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<p>This thesis paper presents experiences and views on collaborative writing from interviews with university students. Analysis of these interviews, focusing on problems with coordination and technological tools,  shows that problems to some extent can be avoided with knowledge of the tools used and knowledge of coordination.</p>

This thesis paper presents experiences and views on collaborative writing from interviews with university students. Analysis of these interviews, focusing on problems with coordination and technological tools,  shows that problems to some extent can be avoided with knowledge of the tools used and knowledge of coordination.

Collaborative writing, the joint construction of a text by two or more authors, is an instructional practice originally used in first language classrooms. More recently, it has been applied in second language (L2) learning contexts. Collaborative writing can take place in the classroom, with pairs or small groups of learners working face-to-face and interacting verbally to make decisions about the content and form of their text. It can also take place in online contexts, allowing larger groups of learners to collaborate on longer texts over a longer period of time. The aim of this paper is to explore empirical research undertaken on second language (L2) collaborative writing tasks in face-to-face and online environments. Attention is paid to the instructional contexts in which these tasks have been used, including educational settings, learners’ proficiency levels, and task types. After these elements are described, the paper integrates and analyzes research concerning the outcomes of collaborative writing tasks, namely the nature of languaging and peer scaffolding, the writing process, language learning, text quality, and learners’ perceptions of collaborative writing. The paper concludes with pedagogical implications and directions for future research. / text

The purpose of this study was to determine professor and student knowledge of, attitudes towards, and experiences with graduate level collaborative writing in Canadian universities. Data were gathered from professors and students in Engineering, Business, Education, Biology, English, and History. A mixed methods approach using two surveys and eighteen interviews was employed to explore four research questions. The surveys were analyzed deductively. Interviews were analyzed inductively and deductively. Results indicated that collaborative writing is practiced at the graduate level in a variety of ways. Professors and students described collaborative writing as mentorship, in the context of coursework, and as coauthorship for publication. In addition, a significant relationship was found between graduate students writing collaboratively and discipline. The relationship between professors assigning collaborative writing and discipline was also significant. Disciplinary differences were supported by and explored through interview data. Views in the academy seem to be shifting. Although solitary writing is the norm and highly valued in the humanities, participants in this study indicated an openness and desire to include collaborate writing in their graduate level experiences. In fields where collaborative writing is the norm, participants noted areas to address in order to increase its effectiveness. This study has implications in the areas of pedagogical change, technology, and the mandate of higher education.

The purpose of this study was to determine professor and student knowledge of, attitudes towards, and experiences with graduate level collaborative writing in Canadian universities. Data were gathered from professors and students in Engineering, Business, Education, Biology, English, and History. A mixed methods approach using two surveys and eighteen interviews was employed to explore four research questions. The surveys were analyzed deductively. Interviews were analyzed inductively and deductively. Results indicated that collaborative writing is practiced at the graduate level in a variety of ways. Professors and students described collaborative writing as mentorship, in the context of coursework, and as coauthorship for publication. In addition, a significant relationship was found between graduate students writing collaboratively and discipline. The relationship between professors assigning collaborative writing and discipline was also significant. Disciplinary differences were supported by and explored through interview data. Views in the academy seem to be shifting. Although solitary writing is the norm and highly valued in the humanities, participants in this study indicated an openness and desire to include collaborate writing in their graduate level experiences. In fields where collaborative writing is the norm, participants noted areas to address in order to increase its effectiveness. This study has implications in the areas of pedagogical change, technology, and the mandate of higher education.

The field of writing studies has long inquired about how writers engage in individualized writing processes. As an extension of this inquiry, contemporary scholarship in writing studies began to study collaborative writing through the understanding of writing as a social act. Our understanding of writing processes and collaborative writing has expanded through studies of writing as it occurs in the academy, the workplace, and extracurricular settings. Still, to a large extent, inquiries about writing processes and collaborative writing activity centered on alphabetic texts and focused on writers. Rarely do studies engage"in addition to writers"artists and designers as authors in the collaborative writing process. Composing, as understood by scholars and teachers of writing, is changing due to technological shifts in media and yet, as a field, we have failed to question multimodal composing as an individual or collaborative process.<br />    To extend previous writing studies scholarship, this dissertation engages qualitative case study methodology to explore three unique multimodal collaborations of comics authors. As a visual rhetoric scholar with a personal focus on teaching students about composing in all media, I am drawn to asking questions about how arguments are composed using multimodal means. My personal and scholarly interest in comics led to inquiries about how comics are composed and initial research found that comics are often composed in collaboration, with writers and artists who with them carry multiple and varying literacies (alphabetic text, visual, spatial, etc.). Comics provide a rich subject of study to address this inquiry because of their inherently multimodal nature as a medium that incorporates both word and picture in diverse combinations and for a variety of rhetorical purposes. For this study, I have chosen to focus on comics texts that differ in terms of subject matter, genre, and collaborative makeup in order to examine multimodal collaborations and create distinct cases. Through three cases of multimodal collaboration"Understanding Rhetoric, the Cheo comics, and Brotherman: Dictator of Discipline"this study argues for a further complication of our field\'s understanding of writing processes and collaborative composing. / Ph. D.

This paper seeks to provide a comprehensive overview of current literature regarding technological tools such as Wikis for their use in second language collaborative writing instruction. Some trends that have been identified in technology use for collaborative writing in the second language classroom are that students generally enjoy the technology coupled with group work, and that scaffolding between more and less advanced learners tends to occur when using these online tools. Some areas remain unclear, however, with varying results in several studies as to the quantitative effects on second language acquisition of implementing Wikis and other online tools in group writing exercises. Additionally, freeloading has been observed in various studies, which presents second language teachers with a dilemma when deciding whether to incorporate new technological tools for group work in their classrooms. Finally, this paper provides some ideas for future research directions as well as some practical suggestions and implications for foreign language teachers who wish to utilize Wikis and other collaborative online tools. / text

This dissertation shares findings from a descriptive case study that examined an experienced teacher’s facilitation of a collaborative story writing project using Google Docs in a culturally and linguistically diverse Grade 11 English class. An expanding body of research supports the use of web-based writing tools and peer collaboration for promoting writing skills development, yet there is little research examining how these practices are integrated within the broader teaching and learning process. In the present study, sociocultural theory provided a guiding framework for exploring the complexities inherent in the teaching and learning process as students worked in pairs (and one triad) to write a story about “the future” to be shared with an audience of upper level elementary students. Data sources included field notes taken during 16 class observations, pre- and post- project interviews with the teacher, on-going reflections written by the teacher, focus group interviews with the students, and the students’ collaborative projects stored in Google Docs. The findings cohered around five key themes that describe the teacher’s facilitation of the project: (1) incorporating procedural facilitators, including mentor texts and web-based writing applications; (2) adopting a socio-cognitive apprenticeship model to guide students toward higher levels of proficiency with narrative writing; (3) building a community of practice through peer collaboration, peer sharing, and peer editing; (4) enabling a positive and productive learning environment; and (5) transitioning to a new curriculum. The findings from this study also shed light on the affordances and constraints associated with the pedagogical supports, the collaborative context, and the use of Google Docs as integral components of the project. The dissertation concludes with recommendations for educators who are interested in integrating collaborative story writing projects or web-based writing tools within their classroom contexts. / Graduate

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