Lowry et al. on collaboration

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Lowry et al. on collaboration
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Collaborative strategies

• Group single-author writing
• Sequential writing
• Parallel writing
• Horizontal-division writing
• Stratified division writing
• Reactive writing

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Responding to student error
Imagine youre the instructor of a tech comm
service course and youve just received the
following paper. Read the paper and mark it for
return to the student. Then get in a group and
discuss the following questions

• What did you tend to mark?
• What marks did you use? Why?
• What are the advantages and disadvantages of
  different marking systems?
• Ideally, how would you like the student to
  respond to the marks? How do you imagine the
  student will really respond?
• What broader actions might you take, beyond
  marking the paper? When is it appropriate to take
  broader actions?

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Discussion Collaboration

• Lowry, Paul Benjamin, Aaron Curtis, and Michelle
  René Lowry. Building a Taxonomy and Nomenclature
  of Collaborative Writing to Improve
  Interdisciplinary Research and Practice.
• Nelson, Stephanie. "Engineering and Technology
  Student Perceptions of Collaborative Writing
  Practices."
• Burnett, Rebecca E., Clark, David, et al.
  Shaping Technologies The Complexity of
  Electronic Collaborative Interaction.

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Designing collaborative exercises

• In groups, design a simple collaborative exercise
  for students in a tech comm service course. The
  topic of the exercise should be an issue of
  technical communication language or style.

• Possible topics
• Passive voice
• Strong verbs
• Imperative mood
• Avoiding overuse of be verbs
• Avoiding biased language (e.g., sexist language)
• Parameters
• Should require no more than 30 minutes of class
  time to conduct.
• Should involve a mixture of lecture, example,
  practice, and presentation
• Shouldnt require additional materials beyond
  what we have available in the classroom
• May involve computer interaction