EL PROCESO DE LA COMUNICACIÓN

TASK 5: A Cognitive Process: Theory of Writing by Linda Flower and John R. Hayes (extract)

The Rhetorical Problem: 

At the beginning of composing, the most important element is obviously the rhetorical problem itself. A school assignment is a simplified version of such a problem, describing the writer's topic, audience, and (implicitly) her role as student to teacher. Insofar as writing is a rhetorical act, not a mere artifact, writers attempt to "solve" or respond to this rhetorical problem by writing something. In theory this problem is a very complex thing: it includes not only the rhetorical situation and audience which prompts one to write, it also includes the writer's own goals in writing. A good writer is a person who can juggle all of these demands. But in practice we have observed, as did Britton, that writers frequently reduce this large set of constraints to a radically simplified problem, such as "write another theme for English class." Redefining the problem in this way is obviously an economical strategy as long as the new representation fits reality. But when it doesn't, there is a catch: people only solve the problems they define for themselves. If a writer's representation of her rhetorical problem is inaccurate or simply underdeveloped, then she is unlikely to "solve" or attend to the missing aspects of the problem. To sum up, defining the rhetorical problem is a major, immutable part of the writing process. But the way in which people choose to define a rhetorical problem to themselves can vary greatly from writer to writer. An important goal for research then will be to discover how this process of representing the problem works and how it affects the writer's performance.

The Written Text:

 As composing proceeds, a new element enters the task environment which places even more constraints upon what the writer can say. Just as a title constrains the content of a paper and a topic sentence shapes the options of a paragraph, each word in the growing text determines and limits the choices of what can come next. However, the influence that the growing text exerts on the composing process can vary greatly. When writing is incoherent, the text may have exerted too little influence; the writer may have failed to consolidate new ideas with earlier statements. On the other hand, one of the earmarks of a basic writer is a dogged concern with extending the previous sentence and a reluctance to jump from local, text-bound planning to more global decisions, such as "what do I want to cover here?" As we will see, the growing text makes large demands on the writer's time and attention during composing. But in doing so, it is competing with two other forces which could and also should direct the composing process; namely, the writer's knowledge stored in long-term memory and the writer's plans for dealing with the rhetorical problem. It is easy, for example, to imagine a conflict between what you know about a topic and what you might actually want to say to a given reader, or between a graceful phrase that completes a sentence and the more awkward point you actually wanted to make. Part of the drama of writing is seeing how writers juggle and integrate the multiple constraints of their knowledge, their plans, and their text into the production of each new sentence. 

If you want to know more about it, go to this link: 

http://andreagemma.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/45848760-Flowers-Hayes-1981-Cognitive-Process-Theory-of-Writing.pdf


PREDICCIÓN DE CONCEPTOS:

Escritura: los autores deben manejar un concepto dinámico sobre la escritura, es decir, no haciendo hincapié en esta como un resultado sino como parte de un proceso dialéctico que se retroalimenta con otro discurso, sea este oral o escrito.

Texto: producto concreto de enunciación dentro de un proceso de diálogo, en este caso, que por ser escrito, no exige una respuesta inmediata y única. Mientras el escritor realiza una composición; este texto ya escrito ¿sirve de ayuda y soporte a lo que escribirá después o supone una limitación a lo que viene?

Problema retórico: Como suponemos que los autores manejan un concepto de escritura centrado en el proceso mismo y no en el resultado, ¿qué lugar tendría el problema retórico?¿se presenta de la misma manera en todos los escritores?¿qué elementos comprende la retórica? Creemos que el problema retórico, analizado por estos autores enfoca en él, no como un arte que se aprehende del exterior sino como una adqusición que varía según cada proceso cognitivo individual.

Redacción: la teoría tradicional considera el acto de redactar en etapas correlativas y  que se suceden linealmente. Suponemos que Flowers y Hayes no estarán de acuerdo con esta linealidad, sino que observarán que en la mente del que escribe se entremezclan las distintas operaciones.

Composición: los autores deben manejar este concepto no como sinónimo de texto escrito, sino como un proceso cognitivo que implica una serie de operaciones activadas por el escritor.

DEFINITIONS OF WRITING on Prezi