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UBC Theses and Dissertations
Engagement with text : collaborative writing in a high technology company Begoray, Deborah Leslie
Abstract
Over the past decade, an interest in collaboration has been coming to the fore in composition studies. Whereas once we were primarily interested in investigating the cognitive processes of the individual, we now seek to understand more about the social dynamics of writing in groups to improve our teaching of composition in the classroom. To that end, this dissertation looks at the real world collaborative activities of business proposal writers within a high technology company. Writing in the workplace is often undertaken in groups, and my work at Cerebellum, Inc. with computer professionals (who wrote as part of their jobs) reveals complexities hitherto unsuspected in the social writing process. The importance of a detailed understanding of collaboration has been called for in the literature by, for example, Ede and Lunsford (1990). My dissertation surveys current literature in composition, including a review of investigations into collaboration during business writing as a salient behaviour of such a discourse community. In order to accomplish my research, I used a video camera to record the activities which embodied the writing process at Cerebellum Inc. I found that the use of the video camera in an ethnographic manner not only helped me to gather detailed data, both verbal and nonverbal, in the continuous and comprehensive detail so vital to communication research, but also assisted in initiating better understanding within the business community of the aims and approaches of academic research. Video technology gave me a chance to participate in as well as observe situations, and also opened the door to conversation concerning my methods and my findings with both researchers and informants. I propose a model of the varying levels of engagement undertaken by the writers of a business proposal. I then suggest the educational value of the representation with a discussion of implications for the teaching of writing in the workplace and in more traditional school settings. Detailed research into collaboration offers us a window on the social processes which constitute writing for our students now and in their futures in the workplace. Such work is vitally important to ensuring superior levels of advanced literacy which will be in continuing demand now and in the next century.
Item Metadata
Title |
Engagement with text : collaborative writing in a high technology company
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Creator | |
Publisher |
University of British Columbia
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Date Issued |
1994
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Description |
Over the past decade, an interest in collaboration has
been coming to the fore in composition studies. Whereas once
we were primarily interested in investigating the cognitive
processes of the individual, we now seek to understand more
about the social dynamics of writing in groups to improve our
teaching of composition in the classroom. To that end, this
dissertation looks at the real world collaborative activities
of business proposal writers within a high technology company.
Writing in the workplace is often undertaken in groups, and my
work at Cerebellum, Inc. with computer professionals (who
wrote as part of their jobs) reveals complexities hitherto
unsuspected in the social writing process.
The importance of a detailed understanding of
collaboration has been called for in the literature by, for
example, Ede and Lunsford (1990). My dissertation surveys
current literature in composition, including a review of
investigations into collaboration during business writing as a
salient behaviour of such a discourse community. In order to
accomplish my research, I used a video camera to record the
activities which embodied the writing process at Cerebellum
Inc. I found that the use of the video camera in an
ethnographic manner not only helped me to gather detailed
data, both verbal and nonverbal, in the continuous and
comprehensive detail so vital to communication research, but
also assisted in initiating better understanding within the
business community of the aims and approaches of academic
research. Video technology gave me a chance to participate in
as well as observe situations, and also opened the door to
conversation concerning my methods and my findings with both
researchers and informants.
I propose a model of the varying levels of engagement
undertaken by the writers of a business proposal. I then
suggest the educational value of the representation with a
discussion of implications for the teaching of writing in the
workplace and in more traditional school settings.
Detailed research into collaboration offers us a window
on the social processes which constitute writing for our
students now and in their futures in the workplace. Such work
is vitally important to ensuring superior levels of advanced
literacy which will be in continuing demand now and in the
next century.
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Extent |
3707145 bytes
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Genre | |
Type | |
File Format |
application/pdf
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Language |
eng
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Date Available |
2009-04-06
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Provider |
Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library
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Rights |
For non-commercial purposes only, such as research, private study and education. Additional conditions apply, see Terms of Use https://open.library.ubc.ca/terms_of_use.
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DOI |
10.14288/1.0054892
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URI | |
Degree | |
Program | |
Affiliation | |
Degree Grantor |
University of British Columbia
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Graduation Date |
1994-11
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Campus | |
Scholarly Level |
Graduate
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Aggregated Source Repository |
DSpace
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Item Media
Item Citations and Data
Rights
For non-commercial purposes only, such as research, private study and education. Additional conditions apply, see Terms of Use https://open.library.ubc.ca/terms_of_use.