Social Cognitive Theory of

Writing
NAMES: NATALIE COLE
ADDIVAH-GAY GRIFFITHS
NADINE SMALL
COURSE: INTRODUCTION TO WRITING
 Key Terms and Definitions
 Writing: This is the process of using symbols (letters of
the alphabet, punctuation, and spaces) to communicate
thoughts and ideas in a readable form.
 Social: To do with society or its organization; to do with
the relationships between people in a society.
 Cognitive: This is defined as the mental action or
process of acquiring knowledge and understanding
through thought, experience, and senses.
 Theory: According to vocabulary.com, a theory is a set
of accepted beliefs or organized principles that explain
and guide analysis.
 Influence: The ability or power to affect the character or
behaviour of someone or something.
 Development: This is the gradual growth or formation
of something.
 Introduction
 The Social Cognitive Theory was developed by Albert Bandura.
 The theory focused on social influence and its emphasis on the external and
internal parts of social reinforcement.
 Research has viewed writing from two distinct perspective: the cognitive and the
social. The cognitive theorists’ main concerns are the individual writer’s internal
cognitive activities during the process of writing which is composed of three
subprocesses, namely, “planning”, “translating/drafting”, and revising.
 The social view, on the other hand, emphasizes that writing is a communicative
acct influenced by the particular social context in which the student writer is
situated.
 Society’s influence on writing

 One central assumption of the social camp is that human language (including
writing) can be understood only from the perspective of a society rather than a
single individual. The focus of a social view , therefore, is not on how the social
situation influences the individual , but on how the individual is a constituent of a
culture.
References