Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Kenneth A. Bruffee: Writing Together Can Be Fun?

I have to admit that my personal experience has made me upfront leery of any of the theorists so far who have really pushed collaboration in composition. I haven't had very many positive experiences with collaborative work.

I was always frustrated with peer review in high school and as an undergrad because it didn't seem to produce anything I could use. I would get it done because my teachers required it, but when it came to re-writing the paper I tore it apart and put it back together myself. I never actually followed anything they said. Part of this was (and probably still is) more than a little arrogance. I am very, very confident in my skills as a writer. Still, when the general level of quality was comments like "nice description" and "good word choice" or occasionally something more splashy like "nice imagery" can you blame me? Thanks guys, that will improve my paper, a lot.

As a college student I did have a good experience or two with the writing lab at BYU (yes, it did take an assigned visit to get me in there), I learned to enjoy the discussion process, and to help guide my peer reviewers towards questions I had about the piece (which provided mroe useful feedback as well) and otherwise found this most common of collaborative techniques a much more helpful tool. Then as a grad student last semester I took great pleasure in participating in one of Professor Morales' Graduate Writers' Workshop courses.

With the incredible amount of information Thomas provided for us in his presentation (Wow!) I have to admit that I was left with my head swimming somewhat. However, I picked up enough of what was happening to be forced to step back from previouis skepticism and say, "Huh. If someone this smart and well-respected is saying 'Hey, this is the way to go' perhaps I should reconsider. Certainly, I have learned as Bruffee points out, that, well taught, the collaborative revision we experience as peer review or a workshop format can be wonderfully beneficial, and if nothing else trains the critical eye in the participants. In addition, the format gives the teacher the opportunity (rare in many cases, or at least rarely occurring) to provide an additional audience, a "real" (okay a "somewhat less artifical") audience for student work. Thomas, thank you. It becomes apparent that something I've trivialized and set aside needs a much closer examination.

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