Abstract

We are often suspicious of professional writers' comments about their composing processes because of the aspect of “literary performance.” But we should be equally wary of the accounts of student writers, since they are also unlikely to be veridical. Reasonable, coherent, even captivating accounts are limited by problems of attendance, memory, and reporting, and may be based not on recall but on other cognitive processes. However, despite these problems, retrospective accounts may still prove valuable in studying the writing process.