She is best known for her emphasis on cognitive rhetoric, but has more recently published in the field of service learning.
[2] Teaching professional writing to business students at Carnegie Mellon University inspired Flower to study more about problem-solving.
[2][3] While studying linguistics, rhetoric, and psycholinguistics, Flower connected with John Richard Hayes, a cognitive psychologist also working at Carnegie Mellon.
[5] 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.
[1] She also served on the Making Thinking Visible Project and developed Pittsburgh's Community Literacy Center.