Abstract:Writing is a complicate process，especially for L2 learnersThis paper mainly refers to two essential features in students’ written texts：composing and communicatingThe discussion will be done along with three main stages of writing：prewriting，whilewriting and postwriting on how second language teachers could balance the two factors and finally improve students’ writing
　　Keywords：composing；communicating；writing teaching；balance
　　 ⅠIntroduction
　　To many English language learners in China，writing often gets neglected，unless they have to work for a composition in some language tests like CET4/6However，as an English teacher，we should know that writing，a messy business with a number of stages，is not only an important way that people could get across their ideas，but also useful to enhance students’ language comprehensivelyTo achieve the two targets，this article will discuss how teachers could balance ‘composing’ and ‘communicating’ in the three stages：prewriting，whilewriting and postwriting
　　 ⅡRelevant Research Background
　　Writing is known as a complex process which is not simply in a linear sequence of planning，composing，revising and editingAccording to McDonough and Shaw (1993)，writers seem to have to do a lot of things，such as gathering ideas，ordering them，making a plan，rejecting it，starting again，crossing things out，checking and so on，before they gain the finished productIt can be seen that writing is a recursive activity
　　Though it is complicated，skilled writers usually think about two things before writing：purpose and readers (Hedge，1998)Therefore，[JP3]it may be recommended if teachers could give L2 learners a ‘contextualized’ situation before they put their pen to paper and help them develop a sense of audience with contextualized tasks that can reflect the interaction between reading and writing in real lifeWith the input of context，writers would be clearer about whom they are writing for，in what situation，and keep the readers in mind
　　As for the sequence of writing process，Hedge (1998) suggests a novel way which sequentially consists of composing，communicating，crafting，improving and evaluatingCommunicating is after composingThis may be because learners have to know how to construct accurate sentences before applying their skills to refine the contentsComposing means that writers should pay attention on written forms including word choice，mechanics (handwriting，spelling，punctuation.[KG-*5].[KG-*5].)，grammar and syntax (Raimes，1983)
　　Communicating in writing，on the other hand，tends to focus on the content which is used to convey a message to the reader (Ur，1996)It means a good communication depends on how much percentage of the writers’ idea has been transferred to their readersIn addition，Zamel (1983) argues that with teacher’s proper instruction，further linguistic development can be enhanced in the context of making and communicating meaningThus it can be seen that composing and communicating may refine each other in a complementary way
　　Another thing that should be mentioned is teacher’s response to learnersResponding positively is good to build up learners’ confidence (Hedge，1998)It seems that teacher’s response could directly have a positive/negative effect on the writers’ motivation to communicate，without which nothing can be done
　　 ⅢDiscussion
　　Writing is a process of discovering and making meaning，including both composing and communicatingWhat a suitable balance between them could be achieved for the improvement of learners’ writing，to some extent depends on the teachers’ teaching objectives and their personal opinions (Ur，1996)But it may be better if teachers keep composing and communicating in mind and put different while suitable emphasis on them during each period of writing process
　　 1Prewriting
　　At the first stage of teaching classroom writing，introductions including a certain context should be given by the teacher to help students do preparation such as schemata activation，audience and purpose clarification，ideacollecting，making out a plan，and etcfor the following real writingZamel (1983) states that students will be lead to use language purposely and communicatively with teacher’s introductionThus interaction and communication should be emphasized here to help students get familiar with the topic，context，purpose，audience and even the contents they might think out
　　Take teaching writing in an elementary class for exampleWhen a teacher shows a picture of a mysterious forest with a fox，a tiger and a hunter，what s/he needs to do is to contextualize this situationThis composition is just for writing practice and the audience will be the teacher and the learners’ peersClassroom time may be devoted to either oral or written brainstorming with vocabulary relative to the background in the pictureThen s/he can ask students to jot down the ideas with their imagination on what would happen between the three characters through group discussionIt is not necessary to require accuracy，for learners at this stage are busy at creating their own ideas and frame of their storyThough they may not finish the first draft and even may not start communication in their paper，they have interacted with the classmates and have got what they want to say in the story
　　If composing correctness is required at this stage，students will be discouraged from making further communicationThey might think that teachers are indeed trying to point out their language errors and evaluate their linguistic competence while asking them to write compositions seeminglyThus，teachers’ response to learners’ errors should be moderate and kindlyIt is a good idea for teachers to show they only want to help learners with their communication rather than to aim at their errors
　　 2Whilewriting
　　At this composingandcommunicating stage，good writers tend to concentrate on what they want to communicate first and leave details such as correcting spelling，grammar，etctill later (Hedge，1998)Average writers，in order to get the right content，have to do lots of recycling here (to stop to read over again，revise plans，and bring new ideas or rearrange the contents that have already been expressed)It means learners have to spend much time on designing their communication
　　However，time for classroom writing is limited，so teachers can choose controlled writing activities (iesome relevant contents and/or certain patterns can be offered) to help students do composing fluently and effectivelyRaimes (1983，p95) asserts that controlled writing is a useful tool at all levels of composition teaching
　　Take a letter of description of a resort to a pen friend for exampleBefore writing，learners have to fill several blanks in a model letter which is similar to this task no matter on the content，form or lengthTheir language schemata (grammar，syntactic structure，even the key words) will be activated to deal with the blanks in the model text
　　Since the linguistic factors are connected with composing，they do need accuracy in the formSimultaneously，to prompt a written communication is the real target which is introduced in parallelIt could be argued that the model text is a source of form，structure，ideas，idioms and words pack，which could give students an efficient direction when they write their own worksThus，the content students want to interact with the audience may be transferred fluently with the model and their own ideas
　　3Postwriting
　　Since the main body of a written works has been done，one of the most important things that the teacher should do is to help writers to do composing，which，according to Ferris (2002)，means they have to learn to find and correct grammatical，lexical，and mechanical errors before submitting the final product
　　Despite of the difference between writers’ capacity，selfedit might be a better means to integrate communicating into composingTeachers can ask students to be the reader and peerteacher for each otherOn the one hand，peerteachers can seek the authors’ errors；in return，they can check their own works to see whether they have the same errorOn the other hand，when students are reading the other’s works，whether a real successful written communication has been produced could also be examinedIn this way，students do practice composing and communicating both on their peers and on themselvesHowever，due to the limitation of students’ language proficiency，they may not be able to find out all linguistic errorsThen the teacher should highlight those ‘invisible’ troubles and give the right interpretation，which could be helpful for the future writing
　　 ⅣConclusion
　　To sum up，each stage has their peculiar function on students’ final works，so L2 teachers have to seek a suitable balance between composing and communicating purposely in writing classes for encouraging learners to do written communication with the second language they have acquiredUsually in a normal writing classroom，it is better for teachers to take learners’ interest and confidence into consideration，and do not ruin their desire to communicate，since they are not writing for higher scores in language proficiency testsWhen teaching writing，teachers are suggested to pay attention on communication to arouse learners’ wish to do writing during prewriting；while at the second，much emphasis could be given on the main body formation of the written works prompted by a certain model text，and less on the correctness of composing；at last，based on effective communication，learners’ energy could be spent on linguistic revision/composing including selfedit and teacher’s assistance on highlighted linguistic interpretation
　　References
　　1Ferris，D‘Teaching students to selfedit’，in Richard，JCand Renandya，WA(ed) Methodology in Language TeachingCambridge：Cambridge University Press，2002
　　2Hedge，TWritingOxford：Oxford University Press，1998
　　3Ivanic，R‘Reviews’ELT Journal 46 (4)：384386，1992
　　4McDonough，Jand Shaw，CMaterials and Methods in ELTOxford：Blackwell，1993
　　5Raimes，ATechniques in Teaching WritingOxford：Oxford University Press，1983
　　6Ur，PA Course in Language TeachingCambridge：Cambridge University Press，1996
　　7Zamel，V‘The composing process of advanced ESL students：six case studies’TESOL Quarterly 17 (2)：165187，1983.