Current cognitive and sociocognitive models of writing conceptualize writing processes as complex interactions between multidimensional mechanisms that activate a writer's social motivations, psychomotor processes, and cognitive resources in order to engage in writing. These models have been developed through years of empirical research employing…

This paper argues that traditional threshold-based approaches to the analysis of pauses in writing fail to capture the complexity of the cognitive processes involved in text production. It proposes that, to capture these processes, pause analysis should focus on the transition times between linearly produced units of text. Following a review of…

This paper considers the impact of technological processes on human thought, specifically the implications of artificial intelligence (AI) on writing instruction. The main purpose of this paper is to present instructional considerations that will elevate human voice and reduce student temptations to turn to AI unreasonably to produce a piece of…

Most research into second language (L2) writing has focused on the products of writing tasks; much less empirical work has examined the behaviours in which L2 writers engage and the cognitive processes that underlie writing behaviours. We aimed to fill this gap by investigating the extent to which writing speed fluency, pausing, eye-gaze…

This study seeks to explore the cognitive processes involved as bilinguals wrote English and Spanish Facebook status updates. Three phases of data collection were employed: individual interviews, examination of participants' Facebook status updates and a group interview. The findings suggested that regardless of the language in which participants…

Using computer keystroke logs, this study investigated how writing skill affected L2 writers' pausing patterns to gain insights into their management of the cognitive writing processes. The 59 participants, 29 in the more-skilled group and 30 in the less-skilled group, were recruited from a college English course at a key Chinese university. The…

Moment to moment, a writer faces a host of potential problems. How does the writer's mind coordinate this problem solving? In the original Hayes and Flower model, the authors posited a distinct process to manage this coordinating--that is, the "monitor." The monitor became responsible for executive function in writing. In two…

Studies on second language (L2) learners writing in English have found that composing is a recursive process requiring planning, formulating and revising. Of particular note among the many studies that have explored the composing processes of L2 writers are two characteristics: 1) They examine the composing processes of writers in real-time while…

This paper analyses how two multicompetent speakers engage with protocolling, i.e. verbalising their thoughts, while writing in two languages different from their first. The study explores how procedure- and language-related episodes of awareness affect both the writing process itself and the written product. The research draws on current issues…

A study investigated whether the narrative writing task is more compatible with the structure of conscious thought than are other writing tasks. If so, composing a narrative text should demand less cognitive effort, occur more fluently, and yield a more coherent document than composing persuasive or descriptive texts. Sixteen college students were…

Investigates the types of processes used by journalistic writers when producing texts of varying constraints. Finds that news story writers paused more often and carried out more activities per writing session than did editorial writers, suggesting greater monitoring activity by news story writers. (MS)

Examined how information-processing load affects the writing process by having 40 undergraduates write a short essay up to a supplied ending sentence with increasing content constraints. Results found that a high information-processing load led to lower-rated story coherence, but not to lower- rated quality. (36 references) (MDM)

Presents the results of an investigation of the cognitive and grammatical activities carried out by beginning and advanced college students during pauses in their writing. (HOD)

A study was conducted to investigate the relationship between the intellectual maturity of college students and evidence of rhetorical maturity in their writing--specifically, why some students write better than others, since general language abilities cannot account for all the differences between good and poor writing. By focusing on college…

Data for a study of the composition process consisted of student compositions written in response to four stimulus tasks (compositions written within unstructured, topical/Aristotelian, dramatic situation, and behavioral models), and students' introspective comments made in response to questionnaires, during taped discussions, and in individual…