Over the past decade, an interest in collaboration has been coming to the fore in composition studies. Whereas once we were primarily interested in investigating the cognitive processes of the individual, we now seek to understand more about the social dynamics of writing in groups to improve our teaching of composition in the classroom. To that end, this dissertation looks at the real world collaborative activities of business proposal writers within a high technology company. Writing in the workplace is often undertaken in groups, and my work at Cerebellum, Inc. with computer professionals (who wrote as part of their jobs) reveals complexities hitherto unsuspected in the social writing process. The importance of a detailed understanding of collaboration has been called for in the literature by, for example, Ede and Lunsford (1990). My dissertation surveys current literature in composition, including a review of investigations into collaboration during business writing as a salient behaviour of such a discourse community. In order to accomplish my research, I used a video camera to record the activities which embodied the writing process at Cerebellum Inc. I found that the use of the video camera in an ethnographic manner not only helped me to gather detailed data, both verbal and nonverbal, in the continuous and comprehensive detail so vital to communication research, but also assisted in initiating better understanding within the business community of the aims and approaches of academic research. Video technology gave me a chance to participate in as well as observe situations, and also opened the door to conversation concerning my methods and my findings with both researchers and informants. I propose a model of the varying levels of engagement undertaken by the writers of a business proposal. I then suggest the educational value of the representation with a discussion of implications for the teaching of writing in the workplace and in more traditional school settings. Detailed research into collaboration offers us a window on the social processes which constitute writing for our students now and in their futures in the workplace. Such work is vitally important to ensuring superior levels of advanced literacy which will be in continuing demand now and in the next century.

Over the past decade, an interest in collaboration has been coming to the fore in composition studies. Whereas once we were primarily interested in investigating the cognitive processes of the individual, we now seek to understand more about the social dynamics of writing in groups to improve our teaching of composition in the classroom. To that end, this dissertation looks at the real world collaborative activities of business proposal writers within a high technology company. Writing in the workplace is often undertaken in groups, and my work at Cerebellum, Inc. with computer professionals (who wrote as part of their jobs) reveals complexities hitherto unsuspected in the social writing process. The importance of a detailed understanding of collaboration has been called for in the literature by, for example, Ede and Lunsford (1990). My dissertation surveys current literature in composition, including a review of investigations into collaboration during business writing as a salient behaviour of such a discourse community. In order to accomplish my research, I used a video camera to record the activities which embodied the writing process at Cerebellum Inc. I found that the use of the video camera in an ethnographic manner not only helped me to gather detailed data, both verbal and nonverbal, in the continuous and comprehensive detail so vital to communication research, but also assisted in initiating better understanding within the business community of the aims and approaches of academic research. Video technology gave me a chance to participate in as well as observe situations, and also opened the door to conversation concerning my methods and my findings with both researchers and informants. I propose a model of the varying levels of engagement undertaken by the writers of a business proposal. I then suggest the educational value of the representation with a discussion of implications for the teaching of writing in the workplace and in more traditional school settings. Detailed research into collaboration offers us a window on the social processes which constitute writing for our students now and in their futures in the workplace. Such work is vitally important to ensuring superior levels of advanced literacy which will be in continuing demand now and in the next century. / Education, Faculty of / Curriculum and Pedagogy (EDCP), Department of / Graduate

Building on Donald and Patricia Stewarts' The Life and Legacy of Fred Newton Scott (1997), this dissertation addresses aspects of Scott's life which have been ignored or left underdeveloped in the work of composition historians, including Scott's early education at the Indiana State Normal School and at Battle Creek College, along with his personal, academic and professional relationships with Dr. John Harvey Kellogg, John Dewey, and Joseph Villiers Denney. This examination, providing a more precise knowledge of Scott's academic and professional life, clarifies the significance and originality of Scott's contributions to the discipline.At the Indiana State Normal School, Scott was exposed to an innovative adaptation of Pestalozzian and Herbartian educational philosophies. The philosophy and methodologies employed at the school likely influenced Scott's thinking about teacher training, while encouraging his adaptation of psychology in the teaching of English.Scott again was exposed to a reform-minded educational agenda at Battle Creek College. There, Scott encountered an holistic educational program that sought to improve the intellectual, physical, and spiritual components of students' lives.Through his long friendship with Dr. John Harvey Kellogg, Scott gained an intimate knowledge of the medical profession, an awareness Scott utilized in his own writing about understanding student errors in composition. Scott's academic and professional relationship with John Dewey at the University of Michigan demonstrates their multiple shared interests and activities. The Thought News newspaper project illustrates their attempt to implement philosophy into practical arenas. Their working relationship, as well as Scott's educational background at the Indiana State Normal School and at Battle Creek College, suggests that Dewey has been erroneously viewed as the source of Scott's innovative approach to composition.Finally, Scott's collaborative relationship with Joseph Villiers Denney, the writer with whom Scott wrote his most popular textbooks, illustrates the importance Scott placed on collaboration as well as the competence of those with whom he collaborated. Denney's own scholarly work in composition demonstrates his originality and resourcefulness as an equal partner in their collaborations. / Department of English

No description available.

English Studies / M.A. (English)

Many scholars have suggested that current copyright law is ill-equipped to the challenges of determining the authorship of collaborative work. This thesis analyses four case studies of large scale collaboration (Wikipedia, Indigenous art, scientific collaborations and film) in order to consider how best to determine the authorship of the creative works that they produce for the purposes of copyright law. Current scholarship and much of the case law has tended to favour a restrictive approach to the grant of joint authorship status, in order to minimise the number of potential authors of a work. This is motivated by instrumental/pragmatic concerns related to the ease of exploiting a copyright work. As joint authors are often joint first owners of copyright, proponents of this approach fear that a minor contributor might cause hold-up problems by refusing to consent to licence or assign their copyright interest. This thesis argues that an instrumental/pragmatic approach to the application of the joint authorship test is undesirable, because it distances the test both from the creativity reality of collective authorship and from copyright’s notion of the author. In addition, the instrumental/pragmatic approach relies upon assumptions about creators, the creative process and the exploitation of creative works which are not borne out in the case studies. Building on the insights from the four case studies, the thesis argues that the best approach to applying the joint authorship test to works of collective authorship is one that is inclusive (of all those who have made a more than de minimis contribution of creative choices to the protected expression) and contextual (in that it takes the context of creativity into account). In coming to this conclusion the thesis also offers broader lessons about the nature of authorship and the ongoing relevance of copyright law standards for the regulation of collaborative creativity.

English Studies / M.A. (English)

A new type of software, termed a "group editor", allows multiple users to create and simultaneously edit a single document; this software has ostensibly been developed to increase efficiency in co-authoring environments where users may not be co-located. However, questions as to the effectiveness of this type of communication aid, which is a member of the "groupware" family of tools used for some types of computer supported cooperative work, remain. Particularly, there has been very little objective data on any group editor because of the problems inherent in evaluating writing, as well as due to the few examples of group editors that exist. A method was developed to examine the effect of using a particular group editor, Aspects™ from Group Technologies in Arlington, Va., in conjunction with several communication media, on a simple dyad writing task. Six dyads of college students familiar with journalistic writing were matched on attributes of dominance and writing ability and were asked to write short news articles based on short video clips in a balanced two factor within-subject analysis of variance design. Six conditions were tested based on communication media: audio only, audio plus video, and face-to-face; each of these with and without the availability of the group editor. Constraints inherent in the task attempted to enforce consistent document quality levels, measured by grammatical quality and content quality (correctness of information and chronological sequencing). Time to complete the articles was used as a measure of efficiency, independent from quality due to the consistent quality levels of the resulting work. Results from the time data indicated a significant effect of communication media, with the face-to-face conditions taking significantly less time to complete than either of the other media alternatives. Grammatical quality of the written articles was found to be of consistent high quality by way of computerized grammar checker. Content quality of the documents did not significantly differ for any of the conditions. A supplemental Latin square analysis showed additional significant differences in time to complete for trial means (a practice effect) and team differences. Further, significantly less variance was found in certain conditions which had the group editor than in other conditions which did not. Subjective data obtained from questionnaires supported these results and additional1y showed that subjects significantly preferred trials with the group editor and considered then more productive. The face-to-face conditions may have been more efficient due to the nature of the task or due to increased communication structure within dyads due to practice with the group editor. The significant effect of Team Differences may have been due to consistent style differences between dyads that affected efficiency levels. The decreased variability in time to complete in certain group editor conditions may have been due to increased communication structure in these conditions, or perhaps due to leveling effects of group writing as opposed to individual writing with team member aid. These hypotheses need to be tested with further study, and generalizability of the experimental task conditions and results from this particular group editor need to be established as well face-to-face conditions clearly resulted in the most efficient performance on this task. The results obtained concerning the group editor suggest possible efficiency or consistency benefits from the use of group editors by co-authoring persons when face-to-face communication is not practical. Perhaps group editors will become a useful method for surrogate travel for persons with disabilities. / Master of Science

Collaborative writing technologies such as Google Docs is believed to be a helpful tool in supporting the development of constructivist learning environments. However, not much research has been done among special populations outside the United States. This dissertation examines how using google docs can enhance collaborative learning among non-native English-speaking students at a university in Oman. A total of 52 students participated in this study, where they completed a collaborative writing activity using Google Docs. This exploratory study yielded quantitative as well as qualitative data. Interviewees shared their experience of using Google Docs for the collaborative writing activity. The research shows that Google Docs promoted collaborative interactions among students, such as learning from each other and communicating with the teacher. Interestingly, the data indicate that students used alternate social media such as WhatsApp to communicate with their group mates regarding the collaborative writing activity. Overall, the results obtained here confirm that the Google Docs can be used to enhance collaborative learning among non-native English-speaking students.

This research sought to explore the patterns of co-authorship collaboration between African and international authors who have published together in journals relating to the field of social psychology. Bibliographic data was used to extract and produce social network maps of academic co-author collaborations in which one of the authors was African or affiliated to an author from an African country. These patterns of collaboration were analysed using social network analysis and it was found that, on average, African authors are poorly interconnected with other international authors in the field of social psychology and are also poorly interconnected with other African authors across the continent. It is likely that these structures of collaboration constrain the ability of African authors to produce their own relevant knowledge within the field of social psychology, in that their collaborations are limited and usually mediated by international connections. This pattern of interconnection makes it more likely that African social psychologists will operate within paradigms generated by academics in international and well-resourced countries and militates against the development of African paradigms. / Thesis (M.Soc.Sc.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2014.