Collaborative Writing as Mentorship in Disciplinary Literacies

• In Event: Roundtable Session 29
  In Roundtable Session: Writing and Literacies SIG Roundtable 3: Spaces for Unlocking Writing for Democratic Participation

Abstract

“Publish or perish” often translates among academic faculty as “Write!” yet academic publishing signals legitimate participation in a highly attenuated dialogue among scholars. Two early career education researchers seek to understand developmental potential of sustained, immediate dialogue as a scaffold for successful academic participation. They experimented though a lasting, multi-stage writing partnership, regularly reflecting upon and documenting activities related to collaboration. Four mentors examined evidence of collaboration and commented on scholarly value. Their evaluations were categorized thematically and compared with archived revision artifacts. Re-reading writing processes through mentors’ evaluations points to the importance of close writing partnerships that must function, ultimately, as proxies for the publication process. Collaboration can be enacted more effectively with awareness of its developmental function.

Authors

• George Lovell Boggs, Florida State University

• Trevor Thomas Stewart, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University