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Why get students to write?

Some kinds of writing happen because students want to make notes, copy down a sentence they have just learnt, or put a new word in their personal vocabulary books. There's nothing wrong with these uses of writing, of course, and they serve a useful purpose. But the writing of a more creative kind – reports, letters, stories, poems, descriptions and so on – is on a different scale and is useful for a number of reasons.

Which, if any, do you feel is the most important?
	The process of writing, because it is not necessarily as spontaneous as speech, allows students to think about how to use language, and that thinking process becomes, in itself, a powerful learning tool.
	Writing gives students the opportunity to see the results of their work and assess how well they are doing.
	Writing allows the teacher to follow a student’s progress over a period of time.
	Writing in class is a welcome alternative to more spoken-based activities.
	Writing is a powerful way of communicating. To fully use any language (first, second or third), the ability to write is absolutely essential.
	None of the above.