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7. What/who is a writer?
Cognitivists believe that a writer is a person who sets goals because writing is a "goal-directed process." James Berlin sums up this idea: "The 'keystone' of the cognitive process theory, Flower and Hayes explain, is the discovery that writing is a goal-directed process: 'In the act of composing, writers create a hierarchical network of goals and these in turn guide the writing process'" (Berlin 684). Linda Flower and John Hayes identify two different types of goals: "process goals and content goals." For the process goals, writers give themselves directions for "how to carry out the process of writing" (264). For example, a writer might say, "I need to write a conclusion." Content goals, however, "specify all things the writer wants to say or to do to an audience" (264). These goals direct writers' composing. However, "these goals can be inclusive and exploratory or narrow, sensitive to the audience or chained to the topic, based on rhetorical savvy or focused on producing correct prose" (Flower and Hayes 266).Cognitivists also believe that writers are problem solvers. An assignment can be viewed as a problem, and writers attempt to solve the problem by writing. This "problem," however, is complex: "it includes not only the rhetorical situation and audience which prompts one to write, it also includes the writer's own goals in writing" (Flower and Hayes 257). Cognitivists feel that a writer, or at least a "good" writer, is someone who is able to "juggle" all of these things (Flower and Hayes 257). |