This report presents first year (1984-85) findings of The Writing Project, a 2-year school-based study of the use of word processing to improve learning-disabled children's writing skills. Emphasis is on how remedial teachers can integrate computers into their writing activities in resource rooms and classrooms. Based in three Massachusetts school districts, the project focused in the first year on intensive observation of 14 fourth-grade children as they wrote with word processors. The study found that the computer aided the child's sense of ownership, of being in control and "authoring" the writing, and of his/her involvement in writing. Teachers brought three different approaches to teaching writing with a computer: skill building; guided writing; and strategic. The strategic approach, which provided students with strategies for managing the writing process, appeared to result in the highest level of student involvement and independent work. The skill building approach resulted in the least positive impact on students' involvement and sense of ownership. A model environment for teaching writing with computers is proposed, guided by such principles as the basic capability of learning-disabled children as "authors" and the use of writing strategies that keep the child in control. Includes 21 references. (DB)