Against Method
I've been looking over some late 70's, early 80's "research" on the composing process, and several things are becoming painfully clear to me.
(1)., The actual process of composing writing is so incredibly complex and contingent on so many circumstances that it is not just virtually impossible, but flat out impossible to say anything with any certainty on what the "composing process" really is. Not only is the "researcher" facing an impossible situation of the "research" itself affecting the composing process, but the act of composing itself is affected by things including, but not limited to, the writer's mood, the writer's task, the writer's feelings toward the task, the writer's idea of audience, the writer's own changing ideas, the time of day, the time since the writer last ate, the weather outside, the financial situation of the writer's bank accounts, the amount of time since the writer last had sex, the amount of time until the writer feels they might have sex again, the sharpness of the writer's pencil, whether the writer even uses a pencil, the relationship of the father/mother/sibling to the writer, the relationship of a writer to his father/mother/sibling, the political party the writer last voted for, the political party the writer is intending to vote for the next time they get a chance, the odds of a writer not voting at all the next time they get a chance, the wattage of the light bulb nearest the writer, the quality of the coffee the writer last drank, the extent to which the writer can remember their first kiss, and the ability of the writer to remain conscious when it is 5am and a conference proposal is due in a few hours.
This list illustrates just a few limitations "research" into the composing process entail.
In short, what research about the composing process has told us is simply that research about the composing process can tell us nothing that is ultimately useful or practical in any manner about the composing process.
(2)., With out any access to statistics, empirically derived research, charts, graphs, and percentages that say anything about what it means to "write," the field of "writing studies" is and rightfully should be a primarily philosophical field.
(3)., The composing process itself is so irreducibly complex that, other than posing the problem of understanding the process itself as a question or inquiry, the study of writing must turn to questions such as the function of writing, the politics of writing, the cultural significance of writing, and the dynamics of power inherent within writing.