Linda Flower
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