Introduction: Some Beginning Questions

In spite of the fact that many in the academy work collaboratively in a number of ways, we know little about what characterizes these collaborations and how they are actually carried out. In their 1983 article "Why Write. . .Together?," Lisa Ede and Andrea Lunsford distinguish three general forms of co- and group- authorship: 1) intensive collaboration where two or more authors create one text by working closely together-often by talking through and writing the text together; 2) collaboration that does not depend on intensive and ongoing personal contacts but that may involve some work together but also considerable work completed separately; 3) group collaboration that occurs via a sequence of activities, as in the writing of a business's annual report or of a state or federal regulation.

After describing these general forms of collaboration, Lunsford and Ede posed the following questions about collaborative writing:

• What specific features distinguish the processes of co- or group authoring from those of single authorship? Are these features the same for the three types of co-authorship described above? Can these features of process be linked to any features of the resulting products? In short, how can we best define co-authorship?
• Is there a limit to how many people can write together? Are projects such as the Oxford English Dictionary, Bible, Short Title Catalogue, elaborate computer programs, encyclopedias-all often involving more than 100 authors-examples of co-authorship? That is to say, what are the parameters of co-authorship?
• In what ways, if any, does co- or group-authorship affect the way we view the traditional rhetor-audience relationship?
• How does technology affect the processes of co-authoring?
• What epistemological implications does co-authorship hold for traditional notions of creativity and originality?
• How might the ethics of co-authorship be examined and defined?
• Is the emphasis on or weight of various cognitive and rhetorical strategies different when co-authoring than when writing alone?
• What might the advantages and disadvantages of co-authorship be? For "real world" writers? Academic writers? Student writers?

These questions provide a starting point-and only a starting point-for further reflections of collaborative writing and research. To respond to these questions, to pose new questions, or to share your experiences with collaboration, click on the "how to contribute" icon at the bottom of this page.