Collaborative and Interactive Writing for Increasing Communication Skills

Smith, K. (1990). Collaborative and Interactive Writing for Increasing Communication Skills. Hispania,  73, 77-87


Let me start big: with all the talk of sample groups and the tests and the results, it definitely falls into the positivist paradigm, and follows a quantitative research method. 


The researchers looked at the use of three types of writing communities. Group one (the control) used the traditional paper and pen to write essays at home with no collaboration at all. Group two used Wordperfect and typed their essays, again with no collaboration. The third group used conversational writing activities via a computer conferencing system. In essence it was a message board in which they could communicate with each other, and did their writing on line. 


The results?

In summary, from the study it is possible to propose four hypotheses regarding computer-based collaborative and interactive learning environments: 1) computer-based interaction encourages increased time on task; 2) computer-based writing promotes creativity as well as accuracy; 3) excessive emphasis on accuracy can detract from development of interactive communication skills; and 4) development of advanced organizer and sub-vocalization techniques affect students' ability to communicate ideas orally as well as in writing.  (Smith, 81)

In brief, numbers one and three above seems somewhat obvious to me. The second hypothesis made me curious. I want to know more. Number four means that students actually talked themselves through the difficult tasks in the target language.

This article is not what I was expecting. There was no abstract, and I just scanned the introduction quickly before printing and adding to my own reading list. Even though it isn't what I expected, it was informative and interesting. I have used online bulletin boards for writing and speaking in the past, and have even participated in some research on them. It was nice to see something else that looks at the topic from a slightly different angle.



One of the suggestions for further research ties in with what I'm thinking about doing:

To what degree does the ease of editing, organizing, and rewriting influence the number of drafts completed, the length of the composition, and sentence complexity? (Smith, 85)

I think this would be worth looking into. Perhaps not with this upcoming semester, but would be a good follow-up to what I'm thinking about doing with regards to the interference of affective filters in collaborative writing activities.



There was some great information in this article, and I'm sure I'll go back and look at it more closely when I'm putting together a research project on writing.