Monica Torres, Emily Perez
Eng. 1301.28
Instructor: Trang Phan
9/26/10

Writer-Based Prose: A Cognitive Basis for Problems in Writing
Summary:
Linda Flower. “Writer-Based Prose: A Cognitive Basis for Problems in Writing”. College English, Vol. 41, No. 1.(1979), pp. 19-37
The article goes in to brief details about the differences between Writer-based and Reader-based prose. When using writer-based prose the readers aren’t kept in mind because it mainly focuses on the writer, making the text difficult for the reader to understand. A writer using this method is only capable of getting their point across best explained by in their mind. These writers don’t seem to put much thought in the readers and automatically assume they understand what they’re trying to say. In the article they experimented on children as they attempted to tell a story with no verbal action. Their own body language made total sense to the child but the audience couldn’t put the pieces together. These are undeveloped ideas which occur when using writer-based prose. The functional system seems to be the mind manipulating the writers into creating some sort of meaning for every statement in their mind, causing the statement to make sense to them and not to others. When using sematic, episodic, and short term memory it benefits the writer in thinking about the audience and prevents the readers from getting lost. They briefly explain what reader base prosed is, reader base prose is for the reader. The writer writes for the reader instead of him or herself, so then the reader understands the point the writer is trying to get across.
Q: Do you think Writer-Base prose is good for a person in particular? Why or why not?
A: I think it’s both good and bad. Good because the writer expresses what it is that’s going on in their head. Writer-base prose reflects the purpose of what the writer is writing about. Everything the writer explains all makes sense in their head, every single detail. Also, another reason why I think it’s good is that it helps the writer with creativity. The writer can talk about anything they choose to, they can add exquisite details and just go on about the story and in their head it will all make sense. That’s where the down fall of writer-base prose comes in. The writer writes about whatever they want but it only makes sense to them. The reader has no idea what he or she has just read and if they do it’s still a little confusing to them. The writer is only using terminology that makes perfect sense to them. If the writer were to re-read the statement they have just written it would still make complete sense. Therefore to prevent this from happening the writer should allow other peers to read the statement and revise the passage to make it more understandable.

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Alyssa Vasquez

Ashley Favata

Kristen Garcia

ENG 1301.28

Instructor: Trang Phan

10/2/10

Writer-Based Prose: A cognitive Basis for Problems in Writing

Linda Flower. “Writer-Based Prose: A Cognitive Basis for Problems in Writing”. College

English, Vol. 41, No. 1. (1979), pp. 19-37

Summary:

Flower’s article states that ineffective writers often produce “writer-based prose.” Writer-based prose is used as a thinking process but of what we like to express because we are writing based on our experiences. When writing based on our own thoughts and feelings that we consider, this is called egocentric because we only consider on what we think and feel about on certain things, and never consider the readers perspective, just as long as we understand what we are trying to say but have no consideration if the reader is going to understand it. “The style of Writher-Based prose also has its own logic. Its two main stylistic features grow out of the private nature of interior monologue, that is, of writing which is primarily a record or expression of the writer’s flow of thought” (27). We need to take the readers-based prose into consideration because we are not just writing for us but for readers to read, even though writer-based prose comes naturally to us because we recognize its ties to our episodic memories. “In the best of all possible worlds, good writers strive for Reader-Based prose from the very beginning: they retrieve and organize information within the framework of a reader/writer contract” (14).

Question: What is Writer-Based Prose? How does it affect our writing?

Response:

Linda Flower suggests that effective writers need to do more than just relay their own interpretation or expression of some concept. Ineffective writers, those who produce “writer-based prose” are those writers who do not consider the reader. This article leads me to believe that as students we’ve been taught to write the five paragraph essay but we were rarely taught to write for a reader, but instead on a topic that we intend to write based on our own experiences. This is creates and egocentric because we only write what we understand and communicate with our selves but not with the reader. As a student, I write while exploring ideas in my mind to create a well written essay, but mostly I never have the reader in mind, so I just go with the flow of creating an essay that is understandable and hopefully good enough to catch the reader’s attention. Since writer-based prose is a natural thing to all writers, we need to learn to work with our ideas before writing to help write a reader-based prose. As we develop the skills to write a reader-based prose, it would help us communicate our ideas better to the reader, enough to prove our point in the writing.

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Estevan Trejo and Leonardo Avila
Eng 1301.28
Trang Phan
9-27-2010
Linda Flower. “Writer-Based Prose: A Cognitive Basis for Problems in Writing.” College English, Vol. 41, No. 1 (1979): pp.19-37.
Summary 5 – Writer-Based Prose: A Cognitive Basis for Problems in Writing
Linda Flower asks in her article, “Writer-Based Prose: A Cognitive Basis for Problems in Writing”, “If writing is simply the act of ‘expressing what you think’… why is writing often such a difficult thing to do? (Pg. 19)” She begins to answer the question by describing two distinct types of writing: Writer-Based prose and Reader-Based prose. The former entails an effective writer not simply expressing what they think on the subject, but transforming their thoughts into coherent, intelligible sentences for the reader to easily grasp and manage (Pg. 19). The latter involves what is likely to be an ineffective writer merely “expressing themselves by offering up an untouched and under processed version of their own thought” (Pg. 19). Though Writer-Based prose is both a natural style of writing and thought, it is usually not enough to communicate the author’s purpose and intentions to the reader. And “although Writer-Based prose often fails for readers and tends to preclude further concept formation, it may be a useful road into the creative process for some writers. The structures which fail to work for readers may be powerful strategies for retrieving information from memory (either semantic or short-term) and for exploring one’s own knowledge network” (Pg. 28).

Question: What do you think of Writer-Based prose and it being utilized for essays?
Response:
If you have ever critiqued a confident writer’s essay only to find that their paper makes little sense to you, the reader, the culprit may very well be Writer-Based prose. “As both a style of writing and as a style of thought, writer-based prose is natural and adequate for a writer writing to himself or herself” (Pg. 19). On the other hand, when preparing something to be read by others, it becomes imperative to produce something a bit more substantial and refined. With Writer-Based prose, we often unfortunately fail to clearly reveal our purpose, concepts, or perspective to the reader. If a reader is unable to derive these important components from the essay utilizing their rhetorical reading strategies, the author has failed to create a shared language and shared context between writer and reader (Pg. 20). This is the essence of Writer-Based prose. When the reader is unable to easily grasp your stance on the topic, the writing is likely yet to be transformed into the preferred Reader-Based prose (Pg. 19). In closing, I believe that essays should be written with the reader in mind, and thus, Writer-Based prose should be avoided while writing essays.

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Brie Fenton, Yesenia Ontiveros
English 1301.28
Trang Phang
Sept. 29, 2010


Writer-¬based Prose: a Cognitive Basis for Problems in writing
Flower, Linda. “Writer-¬based Prose: A Cognitive Basis for Problems in Writing” College English Sept. 1979: pgs. 19-37
Summary:
Writer based prose is okay to do when a writer is writing to their self. When you add in other readers, it causes trouble. There are usually problems transferring your own thoughts into something others would understand. The reader based prose is when you are writing to communicate with the reader. You use terms and express ideas in a way readers will understand. During writer based, they dont keep in mind that the readers may not understand the point they are trying to get across.

"Reader based prose reflects the purpose of the writers thought; writer based prose tends to reflect its process." (20) Writer based prose shows writers how they dissect information and get it accross. It reflects their thinking process. First drafts are much like writer based proses. Once you get to the second draft, it makes much more sense and conforms to a writer based prose. "The structures which fail to work for readers may be powerful strategies for retrieving information from memory and for exploring one’s own knowledge network." (28)
Question:
What are the advantages and disadvantages of writer based prose?
Response:
The advantages of writer based prose, it to shows the writer how to come across the ideas and how the writing in transfer to paper. This process teaches them more about themselves and the way they write. The disadvantages are the reader may at times not know what the author is writing about, or get his thought across. This not bad because the reader may not get the full picture of what the author was trying to interpret.

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Hiram Lopez
ENG 1301.28
Trang Phan
9/29/10
Writer-Based Prose: A Cognitive Basis for Problems in Writing
Summary:
Linda Flower. “Writer-Based Prose: A Cognitive Basis for Problems in Writing”. College English, Vol. 41, No. 1. (1979), pp. 19-37
In this article, when a writer is composing using writer based pros, he or she loses the reader by not keeping them in mind because they are writing their ideas in a way that is only understandable to them. A problem that can occur with writer based pros can be underdeveloped ideas, which can lead to poor discussions. A study about egocentric nature of a person was performed, which showed that children told stories but only talked about them because they did not have the cognitive capacity to assume the listeners point of view. In teaching writers to recognize their own writers based writing and transform it because it can give inexperienced writers, the confidence and motivation to go on. The style of writer based prose can come from internal thoughts and the use of code words, and by using semantic, episodic, and short term memory can help get ideas across to the reader to help them understand what you are trying to get across.
Question:
Can using writer based prose make you a better writer?
Response:
Writer based prose was when a writer focused on certain subject and made their writing comprehendible only to themselves and not to the people that read their work. Writer-based prose shouldn’t be scrapped, because teaching a writer to recognize their own writer-based prose can help them to transform their writing by giving the writer strong positive value and achievement for the writer even though he or she failed to communicate to the reader. This can give inexperienced writers the confidence and the motivation to go on. By recognizing this as a special skill and task, we can give writers self-conscious control over the abilities they already have. Because, writer-based prose is like a half-way place for many writers, it is like their a rough draft that can be transformed from the groundwork laid in the first stage of a process and begin to write in reader-based prose and making us better writers.

Rene Reyes
Edward Aranda
English 1301.28
Trang Phan
9/28/2010

Summary
Writer-Based Prose: A Cognitive Basis for Problems in Writing

Linda Flower."Writer-Based Prose: A Cognitive Basis for Problems in Writing". College Englis, Vol. 41, No. 1(Sep. 1979), pp. 19-37.

Effective writing is not just only to write down your thoughts and expression. Effective writing is to communicate with the audience. To transform the expressed thought into a descriable complex way.

Writer-Based prose is defined as an expressive style of writing understood only to the writer. The function of this prose is to write to yourself and for yourself. Structured as the writer's narritive path of his own confrontation with his subject. It usaually represents the egocentric or inner speech.

Reader-Based prose is defined as an attempt to communicate with the reader. This porse is understood to both reader and writer by sharing the language and context. Also, it has a rhetorical structure which means it has an intended audience, purpose, and serves as a conversation between reader and writer.

Episodic memory is the memory that recalls past events. Like when you remember something you watch on History Channel that relates to one of the lessons. Semantic memory is the memory that remembers the meaning of symbols. For example, H2O is water or the Quadratic formula.

Short-term memory is all the information you can hold at one time. "Trying to evaluate, elaborate, and relate all that we know on a given topic can easily overload the capacity of our working memory."(pg.36) Using Writer-Based prose helps you eliminate these problems temporarily, and then transform the prose to Reader-Based. This strategy helps teachers teach writing better.

Question
Describe the Writer-Based and Reader-Based prose. Why is transformation an effective writing strategy?

Response

When writes write in Writer-Based prose the text is only clear to the writer. This is because the writer is putting his thouhgts (inner speech/egocentric speech) straight from his mind into text. " The symptoms can range from a mere missing referent or an underdeveloped idea to an unfocused and apparently pointless discussion." (pg.19)

Reader-Based prose has communication between the writer and reader. "To do that it creates a shared language and shared context between writer and reader." (pg.20) The reader has a explicit understanding of the writer's meaning. It has an intended audience and purpose; Reader-Based prose has a rhetorical type of structure.

Transformation of a Writer-Based to Reader-Based prose helps writer effectively. This is because in a Writer-Based prose the writer can list all his thoughts and information without having to think about the reader. Once the writer had something he can understand, then the writer can concentrate on changing (transformation) this porse into something that the reader needs and can use.

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Linda Flower Writer-Based Prose: A Cognitive for Problems in Writing Summary College English Vol 41 No 1 (Sep 1979) pp 19-37

Summary: In this article it goes on discussing and comparing Writer Based-Prose and Reader Based-Prose and how it may affect both the reader and the writer. In writer based prose the writer writes what comes to his or her own mind and what makes sense to them may not make sense to the reader. This being said the writer may have a greater sense of what he/she may have in set towards their writing but the reader may not understand where the writer is trying to get the point being said in the writing cause what might be clear to read in the mind of the writer may not be clear to the reader who is reading the text. In reader based prose it reflects the purpose of what the writer thoughts so it may cause problems to the reader because they can’t really understand nor comprehend what the writer is trying to explain through the text. It’s up to the writer to make thought into a structure and a style to where the reader could understand.

Question: What are ways to get used to writing in a reader-based-prose and is writing-based-prose good for anything?

Response: It’s very difficult to get rid of the egocentric writing most of us inexperienced writer use. It takes a lot of practice, and a lot of focus. In order to write good you need to identify the reader and his/her tolerance to writing. Then when you begin writing always keep the reader in mind and find ways to share more detail in order for the reader to relate it to what he/she’s experienced before. Also big words can sometimes throw off readers, but sometimes curveballs can be very exciting to some readers and it can make it interesting. Writing-based-prose is also good for the pre-writing. It’s not good to use it regularly but when you do use it, use it as a roughdraft or a brainstorm to get your topics straight and to find mistakes and useful information.