Linda Flower is an American rhetoric and composition scholar at Carnegie Mellon University whose research, particularly with John R. Hayes, established the cognitive process model of writing.
Core ideas
- Writing as cognitive process: Flower and Hayes used think-aloud protocols to study what writers actually do when they write. They found that composing isn’t a linear sequence (prewrite → write → revise) but a set of recursive, interacting processes: planning, translating thought into text, and reviewing [@flowerhayes1981].
- Writer-based vs. reader-based prose: Flower distinguished between prose organized around the writer’s discovery process (writer-based) and prose reorganized for the reader’s needs (reader-based). The revision from writer-based to reader-based is a key move in producing usable technical writing.
- Problem-solving in writing: writing is a form of problem-solving. Writers set goals, generate material, and negotiate between what they want to say and what the reader needs to understand.
Notable works
- “A Cognitive Process Theory of Writing” (1981, with John R. Hayes)
- Problem-Solving Strategies for Writing in College and Community (1998)
- The Construction of Negotiated Meaning: A Social Cognitive Theory of Writing (1994)
Related
- writer-based prose — the term entry for Flower’s distinction between writer-based and reader-based prose
- think-aloud protocol — the research method Flower and Hayes used to study composing
- task analysis — Flower’s work explains why writer-based organization fails in procedural content
- revision — the process Flower’s research illuminated as recursive, not terminal
- audience — her writer-based/reader-based distinction clarifies what audience awareness means in practice