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A writing process is a set of mental and physical steps that someone takes to create any type of text. Almost always, these activities require inscription equipment, either digital or physical: chisels, pencils, brushes, chalk, dyes, keyboards, touchscreens, etc.; each of these tools has unique that influence writers' workflows.Haas, Christina (1996). Writing Technology: Studies on the Materiality of Literacy. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc. Mahwah, NJ. Writing processes are very individualized and task-specific; they frequently incorporate activities such as talking, drawing, reading, browsing, and other activities that are not typically associated with writing.
These categories were theorized more fully in subsequent scholarship. For example, pre-writing was defined by Project English experimental researcher D. Gordon Rohman as the "sort of 'thinking' that precedes writing" and the "activity of mind which brings forth and develops ideas, plans, designs". According to Rohman, writing begins "at the point where the 'writing idea' is ready for the words and the page". Even today, much "process-based" teaching has continued to broadly conceptualize writing processes along these three phases.Donahue, Christiane and Theresa Lillis. (2014). "Models of Writing and Text Production". In Handbook of Writing and Text Production, Eva-Marie Jakobs & Daniel Perrin, Eds. De Gruyter. Mouton: 55–78 60. Some have linked this three-stage process to the five canons of rhetoric: pre-writing to and Dispositio, writing to Elocutio, revising to Pronuntiatio and sometimes Memoria.
While contemporary research on writing processes still accepts that some kind of process is necessarily involved in producing any written text, it now collectively endorses "the fundamental idea that no codifiable or generalizable writing process exists or could exist".Kent, Thomas (1999). "Introduction". Post-Process Theory: Beyond the Writing-Process Paradigm. Thomas Kent, ed. Carbondale: Southern Illinois UP, 1–6 1. In this view, "writing processes are historically dynamic – not psychic states, cognitive routines, or neutral social relationships".Faigley, Lester. (1986) "Competing Theories of Process: A Critique and a Proposal". College English 48.6 527–542 537. In terms of "pre-writing" for instance, writing processes often begin long before any visible documentable work or easily categorizable steps are observable. From the contemporary perspective of composition studies, it is thus inaccurate to assume that any authentic writing process (i.e., one not contrived as part of a school assignment or laboratory setting) necessarily involves a linear sequence of "stages". Rather different kinds of activities emerge as overlapping parts of a complex whole or parts of a repeating process that can be repeated multiple times throughout anyone's process of composing a particular document. For example, writers routinely discover that editorial changes trigger brainstorming and a change of purpose; that drafting is temporarily interrupted to correct a misspelling; or that the boundary between pre-writing and drafting is less than obvious. (2025). 9783110220636, De Gruyter Mouton. ISBN 9783110220636
Flower and Hayes further developed the cognitive model in "The Cognition of Discovery" by observing writers in order to learn how they generate meaning. They outlined the rhetorical problem as a list of what a writer may address or consider. In doing so, they created a model for the rhetorical problem that can be split up into two main categories: The rhetorical situation and the writer's own goals. The rhetorical situation is what motivates a writer to create ideas. The writer's own goals are instrumental to how ideas are formed. The rhetorical situation is further split into the purpose of the writing, and who will be reading it. The writer's own goals are split into how the reader is affected, the persona the writer uses, the meaning the writer can create, and implementation of writing conventions.
They came to three results from their study, which suggests that good writers envelop the three following characteristics when solving their rhetorical problems:
Flower and Hayes suggest that composition instructors need to consider showing students how "to explore and define their own problems, even within the constraints of an assignment". They believe that "writers discover what they want to do by insistently, energetically exploring the entire problem before them and building for themselves a unique image of the problem they want to solve."
Notable scholars that have conducted this type of inquiry include media theorists such as Marshall McLuhan, Walter Ong, Gregory Ulmer, and Cynthia Selfe. Much of McLuhan's work, for example, centered around the impact of written language on oral cultures, degrees to which various media are accessible and interactive, and the ways in which electronic media determine communication patterns. His evaluation of technology as a shaper of human societies and psyches indicates a strong connection between historical forces and literacy practices.
The social model of writing relies on the relationship between the writers and readers for the purpose of creating meaning. "Writers seldom write exactly what they mean and readers seldom interpret a writer's words exactly as the writer intended."
Even grammar has a social turn in writing: "It may be that to fully account for the contempt that some errors of usage arouse, we will have to understand better than we do the relationship between language, order, and those deep psychic forces that perceived linguistic violations seem to arouse in otherwise amiable people". So one cannot simply say a thing is right or wrong. There is a difference of degrees attributed to social forces.
Several scholars have noted that the expressivist process is incredibly valuable when it comes to writer’s forming their own identities within writing, Michele Zugnoni and Anne Harrington in particular. Zugnoni discusses the ways in which including self-reflection and self-expression within writing is incredibly helpful in allowing first-generation students to build a sense of individuality and purpose. Zugnoni had female, first-generation students use self-reflection in writing, allowing for this group of students to create a sense of individuality from writing freely. In the book “Writing With Elbow,” Herrington’s chapter, titled “Gone Fishin’: Rendering and the Uses of Personal Experience in Writing,”Anne Herrington9780874214307, University Press of Colorado. ISBN 9780874214307 states that the exclusion of personal experience in an academic writing assignment disregards the value of a writer’s experiences.
Expressivist process theory and academic writing complement one another, that academic inquiry focuses on discovery wherein expressivism is the discovery and analysis of your personal experiences. It is discussed that the act of writing about one’s personal experience not only helps to make sense of those experiences but allows them to build their voice, Bruce Ballenger stating his own students had told him that writing had been put into a new light when allowed to express their personal experiences.
According to Richard Fulkerson's article "Four Philosophies of Composition", the focus of expressivism is for writers to have "... an interesting, credible, honest, and personal voice". Moreover, proponents of the expressivist process view this theory as a way for students to become fulfilled and healthy both emotionally and mentally. Those who teach this process often focus on journaling and other classroom activities to focus on student self-discovery and at times, low-stakes writing. Prominent figures in the field include John Dixon, Ken Macrorie, Lou Kelly, Donald C. Stewart and Peter Elbow.
Expressivist theory in writing goes against the academic side of writing by valuing individualism over structure. Personal voice and creative exploration is seen as a better way for student writers to write in academic settings.
Writers often use freewriting as a form of expressivism. Freewriting is seen as a way to allow creativity in one's writing, allowing the writer to include personal and academic ideas into each piece. Expressivism allows people to let their inner thoughts roam free which is a precursor to brainstorming and organizing thoughts. Many writers also use a tool called voice. It is used to give character to writing. It induces personal experience and emotion and introduces personality.
Expressivism in the pedagogical world allows for themes of Being (self-concept), Belonging (community), and Becoming (growth). This leads to something called the creative identity which is viewed as something that continues to change over time. Memoirs can aid in the process of identity exploration and self reflection. By applying self reflection in writing, writers are able to understand the concept of critical expressivism which is an ideology explored by Scott Wagar. Critical Expressivism highlights how using empathy and connection promotes connecting personal experiences with others’ concerns. Wagar emphasizes that this level of self expression in writing can help build community and individual growth.
Rose points to the well-known work of Temple Grandin and Donna Williams as examples of autistic autobiographies and analogizes toward the usefulness of women's autobiographies championed by Susan Stanford Friedman to show women's inter-connectivity, suggesting the same can be learned through autistic autobiographies. She writes that such works can minimize the "pathologization (the treatment of a health or behaviour condition as if it were a medical condition) of difference" which can easily occur between autistic students. Also, peers without autism can be broken down by such autobiographies. As Rose directly says, "I argue here that awareness of the relationality of autistic life writing, and the recognition of its corollary status as testimonio and attention to the material relations of the production of these texts is particularly useful in assessing their social significance."
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