Writing is a crucial means of communicating with others and thus vital to success and survival in modern society. This article provides an overview of recent research and key findings about writing, including the roles of cognitive and social processes during writing, and educational research on how to improve writing proficiency. Writing…

Writing is complex, and the more researchers understand the cognitive processes and engagement for writing, the more complex the relationships between cognition and producing writing appear. Writing theory is constantly shifting from a focus on mechanics and form to a focus on creativity and sociability. This literature review analyzes four…

Theories of writing development posit several component skills as necessary to the writing process. This meta-analysis synthesizes the literature on the correlation between these proposed component skills and writing outcomes. Specifically, in this study, we examine the bivariate relationships between handwriting fluency, spelling, reading, and…

Theories of writing development posit several component skills as necessary to the writing process. This meta-analysis synthesizes the literature on the correlation between these proposed component skills and writing outcomes. Specifically, this study examines the bivariate relationship of handwriting fluency, spelling, reading, and oral language…

This discussion paper investigates the pedagogical implications of the cognitive process writing model proposed by Flower and Hayes (1981). The research of Flower and Hayes (1981) provides insights into how writers go about planning, generating, and revising during the process of writing. Flower and Hayes (1981) believed that this shift in focus,…

The three papers in this report set forth the research methodology and the theory used in one research project to identify the processes involved in writing. The first paper proposes a method, termed protocol analysis, for use in identifying the organization of writing processes. It defines protocol analysis as a means for examining the detailed…

Explores the implications of Soviet psychologist Lev Vygotsky's cognitive theories on the writing process. (MM)

Argues that the view of writing as a social activity fails to account for individual cognition. Suggests that subjectivity results from a dialectical interplay between consciousness and ideological forces. Calls for further investigation of how context guides cognition and what role cognition plays in the social negotiation of knowledge. (SG)

John Keats provides a convincing and helpful model of James Britton's philosophy and research on composition. While, contrary to Britton's paradigm, much of Keats's work is simultaneously in the expressive, transactional and poetic modes, early poems are primarily expressive: they record his perception of reality as filtered through his senses and…

Invites a different look at metaphorical abstraction in hopes of raising realizations about language processes, writing processes, and the mental activities involved in both. (RL)

Examines how children develop as writers and presents new ways of looking at children's problem solving in what they do and say during the writing process. Presents an outline of the general orders of child focus in the writing process. (HTH)

Surveys rhetorical invention in current theoretical terms. Suggests that all invention requires the location of "differences" within a structure of free play imposed by the mind. Presents some important links between invention, J. Derrida's concept of "difference," and K. Burke's idea of eloquence. (RL)

Introduces a theory of the cognitive processes involved in composing in an effort to lay groundwork for more detailed study of thinking processes in writing. (RL)

Noting that recent issues of several scholarly journals have contained criticism of protocol analysis and the use of verbal reports in the analysis of the writing process, this paper examines some of the charges made and then explores the implications of the criticisms. Specific charges addressed in the paper include the following: (1) protocols…

Discusses the role of affect in cognitive processes. Concludes that to study the affective as well as cognitive components of composing is to acknowledge their true interrelatedness. (MS)