Contemporary Perspectives on Cognition and Writing

Perspectives on Writing series
Co-Published with CSU Open Press

Since the 1980s, even as international writing scholars have embraced cognitive science, the number of studies building on research in writing and cognition has decreased in the United States. Despite this decline, significant interest and ongoing research in this critical area continues. Contemporary Perspectives on Cognition and Writing explores the historical context of cognitive studies, the importance to our field of studies in neuroscience, the applicability of habits of mind, and the role of cognition in literate development and transfer. These works--each of which offers a timely contribution to research, teaching, and learning in the composition classroom--are book-ended by a foreword and afterword by cognition and writing pioneers John Hayes and Linda Flower. This collection, as a result, offers a historical marker of where we were in cognitive studies and where we might go.

About the Author: Patricia Portanova is Associate Professor of English at Northern Essex Community College, where she teaches writing and communication. She earned her Ph.D. in Composition Studies from the University of New Hampshire, where she served as editor of Transitions, a journal of undergraduate writing. She has served as chair of the Northeast Writing Across the Curriculum Consortium (NEWACC) and currently co-chairs the Cognition and Writing Special Interest Group at CCCC. Her research focuses on cognition and writing, civic inquiry, and public rhetoric.

J. Michael Rifenburg is Associate Professor of English at the University of North Georgia, where he directs first-year writing and leads workshops on faculty writing through UNG's Center for Teaching, Learning, and Leadership. With Patricia, he co-chairs the Cognition and Writing Special Interest Group at CCCC. His book, The Embodied Playbook: Writing Practices of Student-Athletes, is forthcoming with University Press of Colorado.

Duane Roen is Professor of English at Arizona State University, where he serves as Dean of the College of Integrative Sciences and Arts, Dean of University College, and Vice Provost. He has written widely about writing instruction, writing across the curriculum, writing program administration, and academics as public intellectuals. His current projects focus on applications of the Framework for Success in Postsecondary Writing and on family history writing.