Customer Reviews

Problem Solving Strategies for Writing in College and Community

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Sometimes I am tempted to think there isn't much more to learn about writing, until I come across books like this one. Linda Flower investigated the writing strategies of experienced and inexperienced writers, and came to the conclusion that the overall approach of good writers is that of treating writing as problem-solving. From this she derived nine steps for such an approach and almost thirty different sub-strategies. All of this is presented in the order a writer would approach a paper.

Here are the steps: (1) Explore the rhetorical problem (2) Make a plan (3) Generate new idea (4) Organize your ideas (5) Know the needs of your readers (6) Transform writer-based prose into reader-based prose (7) Review your paper and your purpose (8) Test and edit your writing (9) Edit for connections and coherence.

What I found particularly useful was her many examples that illustrate the points quite well. Of the steps, I found her discussion of building an issue tree to organize ideas (step 4), dealing with the "creative reader" (step 6) and the layered approach to editing (steps 7, 8 and 9) to be most most useful.

I think that inexperienced writers will benefit from the book by learning from the strategies used by experienced writers. Experienced writers will also benefit from the book since the book makes the strategies they probably use explicit, and so will help them to consistently produce good writing.

I used this book as a graduate student while studying with Dr. Flower. Her direct, clear prose is a joy to work with, and her theory is top-notch. Even if you don't have the immeasurable advantage of studying at Carnegie Mellon, I highly recommend this book. If you are planning to teach rhetoric, language, composition or theory, this is a must-have to be sure.

This is a must have book.