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these goals can be inclusive and exploratory or narrow,sensitive to the audi-

ence or chained to the topic,based on rhetorical savvy or focused on produc-

ing correct prose.All those forces which might"guide"composing,such as

the rhetorical situation,one's knowledge,the genre,etc.,are mediated

through the goals,plans,and criteria for evaluation of discourse actually set

up by the writer.

This does not mean that a writer's goals are necessarily elaborate,logical,

or conscious.For example,a simple-minded goal such as"Write down what I

can remember"may be perfectly adequate for writing a list.And experienced

writers,such as journalists,can often draw on elaborate networks of goals

which are so well learned as to be automatic.Or the rules of a genre,such as

those of the limerick,may be so specific as to leave little room or necessity

for elaborate rhetorical planning.Nevertheless,whether one's goals are

abstract or detailed,simple or sophisticated,they provide the"logic"that

moves the composing process forward.

3.Finally,writers not only create a hierarchical network of guiding goals,

but,as they compose,they continually return or"pop"back up to their

higher-level goals.And these higher-level goals give direction and coherence

to their next move.Our understanding of this network and how writers use it

is still quite limited,but we can make a prediction about an important dif-

ference one might find between good and poor writers.Poor writers will

frequently depend on very abstract,undeveloped top-level goals,such as

"appeal to a broad range of intellect,"even though such goals are much

harder to work with than a more operational goal such as"give a brief history

of my job."Sondra Perl has seen this phenomenon in the basic writers who

kept returning to reread the assignment,searching,it would seem,for

ready-made goals,instead of forming their own.Alternatively,poor writers

will depend on only very low-level goals,such as finishing a sentence or

correctly spelling a word.They will be,as Nancy Sommers student revisers

were,locked in by the myopia in their own goals and criteria.

Therefore,one might predict that an important difference between good

and poor writers will be in both the quantity and quality of the middle range

of goals they create.These middle-range goals,which lie between intention

and actual prose(cf.,"give a brief history"in Figure 3),give substance and

direction to more abstract goals(such as"appealing to the audience")and

they give breadth and coherence to local decisions about what to say next.

A CognitiveProcesTsheory 379CollegeCompositionand Communication

Goals,Topic,and Text

We have been suggesting that the logic which moves composing forward

grows out of the goals which writers create as they compose.However,

common sense and the folklore of writing offer an alternative explanation

which we should consider,namely,that one's own knowledge of the topic

(memories,associations,etc.)or the text itself can take control of this process

as frequently as one's goals do.One could easily imagine these three forces

constituting a sort of eternal triangle in which the writer's goals,knowledge,

and current text struggle for influence.For example,the writer's initial plan-

ning for a given paragraphmight have set up a goal or abstract representation

of a paragraphthat would discuss three equally important,parallel points on

the topic of climate.However,in trying to write,the writer finds that some

of his knowledge about climate is really organized around a strong cause-

and-effect relationship between points 1 and 2,while he has almost nothing

to say about point 3.Or perhaps the text itself attempts to take control,e.g.,

for the sake of a dramatic opening,the writer's first sentence sets up a vivid

example of an effect produced by climate.The syntactic and semantic struc-

ture of that sentence now demand that a cause be stated in the next,although

this would violate the writer's initial(and still appropriate)plan for a three-

point paragraph.

Viewed this way,the writer's abstract plan(representation)of his goals,his

knowledge of the topic,and his current text are all actively competing for the

writer's attention.Each wants to govern the choices and decisions made next.

This competitive model certainly captures that experience of seeing the text

run away with you,or the feeling of being led by the nose by an idea.How

then do these experiences occur within a"goal-driven process"?First,as our

model of the writing process describes,the processes of generate and

evaluate appear to have the power to interrupt the writer's process at any

point-and they frequently do.This means that new knowledge and/or some

feature of the current text can interrupt the process at any time through the

processes of generate and evaluate.This allows a flexible collaboration

among goals,knowledge,and text.Yet this collaboration often culminates in

a revision of previous goals.The persistence and functional importance of

initally established goals is reflected by a number of signs:the frequency with

which writers refer back to their goals;the fact that writers behave consis-

tently with goals they have arreadystated;and the fact that they evaluate text

in response to the criteria specified in their goals.

Second,some kinds of goals steer the writing process in yet another basic

way.In the writers we have studied,the overall composing process is clearly

under the direction of global and local processgoals.Behind the most free-

wheeling act of"discovery"is a writer who has recognized the heuristic value

of free exploration or"just writing it out"and has chosen to do so.Process

goals such as these,or"I'll edit it later,"are the earmarks of sophisticated

writers with a repertory of flexible process goals which let them use writing

380A CognitiveProcessTheory

for discovery.But what about poorer writers who seem simply to free as-

sociate on paper or to be obsessed with perfecting the current text?We

would argue that often they too are working under a set of implicit process

goals which say"write it as it comes,"or"make everything perfect and cor-

rect as you go."The problem then is not that knowledge or the text have

taken over,so much as that the writer's own goals and/or images of the com-

posing process put these strategies in control.23

To sum up,the third point of our theory-focused on the role of the

writer's own goals-helps us account for purposefulness in writing.But can

we account for the dynamics of discovery?Richard Young,Janet Emig,and

others argue that writing is uniquely adapted to the task of fostering insight

and developing new knowledge.24 But how does this happen in a goal-

directed process?

We think that the remarkable combination of purposefulness and openness

which writing offers is based in part on a beautifully simple,but extremely

powerful principle,which is this:In the act of writing,peopleregenerateor re-

createtheir own goals in the light of what they learn.This principle then creates

the fourth point of our cognitive process theory.

4.Writers create their own goals in two key ways:by generating goals

and supporting sub-goals which embody a purpose;and,at times,by

changing or regenerating their own top-level goals in light of what

they have learned by writing.

We are used,of course,to thinking of writing as a process in which our

knowledgedevelops as we write.The structure of knowledge for some topic

becomes more conscious and assertive as we keep tapping memory for re-

lated ideas.That structure,or"schema,"may even grow and change as a

result of library research or the addition of our own fresh inferences.How-

ever,writers must also generate(i.e.,create or retrieve)the unique goals

which guide their process.

In this paper we focus on the goals writers create for a particularpaper,but

we should not forget that many writing goals are well-learned,standard ones

stored in memory.For example,we would expect many writers to draw au-

tomatically on those goals associated with writing in general,such as,"inter-

est the reader,"or"startwith an introduction,"or on goals associated with a

given genre,such as making a jingle rhyme.These goals will often be so basic

that they won't even be consciously considered or expressed.And the more

experienced the writer the greater this repertory of semi-automatic plans and

goals will be.

Writers also develop an elaborate network of working"sub-goals"as they

compose.As we have seen,these sub-goals give concrete meaning and direc-

tion to their more abstract top-level goals,such as"interest the reader,"or

"describe my job."And then on occasion writers show a remarkable ability to

381CollegeCompositionand Communication

regenerate or change the very goals which had been directing their writing

and planning:that is,they replace or revise major goals in light of what they

learned through writing.It is these two creative processes we wish to con-

sider now.

We can see these two basic processes-creating sub-goals and regenerating

goals-at work in the following protocol,which has been broken down into

episodes.As you will see,writers organize these two basic processes in dif-

ferent ways.We will look here at three typical patterns of goals which we

have labeled"Explore and Consolidate,""State and Develop,""Write and

Regenerate."

Exploreand Consolidate

This pattern often occurs at the beginning of a composing session,but it

could appear anywhere.The writers frequently appear to be working under a

high-level goal or plan to explore:that is,to think the topic over,to jot ideas

down,or just start writing to see what they have to say.At other times the

plan to explore is subordinate to a very specific goal,such as to find out

"what on earth can I say that would make a 15-year-old girl interested in my

job?"Under such a plan,the writer might explore her own knowledge,fol-

lowing out associations or using more structured discovery procedures such

as tagmemics or the classical topics.But however the writer chooses to

explore,the next step is the critical one.The writer pops back up to her

top-level goal and from that vantage point reviews the information she has

generated.She then consolidates it,producing a more complex idea than she

began with by drawing inferences and creating new concepts.

Even the poor writers we have studied often seem adept at the exploration

part of this process,even to the point of generating long narrative trains of

association-sometimes on paper as a final draft.The distinctive thing about

good writers is their tendency to return to that higher-level goal and to re-

view and consolidate what has just been learned through exploring.In the act

of consolidating,the writer sets up a new goal which replaces the goal of

explore and directs the subsequent episode in composing.If the writer's

topic is unfamiliar or the task demands creative thinking,the writer's ability

to explore,to consolidate the results,and to regenerate his or her goals will

be a critical skill.

The following protocol excerpt,which is divided into episodes and sub-

episodes,illustrates this pattern of explore and consolidate.

Episode 1 a,b

In the first episode,the writer merely reviews the assignment and plays

with some associations as he attempts to define his rhetorical situation.It

ends with a simple process goal-"On to the task at hand"-and a reiteration

of the assignment.

382(la)Okay-Um...Open the envelope-just like a quiz show on TV-

My job for a young thirteen to fourteen teenage female audience-

Magazine-Seventeen.My job for a young teenage female audience-

Magazine-Seventeen.I never have read Seventeen,but I've referred to it in

classandotherstudentshave.(lb)This is like beingthrownthe topicin a

situation-you know-in anexpositorywritingclassandaskedto writeon

it on the boardand I've done thatandhada lot of fun with it-so on to

the taskat hand.My job for a youngteenagefemaleaudience-Magazine

-Seventeen.

Episode 2 a,b,c,d

The writer starts with a plan to explore his own"job,"which he initially

defines as being a teacher and not a professor.In the process of exploring he

develops a variety of sub-goals which include plans to:make new meaning by

exploring a contrast;present himself or his persona as a teacher;and affect

his audience by making them reconsider one of their previous notions.The

extended audience analysis of teen-age girls(sub-episode 2c)is in response to

his goal of affecting them.

At the end of episode 2c,the writer reaches tentative closure with the

statement,"By God,I can change that notion for them."There are signifi-

cantly long pauses on both sides of this statement,which appears to consoli-

date much of the writer's previous exploration.In doing this,he dramatically

extends his earlier,rather vague plan to merely"compare teachers and

professors"-he has regenerated and elaborated his top-level goals.'This con-

solidation leaves the writer with a new,relatively complex,rhetorically

sophisticated working goal,one which encompasses plans for a topic,a per-

sona,and the audience.In essence the writer is learning through planning

and his goals are the creative bridge between his exploration and the prose

he will write.

Perhaps the writer thought his early closure at this point was too good to

be true,so he returns at 2d to his initial top-level or most inclusive goal

(write about my job)and explores alternative definitions of his job.The

episode ends with the reaffirmation of his topic,his persona,and,by implica-

tion,the consolidated goal established in Episode 2c.

(2a)Okay lets see-lets doodle a little bit-Job-English teacher rather

thanprofessor-I'mdoodlingthis on a scratchsheet as I say it.-ah-(2b)

In factthatmightbe a usefulthingto focus on-how a professordiffers

from-howa teacherdiffersfroma professorandI see myselfasa teacher

-thatmighthelp them-my audienceto reconsidertheir notion of what

anEnglishteacherdoes.(2c)-ah-Englishteacher-youngteen-agefemale

audience-they will all have had English-audience-they're in school-

they'retakingEnglish-for manyof them Englishmaybe a favoritesub-

ject-doodling still-under audience,but for the wrong reasons-some of

themwill havewrongreasonsin thatEnglishis good becauseits tidy-can

be a neattidylittlegirl-othersturnedoff of it becauseit seemstoo prim.

By God I can change that notion for them.(2d)My job for a young

teenage female audience-Magazine-Seventeen.-ah-Job-English teacher

A CognitiveProcesTsheory 383CollegeCompositionand Communication

-guess that's what I'll have to go-yeah-hell-go with that-that's a

challenge-rather than-riding a bicycle across England that's too easy and

not on the topic-right,or would work in a garden or something like that

-none of those are really my jobs-as a profession-My job for a young

teenage female audience-Magazine-Seventeen.All right-I'm an English

teacher.

State and Develop

This second pattern accounts for much of the straightforward work of

composing,and is well illustrated in our protocol.In it the writer begins with

a relatively general high-level goal which he then proceeds to develop or

flesh out with sub-goals.As his goals become more fully specified,they form

a bridge from his inital rather fuzzy intentions to actual text.Figure 4 is a

schematic representation of the goals and sub-goals which the writer eventu-

ally creates.

384

The episode starts with a sub-goal directly subordinate to the goal estab-

lished in Episode 2(change their notion of English teachers).It takes theA CognitiveProcessTheory

pattern of a search in which the writer tries to find ways to carry out his

current goal of"get[the audience?]at the beginning."In the process he

generates yet another level of sub-goals(i.e.,open with a question and draw

them into a familiar situation).(A note on our terminology:in order to focus

on the overall structure of goals and sub-goals in a writer's thinking,we have

treated the writer's plans and strategies all as sub-goals or operational defini-

tions of the larger goal.)

Notice how the content or ideas of the essay are still relatively unspecified.

The relationship between creating goals and finding ideas is clearly recip-

rocal:it was an initial exploration of the writer's ideas which produced these

goals.But the writing process was then moved forward by his attempt to

flesh out a network of goals and sub-goals,not just by a mere"pre-writing"

survey of what he knew about the topic.Episode 3c ends in an effort to test

one of his new goals against his own experience with students.

(3a)All right-I'm an Englishteacher.I wantto get at the beginning-I

know that they'renot going to be disposed-to hearwhat I'm saying-

partlyfor that reason and partlyto put them in the right,the kind of

frameof mind I want-I want to open with an implied question or a

directone and put them in the middle of some situation-then expand

from there to talk about my job more generally...and try to tie it in

with theirinterest.(3b)So one questionis whereto begin-whatkindof

situationto startin the middle of-probablythe first day of class....

They'dbe interested-they'dprobablyclue into thateasilybecausethey

would identify with first days of school and my first days are raucous

affairs-it would immediatelyshake-emup and get them to thinkinga

differentcontext.(3c)Okay-so-Firstdayof class-lets see.-Maybethe

first 101 classwith that crazyskit I put on-that'sprobablybetter than

305 because 101 is freshmenand that'snearertheir level and that skit

reallywas crazyandit workedbeautifully.

Write and Regenerate

This pattern is clearly analogous to the explore and consolidate pattern,

except that instead of planning,the writer is producing prose.A miniature

example of it can be seen in Figure 2,in which the writer,whose planning we

have just seen,attempts to compose the first sentence of his article for Sev-

enteen.Although he had done a good deal of explicit planning before this

point,the prose itself worked as another,more detailed representation of

what he wanted to say.In writing the sentence,he not only saw that it was

inadequate,but that his goals themselves could be expanded.The reciprocity

between writing and planning enabled him to learn even from a failure and to

produce a new goal,"play up sex."Yet it is instructive to note that once this

new plan was represented in language-subjected to the acid test of prose-it

too failed to pass,because it violated some of his tacit goals or criteria for an

acceptable prose style.

The examples we cite here are,for the purposes of illustration,small and

385CollegeCompositionand Communication

rather local ones.Yet this process of setting and developing sub-goals,

and-at times-regenerating those goals is a powerful creative process.Writ-

ers and teachers of writing have long argued that one learns through the act

of writing itself,but it has been difficult to support the claim in other ways.

However,if one studies the process by which a writer uses a goal to generate

ideas,then consolidates those ideas and uses them to revise or regenerate

new,more complex goals,one can see this learning process in action.Fur-

thermore,one sees why the process of revising and clarifying goals has such a

broad effect,since it is through setting these new goals that the fruits of

discovery come back to inform the continuing process of writing.In this

instance,some of our most complex and imaginative acts can depend on the

elegant simplicity of a few powerful thinking processes.We feel that a cogni-

tive process explanation of discovery,toward which this theory is only a start,

will have another special strength.By placing emphasis on the inventive

power of the writer,who is able to explore ideas,to develop,act on,test,and

regenerate his or her own goals,we are putting an important part of creativ-

ity where it belongs-in the hands of the working,thinking writer.

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hayes 4-7/7

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