Several of her students seemed totally baffled by the idea that there might be a writing process. They simply wrote their essays in one sitting: no steps, no revision. A few students mentioned that they made notes or outlines before writing, but they did not regard those steps as very useful. And a handful said that they had written a first draft. Not surprisingly, most of their essays read like first drafts to the instructor. This feedback showed the composition teacher two things: that of her students did need instruction in the writing process, and that would be even more difficult to convince them of the value of that approach than she had anticipated. She realized that she would need first to explain her criteria for good essay writing and then to aemonstrate how the writing – as - a – process approach could help them meet those criteria.