Year and Degree
2010, Master of Arts, John Carroll University, English.
Abstract
Peer collaboration about writing often functions as a required step in the writing processes of first-year writing students. Within the composition classroom, students read and respond to the writing of their peers, sometimes obtaining useful feedback, and sometimes just getting “You did a good job” as an evaluation. Outside of the classroom, the Writing Center exists as a space where students can work with a trained consultant to receive helpful suggestions and a thorough evaluation of their writing. Though the first-year writing classroom and the Writing Center exist as physically separate places, both rely on principles of collaboration and conversation between peers with the objective of creating better writers.
Composition scholars like Stephen M. North, Muriel Harris, and Kenneth Bruffee wrote foundational essays that support collaborative pedagogy for its social benefits, which encourage learning between two peer equals. The scholarship that follows these landmark essays further develops the exclusive benefits of collaboration in the Writing Center and the composition classroom. Despite the fact that both spaces rely on some of the same theories and practices, they remain distanced.