<bold><italic>By Any Other Name: Writing Groups Inside and Outside the
Classroom
</italic></bold>Beverly J. Moss, Melissa Dunbar, and Nels P. Highberg
Since the publication of Anne Gere's monograph, _Writing Groups_, the use
of writing groups has continued to grow in prominence within and beyond
the classroom. Teachers encourage and even, in some places, require
writing groups in their composition courses; some writing centers
incorporate writing groups in their tutorial models in addition to the
traditional one-on-one tutor to client session. Outside the classroom,
writers with similar goals and/or interests form writing groups to
support each other--dissertation writing groups come to mind as an
example. While writing groups have become more popular and visible both
in and outside the classroom, the scholarship on writing groups has not
kept pace, especially in composition studies. In particular, we have
relied heavily on scholarship that focuses on collaborative writing;
however, there is a major difference between traditional collaborative
writing models and most writing groups. Namely, in the traditional
collaborative writing model, the writers collaborate to produce one text.
In most writing groups, each writer is working on his or her own piece
of writing, and the group responds to it. With the arena for the use of
writing groups broadening, we, in composition studies, must direct our
scholarly gaze toward the writing group. This new volume will focus on
the many ways writers are thinking about and using writing groups both in
the academy and beyond.
Our interest in collecting essays for this volume on writing groups grows
out of two sources: first, from our experiences as instructors and
administrators working with undergraduate writing consultants who are
trained to work with inexperienced writers in writing groups, and second,
from our experiences as active members of writing groups. These
experiences have led us to the following questions:
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* What are the various ways of conceptualizing writing groups?
* How does the context in which a writing group
operates--an undergraduate tutoring program, an e-mail discussion group,
a group of English professors--shape the writing group? Or how might
various physical and cultural environments shape writing groups?
* How does authority, ownership of ideas, writer's goals, and group
goals get negotiated within a writing group setting?
=09
For this volume we are interested in essays (20-25 pp) which provide our
audience an opportunity to examine writing groups from a variety of
theoretical, empirical, and pedagogical perspectives. We are as
interested in essays which discuss writing groups outside classroom
settings as we are those which examine writing groups within the
classroom.
Please send, by April 30, 1999, one-two (single-spaced) page abstracts
to:
Beverly J. Moss (moss.1@osu.edu)
Department of English
The Ohio State University
164 W. 17th Avenue
Columbus, OH 43210-1370
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