Singular Texts/Plural Authors: Perspectives on Collaborative Writing

TLDR

Collaborative writing challenges the traditional view of writing as a solitary act and seeks to understand its benefits through theory and research. The authors aim to answer why writers should collaborate by combining theory, history, and empirical research. They ground their argument in personal collaboration experience and a three‑stage empirical study funded by the Fund for the Improvement of Post‑Secondary Education. Their data indicate that writers must be able to collaborate in the twenty‑first century.

Abstract

Why write together? the authors ask. They answer that question here, in the first book to combine theoretical and historical explorations with actual research on collaborative and group writing.Lisa Ede and Andrea Lunsford challenge the assumption that writing is a solitary act. That challenge is grounded in their own personal experience as long-term collaborators and in their extensive research, including a three-stage study of collaborative writing supported by the Fund for the Improvement of Post-Secondary Education.The authors urge a fundamental change in our institutions to accommodate collaboration by radically resituating power in the classroom and by instituting rewards for collaborative work that equal rewards for single-authored work. They conclude with the injunction: Today and in the twenty-first century, our data suggest, writers must be able to work together. They must, in short, be able to collaborate.