Four areas of consideration are crucial to the development of an effective English-as-a-Second-Language writing program: the nature of basic writers; acquisition of written language; approaches to teaching basic writing; and classroom strategies. Basic writers are students who have studied writing for years but are still unable to produce acceptable work. Problems are caused by lack of familiarity with specific grammatical and syntactic rules and the conventions of organization and logic required in academic writing. Analytical orientation and synthetic-holistic orientation seem to be only partially applicable in solving writing problems. Writing courses should cover linguistic conventions and appropriate writing procedures. Classroom activities should be focused on helping learners express themselves in their own ways. A set of 20 principles are outlined for writing instructors, including specific classroom techniques and areas for instructor awareness. Contains 24 references. (Author/MSE)