: by far the most important reason for teaching writing, of course, is that it is a basic language skill, just as important as speaking, listening and treading. Students need to know how to write letters, how to put written reports together, how to reply to advertisements - and increasingly, how to write using electronic media They need to know some of the writing's special conventions (punctuation, paragraph construction etc.) just as they need to know how to pronounce spoken English appropriately. Part of our job is to give them that skill.
• It can give the teacher a break, quieten down a noisy class, change the mood and pace of a lesson, etc.