Talk:Rhetoric and Composition/Collaborating

is this a new added topic? or is it just nobody started anything on it? what exactly do we want for this page? the idea of collaborating ideas or information or what? just wondering so i can start something on the topic

This page got added late. It's coming along, but still skeletal at this point. --Mattbarton.exe 20:01, 8 December 2005 (UTC)

Does this page really still need the TODO about the bullet points? The majority have been taken out since the notice was put up, and it looks quite balanced now. MJKaye 15:31, 22 September 2006 (UTC)

Matt's thoughts
First off, this section seems to really need some pictures. Surely there are some CC-licensed images out there of students working together, or perhaps some screenshots of collaborative software in action. I just wrote a chapter on collaborative writing technologies for Writing Spaces 2. See this link: http://www.parlorpress.com/writingspaces2 (sadly, the link to my chapter is broken ATM, but the one for the whole book is available). Maybe some of that could be integrated here? In any case, it seems like it'd be worthwhile mentioning collaborative software like Google Docs and wikis here.

The order also seems awry to me. It'd be good to put all the general advice about collaboration in one place. To be really thorough, we might also talk about collaboration at each stage of the writing process--so, how do you collaborate during research, and how is that different than collaborating during drafting or revising?

Finally, there are lots of good quotes (Lunsford and Ede come to mind) from very successful collaborative writers. It'd be good to see some of them here, at least to follow the pattern laid out in the other chapters. --Mattbarton.exe (talk) 22:26, 13 January 2011 (UTC)

Matt H's thoughts
As someone who knows very little about collaborative writing, I found the “What is Collaboration?” section simple and effective.

The “Communicating Away from Meetings” section seems outdated. It would be better if it mentioned other ways of communicating away from meetings, like on a D2L discussion list (or a general internet forum), via text message, twitter, blogs, etc.

I agree with Matt B.—some images would liven this page up.

--Matt.helm (discuss • contribs) 01:20, 27 January 2011 (UTC)

I edited each paragraph, outright deleting some words and lines, and merely moving some sentences and ideas to different paragraphs. It doesn't feel cohesive yet, and it's about three full pages, so I think I could still condense it quite a bit without losing too much meaning.--Matt.helm (discuss • contribs) 21:28, 3 February 2011 (UTC)

Faith's thoughts
As with other sections, I think what's needed is something that breaks up the text. Students don't "read" a text book, they scan it,searching for information that's valuable to them. Looking at a screen with paragraphs of information that run from the left the screen to the right of the screen is dull, certainly, but what's worse, the information becomes difficult to retain. Images will clearly help, but also text boxes (variously placed on the page) and more work with creative bullet points. I am sure there are many ways to get creative while allowing for ease of access.--SFaithL (discuss • contribs) 15:23, 27 January 2011 (UTC)

Emily's Thoughts
I would agree with everything said before me.

Perhaps combining ideas, would it work to briefly introduce collaboration here while linking it to other sections that mention collaboration (research, peer review, etc)? --Emily.isackson (discuss • contribs) 20:32, 27 January 2011 (UTC)

Karl's Thoughts
I agree with Matt about the pictures. They would liven up an otherwise deadly-dull page. These long blocks of text have me skimming and my retention level plummets. Bullet points might be a way to streamline yet make key information easier to retain.

Nick's thoughts
I agree with Dr. Barton's thoughts on adding a section that explains collaboration software. Starting out by exploring how Google products could assist a group throughout the composition process. You could also possibly just add a technology section to each section? I don't know which would be more effective. It is pretty important as we move further away from direct communication and more towards collaborative communication.