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The influence of the text produced so far on writing processes of professional writers.
Researcher: Mariëlle Leijten
Promotors: Luuk Van Waes & Paul Matthyssens, University of Antwerp
Funding: Flanders Research Foundation
Period: 2010-2013
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Abstract
Writing a business text, e.g. a report for a merger, is a very complex activity. Previous writing research had lead to various well-known writing process models. However, these models are primarily based on educational environments and single texts. Professional writers on the other hand often use multiple (digital) sources to succesfully write their business texts. It is important, especially in this digital age, in which (written) communication performs an important role, to describe these writing competences.
This project, addresses the following research question: What writing processes and strategies are involved when professional writers write business texts from multiple (digital) sources?
During this project we will perform three research studies:
In study 1 we describe the activities of professional writers when writing in their organisational setting (explorative-etnographic approach).
In study 2 we focus on writing processes of professional writers in ‘real-time’ (descriptive-cognitive approach).
In study 3 we analyze the cognitive processes that are involved when writing from multiple sources on a very fine-grained level (experimental-cognitive approach). [more information will follow in a later stage]
The complementarity of the research approach in the three studies is very important in this project. We strive to use a macro, meso and micro approach on the dynamic of writing processes:
ethnographic social context information (macro),
ecologically valid writing process data (meso),
fine-grained experimental process data (micro).
The combination of these multiple methods and perspectives generates output that make it possible to compare findings from one study with the other in order to describe the full dynamic of professional writing. As such, it has added value both from a theoretical (writing models) an a methodological perspective (writing process research). Also more practical implications can be aimed at for both writing software programs and developing future educational curricula (traditional and lifelong learning).
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In the first study we describe the activities of professional writers when writing in their organisational setting. The main aim is to complement the limitations of text-only analyses of documents and provide emperical evidence for the complex intertextual dynamic that defines professional text production:
- How do writers write their professional texts in this digital age?
- Which (online) strategies do they use? How do they access different sources? How do they incorporate and recycle their own text for different purposes? How do corporate text models function?
- How do writing processes in and between various sections of organisations differ?
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In the second study of the project we will change the observational focus and concentrate on logging and recording real-time data of different professional writers producing texts during their day-to-day work. We will use the collected process data to describe three subprocesses of writing in detail:
- Reading: (re)reading of the multiple sources and the text produced so far.
- Idea-generation (planning): idea generation can be performed internally and externally. Internally, writers (as in single-text-writing) generate ideas about a topic via their long term memory. Externally, writers find ideas in various sources (summarizing main points, elaborating on ideas developed in a different context).
- Revision: writers can, for instance, revise on a local and on a global level. The adaptation of source materials into a new text requires revision strategies, both locally and globally, that differ from the strategies in a single text context.
The intertextual interaction at both levels will be central. The writing process data will be collected with a digital logging tool: Inputlog.
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