Writing Process

TR 18. Readers as Writers Composing from Sources, by Nancy Nelson Spivey and James R. King. Extending research on writing processes as well as reading processes, this study examines the report-writing of sixth, eighth, and tenth graders, as accomplished and less accomplished readers work with source texts and compose their own new texts. Analyses reveal composing patterns connected not only to grade level but to reading ability as well. February, 1989; 30 pages; $4.00.
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TR 26. The Effects of Prompts Upon Revision: A Glimpse of the Gap Between Planning and Performance, by Wayne C. Peck (Reading-to-Write Report 7). This report analyzes the think-aloud protocols and finished texts of students asked to revise a written assignment. Students introduced to task representation and prompted to "interpret for a purpose of one's own" on revision were far more likely to change their organizing plan than students prompted merely to revise to "make the text better." However, the protocols also revealed a significant group of "intenders" who made plans they were unable to translate into text. May, 1989; 26 pages; $4.00.
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TR 29. Negotiating Academic Discourse, by Linda Flower (Reading-to-Write Report 10). Academic writing is both a cognitive and social process guided by strategic knowledge--the goals writers set based on their reading of the context, the strategies they invoke, and their awareness of both these processes. This report discusses the difficulties experienced by many college freshmen as they seek to negotiate the transition from a writing process based on comprehension and response to a more fully rhetorical, constructive process. May, 1989; 43 pages; $4.00.
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TR 30. Expanding the Repertoire: An Anthology of Practical Approaches for the Teaching of Writing, edited by Kathleen McCormick (Reading-to-Write Report 11). This set of classroom approaches, written by teachers collaborating on a course that grew out of the Reading-to- Write project, helps students to explore their assumptions about their own reading and writing processes, become more aware of the cognitive and cultural implications of their choices, and find alternative approaches to the writing task. May, 1989; 77 pages; $5.50.
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TR 32. Foundations for Creativity in the Writing Process: Rhetorical Representations of Ill-defined Problems, by Linda J. Carey and Linda Flower. This paper examines the composing process of expert writers working in expository genres. Taking a problem-solving perspective, the authors address the concept of creativity in writing as it is embedded in ordinary cognitive processes. June, 1989; 30 pages; $4.00.
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TR 34. Planning in Writing: The Cognition of a Constructive Process, by Linda Flower, Karen A. Schriver, Linda Carey, Christina Haas, and John R. Hayes (a joint report with the Carnegie Mellon Planning Project). This paper describes the process adult writers bring to ill-defined expository tasks, such as writing essays, articles, reports, and proposals. It presents a theory of constructive planning based on a detailed analysis of expert and novice writers and suggests goals for instruction and the support of planning. July, 1989; 55 pages; $4.50.
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TR 35. Differences in Writers' Initial Task Representations, by Linda Carey, Linda Flower, John R. Hayes, Karen A. Schriver, and Christina Haas (a joint report with the Carnegie Mellon Planning Project). This exploratory study investigates how writers represent their task to themselves before beginning to write. Examining the writing plans of expert as well as student writers, it uncovers ways in which the type of planning writers do and the quality of their texts correlate. July, 1989; 28 pages; $4.00.
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TR 47. Transforming Texts: Constructive Processes in Reading and Writing, by Nancy Nelson Spivey. This paper focuses on the complex processes involved when writers compose from sources, processes in which writing influences reading and reading influences writing. Arguing that this "hybrid act of literacy" has been neglected in research, Spivey discusses ways writers organize, select, and connect content as they appropriate source materials and transform them in generating new texts. February, 1991; 24 pages; $4.00.
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TR 59. Constructing a Research Paper: A Study of Students' Goals and Approaches, by Jennie Nelson. This study considers the processes involved in writing an academic research paper. Nelson studied twenty-one college freshmen enrolled in an introductory cognitive psychology class to determine how students understood the teacher's research paper assignments, whether students took extensive notes and produced multiple drafts, and whether these "high-investment" reading and writing processes led to higher-quality papers. February, 1992; 16 pages; $3.50.
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TR 63. "Whistle for Willie," Lost Puppies, and Cartoon Dogs: The Sociocultural Dimensions of Young Children's Composing, or, Toward Unmelting Pedagogical Pots, by Anne Haas Dyson. Drawing on data from an urban elementary school, Dyson suggests ways that the "process" approach to teaching writing, in spite of many positive features, may be too rigidly implemented to allow for the needs of young writers in multicultural classrooms. She argues that teachers need to be sensitive to social and cultural diversity and respond with a greater variety of textual models and writing activities in their classrooms. June, 1992; 30 pages; $4.00.
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OP 1. Interpretive Acts: Cognition and the Construction of Discourse, by Linda Flower. This paper discusses the cognitive processes which make reading and writing constructive (and intentional) acts. Flower elucidates a cognitive framework for understanding the acts of reading and writing, contrasting it with other familiar frameworks from other disciplines. September, 1987; 18 pages; $3.50.
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OP 4. The Construction of Purpose in Writing and Reading, by Linda Flower. Based on a decade of studies of the cognitive processes student and expert writers reveal while composing text, this paper discusses two interrelated concerns: how writers come by/find/create their sense of purpose, and whether readers are aware of or are affected by writers' purposeful text construction. July, 1988; 21 pages; $4.00.
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OP 32. From Prop to Mediator: The Changing Role of Written Language in Children's Symbolic Repertoires, by Anne Haas Dyson. Using illustrations from an ongoing study of literacy development among African-American children in an urban school, Dyson examines how children's use of written language changes during the early childhood years. She argues that there is no linear progression in written language development; rather, written language emerges most strongly when it is embedded within a child's total symbolic repertoires, including drawing, playing, singing, dancing, and storytelling. Further, she cautions against the uncritical use of writing process pedagogy with young children. September, 1992; 22 pages; $4.00.
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