Cognitive Writing Theory/Model Flowers and Hayes

Flower and Hayes Model
• set of thinking processes which writers orchestrate
• processes have a hierarchical and embedded organization
• composing is a goal-directed thinking process
• goals are developed at the beginning, but can change
• Flower, Linda and Hayes, John. A Cognitive Process Theory of Writing. Cross-Talk in Comp Theory. National Council of Teachers of English. Urbana, Illinois. 2003


• Summary of Composition Theories
• First-Order Thinking
• relinquishing control
• careless, fast
• intuitive, creative
• does not strive for direction
• heightens intelligence
• Second-Order Thinking
• imposing control
• careful
• conscious and directed
• scrutinize each part
• tough-mindedly critical

See this post for more on first and second order thinking:
http://projects.pomona.edu/writingcenter/index.php?n=Main.FirstAndSecondOrderThinking

Greek and Roman, Five Stages Process
• invention
• arrangement
• style
• memory
• delivery
• Renaissance Ramist Rhetoricians
• sought a purely objective discourse
• redefined invention/arrangement as logical matters
• led to the recent focus solely on the style component
• Rohman and Wlecke, Three Stages
• pre-writing
• writing
• editing
• Britton and Emig, Three Writing Types
• poetic—produces literary artifacts
• expressive/reflexive—exploration of one’s feelings about a subject
• transactional/extensive—convey information
• Writing Across the Curriculum
• began in Britain in the late 1960’s
• composing process is idiosyncratic
• two approaches: journal centered (personal-style) and academic discourse (prioritize academic writing and Standard English)
• Revision
• impossible in speech, except as an after-thought
• cues initiate changes which occur continually throughout the writing of a composition

Flower and Hayes Model
• set of thinking processes which writers orchestrate
• processes have a hierarchical and embedded organization
• composing is a goal-directed thinking process
• goals are developed at the beginning, but can change
• Recursion
• an entire process is embedded within a larger instance of itself
• like a fractal pattern
• not linear

Works Cited
• Bizzel, Patricia. The Teaching of Writing: Composing Process. University of Chicago Press. 1986.
• Elbow, Peter. Embracing Contraries: Explorations in Teaching and Learning. Oxford University Press. 1986.
• Flower, Linda and Hayes, John. A Cognitive Process Theory of Writing. Cross-Talk in Comp Theory. National Council of Teachers of English. Urbana, Illinois. 2003.
• Nelson, Kimberly. The Great Conversation (of the Dining Hall): One Student’s Experience of College Level Writing. University of Iowa.
• Sommers, Nancy. Revision Strategies of Student Writers and Experienced Adult Writers. Cross-Talk in Comp Theory. National Council of Teachers of English. Urbana, Illinois. 2003.