The Impact of Cognitive Development Upon Audience Awareness in the Writing Process.

Abstract

The central question this study examines is "How does the writer give body to the audience for whom he writes?" The study discusses the impact of cognitive development upon the writer's ability to analyze his or her audience for writing. The study finds that theories of cognitive development hold specific theoretical and pedagogical implications for the writing process. Chapter I discusses the concept of audience, noting its place in the rhetorical theories of Aristotle, Ong, Booth, Britton and others. It also exposes certain theoretical connections between cognitive developmental psychology and audience awareness in the writing process. Chapter II explicates Jean Piaget's and Lev Vygotsky's concepts of cognitive egocentrism. The explication emphasizes the manifestations of cognitive egocentrism during each stage of Piaget's developmental theory in an attempt to clarify Piaget's original intentions for the concept. This chapter also examines Vygotsky's critique of Piaget's theory and Piaget's response to Vygotsky. Chapter III discusses the theoretical and pedagogical implications for the writing process of Piaget's and Vygotsky's theories. A critical theoretical implication is that the transformation of thought from inner speech to writing does not follow a linear pattern and is a complex cognitive activity even for adults. Another significant theoretical implication is that the process of making inferences about another and demonstrating such inferential skill in writing is a process involving four stages: Existence, Need, Inference, and Application. One of the key implications for pedagogy in the writing process is that students can profit from a structured method for determining and analyzing their writing audience. Chapter IV surveys current composition textbooks for advice on audience analysis. The survey finds that since 1970, texts have given more attention to the audience component of the writing process, but few texts actually provide students with a heuristic for audience analysis. The survey also presents texts in areas outside of freshman composition which discuss audience analysis: technical writing, interpersonal communications, and speech. Chapter V describes an experimental study which applies Young, Becker, and Pike's tagmemic heuristic to audience analysis. Students in an experimental class section of freshman composition were trained in the use of the tagmemic heuristic for audience analysis. The writing of these students, on a specified writing task, was compared with the writing of students from a control section. The results indicated that the tagmemic heuristic is a particularly effective procedure for audience analysis and can improve the quality of a student's writing. The Conclusion presents an "Audience-Based Model of the Writing Process," a model emphasizing the network of relationships which exist between the writer and the audience. The cyclical design of the Model highlights the recursive nature of the writing process and focuses attention upon the audience as a critical factor in all stages of writing--invention, arrangement, revision, and editing.