Virtually all composition research has been done about teaching methodology; little research about the theory of the process of composition has been done. A 1964 study, the first on the composition process, used as an operational definition the concept of the composing process as being a series: prewriting, writing, and rewriting. This linear stage model has been assumed since it was first proposed without questioning the theoretical soundness of it. In fact, the model better describes the written product than the process. One alternative description of the composing process describes three aspects: a sequence across time of connected events that are believed to be causally linked to a particular result, a series of operations that can recur again and again, and a series of circumstances that lead to certain results. (TJ)