In developing teaching strategies for students who are poor writers but good readers, it is useful to explore the characteristics of good readers and of poor writers, and to consider implications for improving classroom practices. Good readers tend to put into practice four major cognitive strategies when they read: they plan, translate or interpret, reread, and reflect upon and/or evaluate what they read. On the other hand, poor writers make limited use of planning time, limit the reading of texts during their creation, limit reading for revision after text production, and devote little time to reflection or evaluation of the text after production. A basic question to ask is how the positive cognitive strategies that good readers use during reading can be best taught to improve writing performance. Teachers should use current information concerning students' cognitive capacities at different stages and provide related written language experiences; teach the composing process with strategies that make sense to good readers/poor writers (such as beginning with unevaluated writing assignments, presenting sound prewriting activities, and preparing cumulative and sequential writing assignments); have students read their drafts and revisions before peer groups; and encourage students to reflect upon and evaluate their writing. (EL)