A basic skills workshop in teaching writing for secondary school teachers held at the State University of New York at Brockport had a focus radically different from the self-defeating skills-drill remediation usually associated with instruction for "basic writing" students. Four assumptions underlay the workshop sessions: (1) all individuals, even "basic" students, can learn how to write more effectively; (2) the "composing process" is the model for writing instruction; (3) writing teachers need an understanding of basic theoretical statements and the results of research on writing instruction; and (4) writing teachers need to write frequently themselves. The focus of the first workshop session was on the foundations of a basic writing program, and covered topics such as the state of writing research, key elements in effective writing, diagnosing writers' skills, and teaching expressive writing. The second session dealt mainly with teaching expository and persuasive writing, and included steps in composing, brainstorming, teaching the persuasive/argumentative essay, and the Rogerian argument. The third session covered sentence combining, writing evaluation and assessment, and guidelines for setting up a basic skills writing program. The key to the problem of writing difficulties is competent teacher-writers who know the writing process first hand and who are specially trained to teach writing. (HTH)