The teaching of writing to students who speak nonstandard English can be difficult because students' linguistic differences rarely indicate true incompetence, and students' writing problems may result from conflicts between the cultures and language uses at home and school. Factors found to encourage writing improvement are the following: (1) positive teacher attitudes; (2) regular writing practice; (3) the opportunity to write for personally significant purposes; (4) student experience in writing for many audiences; (5) rich and continuous reading experience; (6) exposure to models of writing in process and writers at work; (7) instruction in the processes of writing; (8) collaborative classroom activities; (9) one-to-one writing conferences with the teacher; (10) direct instruction in specific strategies for writing; (11) reduced formal instruction in grammar and mechanics; (12) moderate marking of the surface structure errors in student papers; (13) flexible and cumulative evaluation of student writing; and (14) writing practiced and used as a tool of learning across the curriculum. (AA)