the study (and use) of models

“A common assumption among teachers of writing is that a familiarity with good or great writing will enhance a writer’s own work. A more concrete pedagogical version of this assumption is that a developing writer learns from seeing what others have done and from imitating those forms and techniques. That is, in order to write an essay of a given type, the writer must first be familiar with examples of the type and know the parts of the type and their relationships. How could a writer produce a haiku or sonnet if the writer did not first know what a haiku or sonnet is? Although some studies have been conducted in the last twenty years have examined the effects of general exposure to ‘good’ writing, many more studies have concentrated on the analysis of models to identify specific qualities or features which students were expected to incorporate in their own writing. . .This narrative review can conclude only that the results for the use of models are mixed. . . available research does not permit fine discriminations among the effect of various types of models on students of various ages and levels of ability, or among the variety of ways in which they might be used.”

--text from Hillocks' Research on Written Composition (1986)