein , Pietro Boscolo , Lori C. Kirkpatrick and Carmen Gelati.

Writing as a learning activity offers an account of the potentials of writing as a tool for learning. Four aspects of writing emerge particularly clearly through the chapters. First, writing to learn depends on the cognitive strategies of the writer; instruction in such strategies contributes significantly to the ability to use writing as a learning tool. Secondly, strategies for writing and reasoning are largely specific to academic disciplines. Thirdly, writing is not, as traditionally conceived, only an individual ability, but also an activity that is social. It is a collaborative practice facilitated by representational tools-- books, computer, notes, schemata, drawings, et cetera – by which knowledge is acquired, organized, and transformed at various levels of complexity. Fourthly, writing is a productive activity, exemplified by the varied and positive effects of writing on learning different subjects at various educational levels.