> What I tentatively found (this was not the focus of study, just one of
> those gratuitious analyese that make qualitative research so rewarading,
> was that the experienced (published) writers I studied all struggled
> with issues of finding a form for emerging/evolving ideas, but that some
> struggled before they began to write, while others struggled after. In
> other words, the struggle went on either in the head or on paper, though
> some persevered in that struggle more diligently.
This work sounds _very_ interesting. Since you have been studying
this question for almost 20 years, I have to ask you a question. As you
look through your data, do you find any generational differences that
follow trends in Composition pedagogy? Not too long ago, students were
taught that before writing they should just "think really hard" and it
seems the trends have shifted more toward teaching a variety of pre-writing
strategies. Have these trends affected your data? I'm curious about whether
writers actually discover writing processes in courses or whether they
learn _despite_ their courses.
Craig B.