A quick search on Google with the question: Can Writing Be Taught? brings back several articles and posts about this topic. Obviously, there is much debate about whether or not writing is something one can learn or if it’s innate.

Some interesting articles on the subject include:

• Can Writing Be Taught? by Diana Chang
  

  Excerpt: “Writers are often perceived as egocentric. Perhaps some are, but so are some shoe manufacturers. The pursuit of writing is no way to distinguish oneself from the crowd. Hordes of people are writing, and talent of every variety is as widespread as weeds. The other ingredients - vision, voice, tenacity, a lasting urge to write, a capacity for grinding work - are essential, too.

  But, I tell them, if it is indeed writing a person wants most to do, nothing can stop him or her, not even the leg irons of repressive governments around the world.

  I believe most good writers - in relation to their art and craft - are selfless. Not their egos, but writing, is what is foremost in their hearts and on their desks. Writing is what they are in the service of, what they are enthralled by. Art usually has its way with the men and the women engaged in it. They wrestle with it but, paradoxically, feel victorious, triumphant, when they lose themselves to its power.”

• Reader Request 2004 #3: Can Writing Be Taught?
  

  Excerpt: “I’m on record as being ambivalent to the value of writing workshops, but I will say that of all the “teaching writing” methods, in which a student goes to learn at the feet of whomever, this seems to me the best way to do it, since it’s short (a few weeks at most), it’s immersive, it’s intense and at the end of it you still have to go back to your life — you can’t just add another year of grad school (unless you go to one while you’re in grad school for writing. In which case: What the hell is wrong with you?). You have to be focused in a workshop environment, and I think that’s probably a good thing.

  But again, I think the best way to learn writing is simply to do it, send it out, and see what the editors of the various literary outlets you’ve been reading have to say. You’ll learn what they want, what you need to work on, and you’ll be getting the practical benefit of actually writing. And ultimately, that’s how one learns to write: By writing.”

• Can Good Writing Be Taught? by Wendy Woudstra - This one just has several snippets from various authors. One favourite is by Lew Wallace:
  

  “Modes of expression in writing, like modes of expression in speech, are referable purely to feeling, not studied, but of the moment.”

• Can Writing Be Taught? by Kate Willhelm
  

  Excerpt: “The answer we arrived at was a qualified yes; some things about writing can be taught. Possibly there were shortcuts, methods to reduce that long learning period. Anyone with fair talent, a great deal of determination and perseverance, and some luck, can become a publishable writer, and what we could do was teach technique. We believed we could help emerging writers become better writers sooner.

  Anyone who is literate can write, after all, and if all one wants to do is keep a diary without planning to share it with anyone else, that person does not need help, and studying technique would be wasted effort. Why bother? Write the diary, and be done with it. But as soon as publication is the goal, then technique becomes necessary.”