A Tale of 3 P’s—Penmanship, Product, and Process: 100 Years of Elementary Writing Instruction

From penmanship, to product, to process . . . this article recounts 100 years of instructional practice in the US elementary writing classroom through the voices of past teaching manuals and curriculum guides. This particular tale begins at the turn of the 20th century—a time when the elementary school was firmly established in the country, and writing instruction still referred (as it had in centuries past) to the instruction a student received in penmanship. To organize this account, three key definitions of writing that have greatly influenced instructional practice were drawn upon: writing as penmanship, writing as product, and writing as process. This structure highlights the historic arc of elementary writing instruction to date. While 100 years ago there was a strong focus on penmanship, more recently we have seen a greater emphasis on the process of writing, with echoes of penmanship and product remaining.