Combining an overview of the history of communication scholarship with lessons learned from 20 years of experience as a prison abolitionist and peace activist, Hartnett argues that the discipline of communication can be enriched intellectually and made more politically relevant by turning our efforts toward community service, problem-based…

Finds that both experienced scientists and college students found it difficult to carry out intellectual teamwork involving collaboratively authored documents without the interactivity and expressiveness permitted by face-to-face communication. (SR)

Considers how many students walk into the class with an array of technical communicating perspectives that open the door for practical experiences. Believes that a technical communicator employs the ethnographic process for the purpose of creating technical documents. Presents an ethnographic framed assignment that requires a collaboratively…

Discusses how gender studies reveal psychological and cultural sources of interpersonal conflict during collaboration. Notes that an awareness of these conflict sources enables scholars and teachers in technical communication to predict and ease interpersonal conflict among collaborators. (MM)

Discusses six common characteristics and three controversial issues of feminist theory. Traces their impact on the redefinition of technical communication in terms of the myth of scientific objectivity, the new interest in ethnographic studies of workplace communication, and the recent focus on collaborative writing. (SR)

Offers a Burkean framework for study of collaborative business writing. Reviews the research on collaborative writing, explains a Burkean framework that identifies key areas for future investigation, and provides categories for conducting research. Argues for a research agenda that emphasizes qualitative studies first, to be followed by…

Compares the language of business writing students communicating face to face and on a real-time computer network. Finds that during network meetings, participation was more equal, responses more substantive and text specific, and students more willing to offer direction than during face-to-face meetings. Notes more positive evaluations by…

Describes how two researchers developed a dialogic collaborative research agenda that has proven to be beneficial and stimulating for both participants. Advocates collaborative research as a means of productive intellectual activity. (HB)

Reports findings from a three-year study by a composition researcher and a psychiatrist of the revision of an important mental health book: "Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders." Examines the revision using three methodologies. Concludes that the revision functions to achieve certain social and political effects. (HB)

Describes a packet of instructional forms to guide students' reflections on their collaborative writing group's process and progress. Reports that student self-reports at the end of the project reveal that group satisfaction did increase and that those groups that used the forms regularly found them useful. (RS)

Analyzes a collaborative activity, both as a traditional classroom event and as a collaborative event. Finds that, even when the activity is explicitly collaborative and students are experienced collaborators, patterns of traditional classroom discourse dominate their communicative choices. (MG)

Analyzes the proposal-writing environment, the characteristics of proposals, and the practices of seven engineers at a Silicon Valley engineering firm that does government defense work. Finds that engineers write proposals collaboratively and have a highly structured composing process. Describes how the firm's Proposal Writing Center dramatically…