AnnoBib -- “Problem-Solving Strategies and the Writing Process”

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Flower, Linda and John R. Hayes. “Problem-Solving Strategies and the Writing Process.” College English 39.4 (December 1977): 449-61. Print.
Discusses problem-solving as a means to explain to emerging writers, using cognitive psychology's experimental method with Aristotelian heuristics. Heuristics defined as methods which often formalize the efficient procedures others use unconsciously. Because they make an intuitive method explicit, heuristics open complex processes up to the possibility of rational choice. Authors use protocol analysis of writers' verbal explanation during their writing processes; inexperienced writers often have limited repertory of thinking techniques when confronted with obstacles. Creativity is divided into two complementary but semi-autonomous processes: generating versus constructing on one level and playing versus pushing on another. Generating/planning involves determining goals and finding “operators.” Putting ideas into words then involves thought play (brainstorming), staging scenarios, using analogies, and resting and incubating. Pushing ideas may include finding cue words, teaching concepts before writing, and mind-mapping (“treeing one's ideas”). Finally, the authors discuss how constructing for audience involves evaluating means and ends and testing the rhetorical strategy.
The strength of this article is its teacher-focused approach; several examples and even scripts are discussed for classroom use. The reliance on cognitive psychology is apparent and the paper focuses on cognition as part of the creative act. The contents are useful in this research as it shows how the authors saw teaching cognitive processes in the classroom were means to overcome both block and the writer-reader divide.

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