This study of elementary school textbooks published between 1900 and 1959 investigates trends in writing instruction. In order to determine whether quantitative changes in the frequency and types of assignments had occurred over this timespan, the sixty-year interval was divided into three roughly equal periods: period A included textbooks published between 1900 and 1917; period B, 1918 and 1935; and period C, 1936 and 1959. All textbooks tasks were allocated into one of twelve categories such as grammar, letter writing, or narrative and expository writing. Generally speaking, the results of trend analysis indicate an increased emphasis on oral language tasks throughout the period, with a concomitant decrease in the amount of time spent on writing tasks. Moreover, it is clear that current enthusiasm for the idea of writing-as-process has antecedents in earlier textbooks on American writing instruction. Teachers have long understood the demands and nature of the writing process, but have yet to commit themselves to the implications, namely, that the one indispensable prerequisite for good writing is increasing amounts of time spent of the task
