Introduction

Abstract

Over the last twenty years the study of writing and writers has moved from a concern with the written product towards descriptive accounts of the writing process, beginning with the work of Linda Flower and John Hayes in the mid 1970’s (Flower and Hayes, 1977). They studied writing as a problem solving process and, from analysis of the verbal protocols of writers in action, they developed a model of the mental representations and operations of writing (Hayes and Flower, 1986). The model identified three main component processes: planning (including generating information relevant to the task, organising information, and setting goals), translation (turning plans and ideas into text to meet the goals), and reviewing (which combines evaluating the text and editing either the text itself or the ideas and goals). The interactions of these processes can account for a variety of writing strategies, and the model offers a plausible explanation for problems such as ‘writer’s block’ and for the differences between inexpert and expert writers.