After Nancy's interesting presentation on Andrea Lunsford (thanks, Nancy), I remained intrigued by the idea of collaboration in writing. I'm not much of a collaborator. When faced with group work, my preference has been to split it up, count on everyone to his or her best, then somehow mash it together. Maybe that's not really collaboration - maybe it's job sharing.
I went to a paper by Andrea Lunsford and Lisa Ede, Why Write... Together: A Research Update (Rhetoric Review, Vol. 5, No. 1 (Autumn, 1986), pp. 71-81) for to learn more about collaborative writing. Their survey of writing in the professions produced some pretty surprising results. For instance, those surveyed said they spend 81% of their writing effort alone, 10% working with one other person, 9% in small or large groups. When working in collaboration, the least-favored strategies were: team plans and writes draft, which is revised by one or more persons who do not consult the writers of the draft; and one person plans and writes draft, which is revised by one or more persons who do not consult the writer of the draft. The most-favored collaboration stragety was team plans and outlines, then each member drafts a part, then team compiles and revises.
Clearly, I am not the only person who is uncomfortable with collaborative writing. I admire Lunsford and Ede's strategy of Talk-Write-Talk-Read-Talk-Write-Talk-Read, etc., and would like to try it out. It seems to me that their process is a true collaboration, and not just a melding of individual work. I imagine that it is not easy to find someone with whom to write in this way. First of all, both would have to have deep interest in the subject (to make all that talking bearable). Additionally, both would need to have high regard for the other's abilities and experiences. Finally, both would have to be able to put ego aside for the sake of the work.
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Cathy, I, too, have been thinking about collaboration all week, thinking I would like to try it as a writer and with my students. However, I want to read more about it. My feeling in the past has been that in general, collaboration is, as you put it, “just a melding of individual work,” which can produce a piece of uneven quality and character, and frequently, team members never talk or work together at all. After hearing Lunsford’s passionate defense of collaboration through the slant of Albertson’s presentation, and after hearing Tony Filpi tell us of Donald Murray’s belief in collaboration, I’m game to try.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the conditions you stipulate for successful collaborative writing. I wonder if trust isn’t also a major issue, believing the other person will handle you and your ideas gently and with respect. The aspect of ego is interesting to me. When I was responding to Albertson, I was wondering what stands in the way of more collaboration. Why are we willing to work as a team in so many other ways, but writing seems so much more personal? Think of a symphony or a movie. There are solos, to be sure, but the project itself is certainly a collaboration. Why do we need single authorship or ownership? Is that driven by the demands of tenure or something more? And even as I’m writing this, I feel a nervous flutter at the idea of opening MY writing up to others. Hmmmm.
Lundsford ( and Ede ) say that trust definitely is a big part of it and they had been friends from the same doctoral program at Ohio State and writing together for over a decade.
ReplyDeleteLunsford also makes the same point as you did that many areas of art and science naturally collaborate and have collaborated for a long time. How many people does it take to create a movie, or discover a new cure.
But I also think it is true that collaboration can take on different meanings. Many books are written by multiple authors but each one just writes his or her own chapter, That is certainly not the same as Lunsford and EDE who spent days and nights together taking turns one dictating and the other typing. I would think that before we can replicate that we would have to have some close friendships who are also colleagues.
P.S. Lunsford doesn't see collaboration as a way to create but also an excellent way to learn. That's what I think about a lot, and that's why I asked everyone one to discuss and come up with a definition of those three concepts. When I don't get a concept and I discuss it with another who has information as well, we can learn from each other, - thus she suggests collaborating on research and problem solving (like Politics of Textual Ownership /intellectual property}
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