A study examined the behavior of first graders as they collaborated on a writing exercise using a word processor. Data were collected over three weeks in the form of fieldnotes and 13.5 hours of videotape of students working at the computer. Videotapes were examined to locate patterns of discourse and physical actions, and by abstracting from the data, the type of structured phenomena which they could be taken to exemplify was idealized. The data revealed these types of behaviors: (1) the student designated as the writer had the right and obligation to compose, the right and responsibility to input, and the right to arrange; (2) the student designated as the helper had the appurtenance to compose, the license to input, and the right to arrange and responsibility for arranging. Concerning production problems during collaboration, the writer had to explain his or her orientation to production problems and how they would be solved, while the helper determined when the designated writer became oriented to problems and how he or she intended to solve those problems. Use of the computer in a collaborative setting enhanced its advantage of allowing writers to input and arrange their screen document with ease, to alter those documents, and to read them. The computer also allowed, and virtually required, students writing together to use all of the language arts. A reference list is included. (SRT)