Designed for teachers and researchers interested in the study of the composing process, this guide introduces a method of analysis that can be applied to data from a range of different cases. Specifically, the guide offers a simple, direct coding scheme for describing the movements occurring during composing that involves four procedures: teaching writers how to compose aloud, taping the composing aloud sessions, coding the tapes onto the composing style sheets, and analyzing the composing style sheet. The guide describes the style sheet as a tool to (1) reduce a lengthy composing tape to a chart; (2) introduce a coding system that can be replicated; (3) sort specific, observable behaviors into defined categories that make it possible to discern regularities and patterns within and across cases; (4) provide a way of determining how parts of the process relate to the whole; and (5) present the sequences of movements that occur during composing as they unfold. The first chapter of the guide provides a background of the writing process and discusses the purpose of the coding scheme, while the second chapter examines various methods and techniques of observing the writing process. The coding scheme is explained in the third chapter and applied to the composing process of one writer in the fourth chapter, and the final chapter examines some of the questions that guide research efforts to study the writing process. (HOD)