Now that we’re working with Writing About Writing inside our classrooms, I’ve decided to
dramatically shift my research topic and explore the construct that assumes
(and teaches our students to believe) that writing is a solitary act. Kleine’s
observation of eight researchers and their individual processes illustrated a
journey (from research to the page) that is highly dependent upon one’s peers
and the research or writing community within which they reside. I plan to
challenge the current expectation that students conduct research and write
traditional research papers alone and explore the pedagogical implications this
has on how we design our curriculum and run our classroom. Furthermore, as
others have defined “community” (Greene, Kleine) and the need for any
writers/researchers within that community to have the necessary “cultural
literacy” to successfully engage, I will also explore whether the solitary traditional
research paper 1) best prepares students for future writing endeavors, and 2) successfully
reflects a students ability to research and formulate their own thoughts/ideas.
Maggie,
ReplyDeleteThis is a very interesting construct, and I especially like your final questions regarding the traditional research paper (is it the best for students and does it even lead to or demonstrate individual, original thoughts). I was wondering if you were going to explore actual collaboration within writing (perhaps the benefits) or if you were just going to address collaboration as it relates to the discourse community students enter when conducting research (i.e. entering the dialogue).
Maggie,
ReplyDeleteLauren asks good questions. There is a lot out there on collaboration, collaborative learning, collab. writing. There is also a lot on discourse communities (Porter in WAW, e.g. Malinowitz, Devitt et al, in ROW ), discourses (Gee in WAW; Glenn in ROW).
I wonder also if it makes a difference when students write for 'real' communities or audiences, such as for a journal, Young Scholars in Writing, e.g., or a community group, or some sort of virtual community on the intertubes. How about for writing fairs like Carrie Ann described in class? At what point is the writing no longer solitary?
--AR
Maggie,
ReplyDeleteI think your topic has so much potential both for your paper and for the classroom. I think there are so many examples in life when writing is not solitary, it is collaborative, and you could use blogs and facebook to illustrate your point. Personally, I am so glad that this class incorporate the use of ethnography and the collaborative multi-modal project because I think those, more than the traditional paper, give them the opportunity to use their creativity and foster their own ideas. Yet how would the topic of plagiarism fall into this discussion?
Yes, some define collaborative writing as a form of plagiarism.
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