The Connotation of Writing Ability and Other Related Issues under the Goal-Interaction Principle

The author enumerates the weak points of various representative viewpoints about research findings related to writing and writing ability after making a careful analysis of and comparison between them. He then makes a tentative probe into writing by employing the Goal-Interaction Principle as its guiding theoretical principle and offers a new definition, interpretation and description of writing and writing ability. It is concluded that writing is a creative social practice in which a writer, as the perceiver of the world, uses a target language in written form to reflect the world and express his thoughts and feelings so as to achieve a certain goal. His writing ability is how well he can reach the goal by writing in specific situations, considering his interaction with all factors involved in the context created.