Many educators are concerned with how writing should be taught, especially in the elementary grades. Many teachers are under the impression that when they have their students write simple sentences using vocabulary words and punctuation marks, they are teaching their students that this is writing. In traditionally taught classes, the elementary curriculum stresses that the mechanics of writing be considered when students express themselves in their writing. When taught properly, the writing process approach helps students to understand how the conventions reinforce the meaning of their papers when they are writing to exchange meaning. A study hypothesized that there would be no significant difference between expository writing samples of students instructed in these different methods--process approach and traditional. Subjects consisted of 5 boys and 7 girls in grade 3 and 6 boys and 5 girls in grade 4 in a Plainfield, New Jersey school. The experimental sample was introduced to process writing; they were offered prewriting activities such as creating a web, words that related to the idea, for given topic. The control sample of students worked independently. The only guidance they were given were the skills taught in the language arts period. No significant differences between the samples were found. Nevertheless, the study concluded that if the process of teaching writing improves then the product of written work will improve. (Contains 4 tables of data, a section on related research, and 10 references. Appendixes contain raw test scores.) (TB)