A review of the literature reveals that three writing skills have been of particular interest to writing researchers recently. First, work on planning the rhetorical strategy recognizes three components of the planning process: prewriting, pausing, and reviewing what has been written. Second, research on audience analysis indicates that maturity is an important factor in the construction and maintenance of repertoires for appealing to an audience, and that writing exercises should reflect the level of student development in the area of audience awareness. Third, current work on information processing has focused on the rate of distribution of new information to be presented against a background of old information, reflecting the principle of "peak positions" within sentences. Other research in this area has focused on the differences in how beginning and experienced writers employ abstractions in their compositions. Overall, recent research on composing shows that it is the development of their skill in the areas of planning rhetorical strategy, analyzing the audience, and processing information that distinguishes beginning writers from skilled writers. (RL)