The intent of the Washington State Writing Framework is to provide support for the development of writing benchmarks and instructional guidelines for individual school districts. The purpose of the writing framework is: to provide grade by grade overview of the Essential Academic Learning Requirements in writing; to complement the frameworks for reading and communication; to provide suggestions for teaching and assessing writing; to allow teachers to determine the degree of required competence of any skill; and to be compatible with a range of teaching practices and materials. The framework is divided into the early years, composed of kindergarten through fourth grades; the middle years, composed of fifth through seventh grades; and the transition years, composed of eighth through tenth grades. The transition years have been divided into two sections: writing as a literary form and writing in the content areas. For each grade level, information is divided into the following sections: overview for each grade level; quick check in writing; suggested characteristics in writing to be worked toward by the end of each grade level; and assessment possibilities for each characteristic. An appendix lists suggested expectations for conventions by grade level. Contains 65-item glossary. (PM)