Linda Flower

Last updated

Linda Flower (born March 3, 1944, in Wichita) is a composition theorist. She is best known for her emphasis on cognitive rhetoric, but has more recently published in the field of service learning. [1] Flower currently serves Carnegie Mellon University as a professor of rhetoric. [1]

Contents

Biography

Flower graduated with a doctorate degree from Rutgers University. [1] Her dissertation was on Charles Dickens. [2] Teaching professional writing to business students at Carnegie Mellon University inspired Flower to study more about problem-solving. [2] [3] While studying linguistics, rhetoric, and psycholinguistics, Flower connected with John Richard Hayes, a cognitive psychologist also working at Carnegie Mellon. [2] [3] Flower and Hayes became frequent collaborators. They used think-aloud protocols to learn more about how writers problem-solve during writing tasks. [4] [3] Together, they developed a cognitive model of the writing process. [5] This model prompted discussions of cognitive rhetoric and its role with social constructivism and meaning making processes, including critiques from Patricia Bizzell and Martin Nystrand. [6] [7] [8]

Flower went on to serve in multiple roles promoting the study of writing. She served as co-director of the Center for the Study of Writing at the Carnegie Mellon. [1] She also served on the Making Thinking Visible Project and developed Pittsburgh's Community Literacy Center. [3] [1]

Works

Independent works

Collaborative works

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Herbert A. Simon</span> American political scientist, economist, sociologist, and psychologist

Herbert Alexander Simon was an American political scientist, with a Ph.D. in political science, whose work also influenced the fields of computer science, economics, and cognitive psychology. His primary research interest was decision-making within organizations and he is best known for the theories of "bounded rationality" and "satisficing". He received the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 1978 and the Turing Award in computer science in 1975. His research was noted for its interdisciplinary nature and spanned across the fields of cognitive science, computer science, public administration, management, and political science. He was at Carnegie Mellon University for most of his career, from 1949 to 2001, where he helped found the Carnegie Mellon School of Computer Science, one of the first such departments in the world.

A cognitive tutor is a particular kind of intelligent tutoring system that utilizes a cognitive model to provide feedback to students as they are working through problems. This feedback will immediately inform students of the correctness, or incorrectness, of their actions in the tutor interface; however, cognitive tutors also have the ability to provide context-sensitive hints and instruction to guide students towards reasonable next steps.

Computers and writing is a sub-field of college English studies about how computers and digital technologies affect literacy and the writing process. The range of inquiry in this field is broad including discussions on ethics when using computers in writing programs, how discourse can be produced through technologies, software development, and computer-aided literacy instruction. Some topics include hypertext theory, visual rhetoric, multimedia authoring, distance learning, digital rhetoric, usability studies, the patterns of online communities, how various media change reading and writing practices, textual conventions, and genres. Other topics examine social or critical issues in computer technology and literacy, such as the issues of the "digital divide", equitable access to computer-writing resources, and critical technological literacies. Many study by scientist such have shown that writing on computer is better than writing in a book

John Robert Anderson is a Canadian-born American psychologist. He is currently professor of Psychology and Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Writing process</span> Process in which words and phrases are formed to produce a text

A writing process describes a sequence of physical and mental actions that people take as they produce any kind of text. These actions nearly universally involve tools for physical or digital inscription: e.g., chisels, pencils, brushes, chalk, dies, keyboards, touchscreens, etc.; these tools all have particular affordances that shape writers' processes. Writing processes are highly individuated and task-specific; they often involve other kinds of activities that are not usually thought of as writing per se.

Cognitive rhetoric refers to an approach to rhetoric, composition, and pedagogy as well as a method for language and literary studies drawing from, or contributing to, cognitive science.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Composition studies</span>

Composition studies is the professional field of writing, research, and instruction, focusing especially on writing at the college level in the United States. The flagship national organization for this field is the Conference on College Composition and Communication.

Patricia Bizzell, Ph.D. is a Professor of English, emerita, and former Chairperson of the English Department at College of the Holy Cross, United States, where she taught from 1978 to 2019. She founded and directed the Writer's Workshop, a peer tutoring facility, and a writing-across-the-curriculum program. She directed the College Honors and English Honors programs and taught first-year composition, rhetoric and public speaking, nineteenth-century American literature, and women's literature. A scholar and writer, Bizzell has authored or co-authored half a dozen books, written dozens of articles and book chapters, composed more than a dozen book reviews and review essays, and presented a large number of papers at academic conferences. Bizzell is the 2008 winner of the CCCC Exemplar Award, and former president of Rhetoric Society of America.

Erwin Ray Steinberg was an American scholar and professor.

Cognitive science and linguistic theory have played an important role in providing empirical research into the writing process and serving the teaching of composition. As for composition theories, there is some dispute concerning the appropriateness of tying these two schools of thought together into one theory of composition. However, their empirical basis for research and ties to the process theory of composition and cognitive science can be thought to warrant some connection.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charles Bazerman</span> American educator and scholar

Charles Bazerman is an American educator and scholar. He was born and raised in New York. He has contributed significantly to the establishment of writing as a research field. Best known for his work on genre studies and the rhetoric of science, he is a Professor of Education at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where he also served as Chair of the Program in Education for eight years. He served as Chair of the Conference on College Composition and Communication, delivering the 2009 CCCC Chair's Address, "The Wonders of Writing," in San Francisco, California. He is the author of over 18 books, including Shaping Written Knowledge, Constructing Experiences, The Languages of Edison’s Light, A Theory of Literate Action, and a Rhetoric of Literate Action. He also edited over 20 volumes, including Textual Dynamics of the Profession, Writing Selves/Writing Societies, What Writing Does and How it Does It, as well as the Handbook of Research on Writing and the two series Rhetoric, Knowledge and Society and Reference Guides to Rhetoric and Composition. He also wrote textbooks supporting the integration of reading and writing that have appeared in over 30 editions and versions including The informed writer: Using sources in the disciplines, The Informed Reader, and the English Skills Handbook.

Revision is a process in writing of rearranging, adding, or removing paragraphs, sentences, or words. Writers may revise their writing after a draft is complete or during the composing process. Revision involves many of the strategies known generally as editing but also can entail larger conceptual shifts of purpose and audience as well as content. Many writers go through multiple rounds of revisions before they reach a final draft: "Few writers are so expert that they can produce what they are after on the first try. Quite often you will discover, on examining the completed work, that there are serious flaws in the arrangement of the material, calling for transpositions... do not be afraid to experiment with your text."

The rhetorical situation is the circumstance of an event that consists of an issue, an audience, and a set of constraints. A rhetorical situation arises from a given context or exigence. An article by Lloyd Bitzer introduced the model of rhetorical situation in 1968, which was later challenged and modified by Richard E. Vatz (1973) and Scott Consigny (1974). More recent scholarship has further redefined the model to include more expansive views of rhetorical operations and ecologies.

Theories of rhetoric and composition pedagogy encompass a wide range of interdisciplinary fields centered on the instruction of writing. Noteworthy to the discipline is the influence of classical Ancient Greece and its treatment of rhetoric as a persuasive tool. Derived from the Greek work for public speaking, rhetoric's original concern dealt primarily with the spoken word. In the treatise Rhetoric, Aristotle identifies five Canons of the field of rhetoric: invention, arrangement, style, memory, and delivery. Since its inception in the spoken word, theories of rhetoric and composition have focused primarily on writing

The study and practice of visual rhetoric took a more prominent role in the field of composition studies towards the end of the twentieth century and onward. Proponents of its inclusion in composition typically point to the increasingly visual nature of society, and the increasing presence of visual texts. Literacy, they argue, can no longer be limited only to written text and must also include an understanding of the visual.

Collaborative pedagogy stems from the process theory of rhetoric and composition. Collaborative pedagogy believes that students will better engage with writing, critical thinking, and revision if they engage with others. Collaborative pedagogy pushes back against the Current-Traditional model of writing, as well as other earlier theories explaining rhetoric and composition; earlier theories of writing, especially current-traditional, emphasizes writing as a final product. In contrast, collaborative pedagogy rejects the notion that students think, learn, and write in isolation. Collaborative pedagogy strives to maximize critical thinking, learning, and writing skills through interaction and interpersonal engagement. Collaborative pedagogy also connects to the broader theory of collaborative learning, which encompasses other disciplines including, but not limited to, education, psychology, and sociology.

Martin Nystrand is an American composition and education theorist. He is Louise Durham Mead Professor Emeritus in the Department of English at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and Professor Emeritus of Education at the Wisconsin Center for Education Research.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Feminist rhetoric</span> Practice of rhetoric

Feminist rhetoric emphasizes the narratives of all demographics, including women and other marginalized groups, into the consideration or practice of rhetoric. Feminist rhetoric does not focus exclusively on the rhetoric of women or feminists, but instead prioritizes the feminist principles of inclusivity, community, and equality over the classic, patriarchal model of persuasion that ultimately separates people from their own experience. Seen as the act of producing or the study of feminist discourses, feminist rhetoric emphasizes and supports the lived experiences and histories of all living beings and in all manner of experiences, and it redefines traditional delivery sites to include the non-traditional locations such as demonstrations, letter writing, and digital processes. An important distinction is made between "feminist rhetoric" and "rhetorical feminism": rhetorical feminism is a strategy that counters traditional forms of rhetoric, favoring dialogue over monologue and seeking to redefine the way audiences define rhetorical appeals. Rhetorical feminism also values listening and silence as dynamic rhetorical practices.

Ann E. Berthoff was a scholar of composition who promoted the study of I.A. Richards and Paulo Freire and the value of their work for writing studies.

Janice M. Lauer Rice was an American scholar of composition, rhetoric, and linguistics. She was a founding member of the Rhetoric Society of America. She founded one of the first doctoral programs in rhetoric and composition at Purdue University in 1980. The Lauer Series in Rhetoric and Composition from Parlor Press is named in her honor, as well as the Rhetoric Society of America's Janice Lauer Fund for Graduate Student Support and the Purdue Foundation Janice M. Lauer Dissertation Award.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 University, Carnegie Mellon. "Linda Flower - Department of English - Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences - Carnegie Mellon University". www.cmu.edu. Retrieved 2020-12-18.
  2. 1 2 3 "Interview with Linda Flower at FSU" (PDF).
  3. 1 2 3 4 Wilson, Jill (1991). "An Interview with Linda Flower: Helping Writers Build Mansions with More Rooms". Writing on the Edge. 3 (1): 9–22. ISSN   1064-6051.
  4. Heller, Carol (1991). "An Interview with Linda Flower" (PDF). The Quarterly of the National Writing Project and Center for the Study of Writing and Literacy. 13 (1): 3–5, 28–30.
  5. Flower, Linda; Hayes, John R. (1981). "A Cognitive Process Theory of Writing". College Composition and Communication. 32 (4): 365–387. doi:10.2307/356600. ISSN   0010-096X.
  6. Bizzell, Patricia (1992). Academic Discourse and Critical Consciousness. University of Pittsburgh Press. doi:10.2307/j.ctt7zwb7k.7. ISBN   978-0-8229-5485-9.
  7. Nystrand, Martin (1982). What writers know: the language, process, and structure of written discourse. Academic Press.
  8. Hayes, John R. (2017-10-30), Portanova, Patricia; Rifenburg, J. Michael; Roen, Duane (eds.), "Foreword. Are Cognitive Studies in Writing Really Pass?", Contemporary Perspectives on Cognition and Writing, The WAC Clearinghouse; University Press of Colorado, pp. vii–xv, doi: 10.37514/per-b.2017.0032.1.2 , ISBN   978-1-64215-003-2 , retrieved 2022-08-10