Writing Environments, Part 2

Vol. 1, No. 2: Contents

Computers, Writing, Rhetoric and Literature

Synchronously Networked Writing Environments, part 2

Table 1.  Summary of 14 student evaluations of Encounter
with Other assignment

Positive comments:

* I used these ideas in my paper                                12
* I liked it                                                     7
* outside input (feedback) good                                  7
* partner finished/changed my ideas                              7
* partners worked well together                                  7
* good for brainstorming                                         3
* it helps with editing                                          3
* there was an exciting element of surprise/mystery              2
* I liked working with an anonymous partner                      2
* easy to use                                                    1
* when I stopped trying to gain approval, I could write          1
* it was like reading their mind                                 1

Negative comments:

* fear of partner's criticism was a problem                      6
* it was very difficult/challenging                              3
* our writing went in different directions                       3
* it is easier to write alone                                    2
* I didn't like it                                               2
* it was like talking (talking would have been easier)           1
* our ideas rambled                                              1
* I didn't like an unknown partner                               1
* my mind couldn't wander                                        1

The above analysis of the student evaluations showed that for some students the social nature of this activity created a helpful writing experience, while for others the experience was difficult and tenuous. Notice in Table 1 that, although most students gave positive comments, the largest negative comment had to do with fear of not pleasing the partner with their writing. Some of these students, like any cross-section of people, enjoyed social communication. However, a few students never got over feeling unsure. The following excepts from some student evaluations express this range of opinions regarding social awkwardness:

(a) When the professor first introduced the idea to me, I thought it sounded good. But when it came time to start writing I found it hard to write with my unknown "partner." I couldn't start writing creatively because of a fear that said, " will my partner agree with this?" I think I was too self-conscious about the whole thing.

(b) At first, I was kind of nervous. I didn't really know what to do. It was very hard to start. Neither of us wanted to go first. But, after we got going, the story almost wrote itself.

(c) It was exciting and new for me. I felt it added a certain mystique to the writing. I enjoyed the writing process involving an unknown partner and we worked very well together. It was amazing to see someone else's thoughts come up on my screen, it was like I was reading their minds. It was also nice for my partner to immediately know my thoughts.

An analysis of the printed copies of this exercise showed a sequence of events worth noting during this unusual writing process. The first three or four short paragraphs tended to be tentative and showed that the two people had different points of view and ideas regarding the story they were starting to write. Very quickly, however, these points of view were resolved. Either one author changed or the two ideas blended. Most often, some elements from each point of view remain throughout the story, and typically, the authors used each other to edit their ideas at appropriate points in the writing process.

The following excerpt is from a pair of writers whose points of view merged into a coherent story about an Encounter with an Other. The excerpt includes a bit of their narrative, some editorial comments, the ending of first session, and the beginning of their second session. Notice that the authors used each other to get feedback about their story line after they had been writing for a while, and that they were very willing to experiment with their writing together.

(First Writer's continuing narrative)..but then it was as if something came over him, and he spilled out his story to me. I was so happy that he trusted me and was willing to let me help. This made me feel so much better because I knew things were going to work out between the two of us.

(Second Writer's continuing narrative) It was as if I had gained a part of myself again and was whole. I could never get back the time we had lost, but I could enjoy the times to come.

(First Writer breaks the narrative into editing comments) (I think we have a problem there cause this seems like it is getting close to done otherwise it is going to turn into rambling)

(Second Writer) Somewhat. We shouldn't (in my opinion) go too far into the concert, but more detail wouldn't hurt. It is just to reflect, but not the main event.

(First Writer) Yeah, it would relate. We'll see what happens then.

(Second Writer) I agree. Maybe on Friday we can go in a little further about the brother and his specific problems. Also, we should probably talk a little more about the concert before he starts to realize the stuff about his brother. Agree?

(First Writer) Do you think that going to the concert would be considered an event relating to the "other?"

(Second Writer) Yeah that sounds good. We do have an end basically, but maybe a little more detail about the brother and his problems.

Beginning of the Second Session

(First Writer) How should we start our story today? Should we backtrack and go back to the part describing the brother?

(Second Writer) What do you think? Maybe we could leave the ending hanging. Is that OK?

(First Writer) OK. Let's see... we will just write and then insert it into the part

(Second Writer) Yeah, that is not a problem. Editing is always easy.

(First Writer's continuing narrative) Joe (our anonymous friend) ran into some very serious problems when he was a teenager......

These students wrote together, commented on their writing, planned future writing, and showed a willingness to experiment together as authors.

Writing Assignment #3: The Freewrite Dance

Music and dance are the art forms best known for group improvisation. The following is an excerpt of a written improvisation created simultaneously between two advanced writers working in an Aspects conference. I call it a Freewrite Dance because the participants reported that it felt like two people dancing together: responding to each other's creation as they were actively creating themselves. The Freewrite Dance happened by accident while senior writing students were experimenting with Aspects in the writing lab. The Freewrite Dance crosses a threshold of writing as a social experience. It is an example of an exciting new writing form: live, improvisational writing. The two authors both expressed feelings of exhilaration and awe at the end of this ten minute session, suggesting a kind of literary experience that more closely approximates a verbal communication medium regarding its real-time process, while still engaging the thoughtful crafting of text.

(First Writer) The second viola will have a sandwich later today, long after the air has relaxed and drifted down to lie in loose folds and coils on the carpet, and she will enjoy it very much.
She looked out across the orchestra pit, up, into the black that silted down from the rafters in the roof, fondling her viola casually.
Like so...

(Second Writer) I like "silted." Like silk and like silt and like lilted.

Notice that at this early point in their Freewrite Dance the two authors have distinctly different voices and are not writing the same story at all. One is writing a narrative; the other is commenting on it.

(First Writer) or like so...
She then turned back to tuning her instrument, and the violinist (4th) sitting next to her sneezed delicately, as if on cue

(Second Writer) which startled the bassoonist who had been dreaming of a day when he was three when his girl friend stood in a creek...shallow water and sand and grass...and she casually lifted her dress over her head to swim in the cold water...her hair was long...but the

(First Writer) and my hair flowed up and around my head as I closed my eyes in the creek and felt the air shimmering around me as my foot
my foot

(Second Writer) touched the rocks. There were other people there...people who spoke many languages....Some Spanish, French, English and no one spoke all

(First Writer) and I could feel them swoon

(Second Writer) as the rocks talked to each other below the water, and we talked to each other above.

At this point the authors are really starting to dance, consciously weaving narrative together, writing the same story in real-time collaboration.

(Second Writer) the faces in the rocks waved to the faces above the water and shimmered in the sun above them all...drops of water sparkled like endlessly free diamonds cascading as the hands swooshed water toward the sky...toes felt the rocks carefully...constantly searching for a bit of life between them...

(First Writer) and the cold slackness of the green algae and moss rubbed ungently on her heals [sic], and she suddenly looked to the left, as through something was approaching her from that direction, although she began, with a twist in her ankle, to approach it as well, and the water sliced open as she rolled downwards and he was afraid

(Second Writer) the dark trees were black against the grey sky...tall...pointed trees...in front of them a meadow...brown dry grasses pressed to the earth in search of relief from the summer sun. The mist floated down...was something else there?

(First Writer) But the river continued to bleed

(Second Writer) as did the child's heart who, suddenly aware that he was grown and working and expected to make art for pay, looked at the person who sneezed in front of him.

The Freewrite Dance ended in real time collaboration; both authors were writing the same story with the same language together. Writers rarely compose together; writing tends to be an isolated act. Audience is almost always remote from author in time, and yet in this example, we see students writing, reading and responding in writing all at the same time, blending minds and words into a piece that starts to have a life of its own. The previous two assignments, like the Freewrite Dance, were also at essence writing encounters with a social component, and together the three experiences demonstrate a range of personal interactivity toward a writing goal. The first assignment was most like a traditional writing experience when one regards the process of writing itself: even though writers were interacting in dialogue each written opinion was formed individually without feedback about the writing, and each subsequent student essay was written alone. In the second assignment the students' writing itself proceeded collaboratively: during the writing process two minds not one were engaged in the activity. The focus of the Freewrite Dance centered on the interaction of two minds during the process of writing. While results from the ENFI project have described networked interactive writing experiences like these especially regarding teacher-student interaction, they have not described activities focusing specifically on student-to-student interaction during the writing process (Batson, 1989):

The computer supplies the missing link between speaking and writing. We can use writing for many more purposes than just producing something for evaluation because we have opened the whole spectrum of social writing.
Imagine in your own class that students sit at computer stations instead of desks. Instead of talking to them, you can also write to them. Your written discussion itself becomes a model of writing; you can instantly demonstrate writing samples that the students see on the screen before them: they see you writing, a new experience for them; you can all jointly freewrite, brainstorm, and organize.

No doubt as more networked computer labs are used for writing education the literature will focus on the process of writing as it occurs in individual as well as collaborative efforts. This essay, as a description of simultaneous, anonymous, and networked writing assignments, points toward new activities in the writing classroom curriculum, and perhaps in the field of writing in general. The first assignment changed the way students communicate together about difficult social issues and the second assignment changed the way students write, opening the isolated process of authoring into a social experience. The Freewrite Dance itself may point the way toward a more immediate, improvisational written art form to be enjoyed by writers and audiences alike in real time.

Appendices | Works Cited