A Review of Writing Model Research Based on Cognitive Processes

Faced with many different levels of writing proficiency, composition instructors know all too well the extreme variations in ability between students. Typically inexperienced or novice writers do not take much time to develop detailed plans before writing, and when confronted with the need for revision, they consider any rewriting as punitive. This negative attitude toward correcting their text often means they focus on surface errors only, or if they do global revision, often it is less effective than their original text. Professional or expert writers, on the other hand, incorporate revision into every aspect of the writing process, looking at it as a positive opportunity for discovery as they write and rewrite. Since they view creating written text as a recursive activity, their revisions are typically global in scope. Given this constant disparity between novice and expert writers, as well as the complexity of revision, over the last twenty-plus years composition researchers have tried to parse the process through different writing models. In 1980 Linda Flower and John Hayes proposed a shift from the traditional linear sequence models being used to describe various steps taken during writing to process-based models. By placing cognitive actions in a hierarchical format that reflected the recursive nature of writing, they initiated a new and highly productive approach to composition research. Dividing their model into three main parts, " the task environment, the writer's long-term memory, and the writing processes, " Flower and Hayes hoped this basic cognitive model would lead to a clearer understanding of the key steps and thought patterns that occur throughout the writing process (369). With this knowledge,