Nine principles for designing writing courses which make writing purposeful, interesting and enjoyable

Writing appears to be an anxiety-ridden chore for many ESL learners. This is especially true among Hong Kong learners of English. In response to this, literature relating to ESL writing was reviewed in an attempt to find solutions to the problem. A study was also conducted to look into the attitudes of Hong Kong ESL learners towards writing and how English was taught in Hong Kong. The results revealed that many of the students involved in the study found writing boring and difficult, which indicated that the way of teaching writing did not meet the needs and interests revealed in the study, nine writing principles were formulated to form a basis for designing a writing course which makes writing more purposeful, interesting and enjoyable. Copyright © 2001 The Hong Kong Linguist.