AnnoBib -- “Writer-Based Prose: A Cognitive Basis for Problems in Writing”

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Flower, Linda. “Writer-Based Prose: A Cognitive Basis for Problems in Writing.” College English 41.1 (September 1979): 19-37. Print.
“Writer-based” prose is adequate for personal writing, but falls short in academic and professional writing because it fails to transform the internal expressions of the author, fails to transform private thought into reader-based expression. In contrast, reader-based prose deliberately attempts to communicate to a reader. Reader-based prose reflects purpose, while writer-based reflects process. Effective prose, then, requires a cognitively demanding transformation of private expression into structure and style adapted to the reader. Flower reviews Piaget's and Vygotsky's ideas of egocentric and inner speech of children to show how limitations of seeing objects as complexes compared to seeing the more value of using abstractions and concepts critical to expository writing. Writing is often dictated by information, not intention. Most writers begin with a narrative or survey structure of their expression, though this likely is insufficient for the reader's needs. Explains, among others, why grammatical errors such as fragments occur – because in the writer's mind, it makes sense – but in the reader's mind, connection and relationships are lacking. Writer-based prosed uses episodic memory, where reader-based writing often expects semantic memory.
    Flowers recognizes that writer-based prose is not an error, not a misunderstanding of composition, but is likely a first step or an tentative attempt to recall ideas in a logical means for the writer; the task of the instructor is to lead the student into transforming these expressions to a reader-based prose with context and appropriate for the writing task. This is one of Flower's first papers on cognition and she takes pains to explain how Piaget's and Vygostky's ideas in children (and in the case of Vygotsky, adults) explains why some adult writers prepare a text that is sufficient for their own internal use, but often lacks connection with the reader.

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