Writing workshop is an approach that encourages students to become involved in the writing process by using their own topics and writing for their own reasons. A history of writing pedagogy shows that educators have recently moved from a skills based approach of teaching writing to a process based approach: teachers are now interested in showing how a piece of writing improves as the author consults with his or her instructor and peers. A literature review of research on writing workshops suggests several conclusions. First, there is adequate evidence to support the assertion that the teaching of writing process is a valuable practice. While the writing process is the actual process or material to be taught, the writing workshop can be viewed as a way of approaching the task of teaching writing and organizing it. Second, the establishment of the writing workshop can feel risky to teachers since there is no prescribed sequence for teaching skills and strategies. D. Sudol and P. Sudol (1991) raise significant questions regarding the tradeoffs among the level of teacher control, student responsibility, and the outcome value of the workshop. Third, the abundance of qualitative research (and lack of quantitative research) is due to the nature of the topic studied. The cyclical nature of the writing process and the writing workshop approach parallels the dynamic characteristic of qualitative research. Lastly, writing workshop, when implemented in its ideal form, takes a large portion of the instructional day. As a result of the literature review, recommendations are made for teachers, administrators, parents, school districts, state educational agencies, and future researchers. (Contains 42 references.) (TB)