Flower graduated with a doctorate degree from Rutgers University. Her dissertation was on Charles Dickens. Teaching professional writing to business students at Carnegie Mellon University inspired Flower to study more about problem-solving. While studying linguistics, rhetoric, and psycholinguistics, Flower connected with John Richard Hayes, a cognitive psychologist also working at Carnegie Mellon. Flower and Hayes became frequent collaborators. They used think-aloud protocols to learn more about how writers problem-solve during writing tasks. Together, they developed a cognitive model of the writing process. This model prompted discussions of cognitive rhetoric and its role with social constructivism and meaning making processes, including critiques from Patricia Bizzell and Martin Nystrand.
