A Universal Composition Process?

I find myself agreeing with Berlin when he posits that the fault in many essays exploring the pedagogical theory behind composition is a reliance on the theory of a universal composition process. The writing process varies too greatly from one individual until the next for there to be a set of rules and procedures to aid in its discovery. Because that is what it really comes down to: discovery. We can't teach students a writing process. It's not the kind of thing that can be handed down and expected to function as a cure-all for linguistic woes. We can only allow students to discover their own processes of composition.

What, then, is our role in all of this as instructors? I mean, if we can't teach the process, then what do we teach? The answer here is that we become facilitators than teachers. We put students into situations which are engineered to steer them towards discovering their processes. We present obstacles that must be navigated through composition. By making writing the only way to navigate, we encourage (read: force) students to figure out how, exactly, they best approach this skill. I think the key is repeat exposure. Once they student realizes that writing has become the only way to navigate successfully the academic landscape and beyond, they will want to figure out ways to make it easier -- to discover how they can make writing work for them. This, I believe, represents the beginning of personal process building.