The composing processes of three students--seventh grade, tenth grade, and college level--are described in this paper. Observations are given for each student, in eight stages of the composing process: prewriting, planning, starting, following a program of style, reformulating, stopping, contemplating, and composing silently. Findings showed that these students do no planning, find starting easy--especially with personal narratives, show preoccupation with technical matters at the expense of content, are syntactically immature writers, omit words and phrases, and do not revise. The author concludes that since students perceive teachers to be editors and proofreaders only and view writing as a joyless chore, teachers need to become coaches and empathetic listeners who provide students with opportunities for pleasurable writing experiences. (JM)