A review of research on the structure of writing processes shows that writing is goal directed, that goals are hierarchically organized, and that writers use 3 major processes—planning, sentence generation, and revision. The planning process is outlined in terms of the representation of knowledge, the source of the writing plan, and the use of strategic knowledge. Differences between average and expert writers in the sentence generation process are noted, and the nature of the revision process is described in terms of experts' ability to attend to global problems, writers' difficulty in detecting faults in their own text, the cues that initiate revision, and the detection and diagnosis of text problems. The importance of understanding the cognitive processes underlying writing and the value of a process-oriented approach to instruction are emphasized. (42 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)