Cognitive Approach and Writing Strategy

On pages 53-58, Williams states that the cognitive approach, which focused on empiricism and the scientific method, was a failure because it focused on the science behind writing rather than the art of writing. After reading the articles by Flowers and Hayes and Sommers, how have your opinions about the cognitive approach been affected? Are there lessons we can learn from the cognitive approach that we can use to help others improve their writing?

I believe writing is an art form. No matter how hard we try, we will not be able to boil writing down to a set of instructions that, when properly followed, will produce a great piece of writing every time. Writing will always require creativity, ingenuity, and imagination- skills that can't be simply taught to students. That being said, I still think the cognitive approach provides us with great insights into what is going on in the heads of good and poor writers. For instance, Flower and Hayes showed us how good writers spend more time thinking about the goals of their writing as well as their audience. Sommers show us how, when revising, poor writers concentrate on word choice while experienced writers focuse on developing or modifying ideas.

After studying the work of cognitive psychologists, we can take their findings and apply them in the classroom. For example, when teaching novice writers about revision, we can stress the importance of ideas and formulate lesson plans that help students create a concept of revision that isn't solely characterized by rewording. Because cognitive psychology shows us some of the differences in the thinking patterns between good and poor writers, we can mold our teaching strategies to focus on improving the good thinking patterns while weeding out the thinking patterns that limit students' writing.