What do I mean?

As the channels for communication continue to increase then so does the importance of our understanding of writing and communication. Negotiation is key to technical communication today. Not so much for the intransitive form it is so often taken to be, conferring to arrive at a settlement, but for the transitive form, which is to bring about through conference, discussion, and compromise. Negotiated writing is simply writing, created either by a single author or in collaboration, which is shared with a group which offers both discussion and feedback. While this form of writing support has proven effective when writers are situated in a class or workshop setting, we know little about whether or not writers can recreate negotiated writing for their personal and professional writing purposes after leaving the class or workshop.

Negotiating the dissertation question

Negotiated writing

Negotiated meaning making

Negotiating in writing workshop

If we want what we teach in writing classes/workshops to promote self-sponsored learning (transfer/self efficacy) we must teach writers the art of "negotiated writing"/"negotiated rhetoric".

Writers can have a transformative experience in a writing class/workshop but the key is to help them transfer those skills into new writing situations - learn how to create a support system/network as well as how to use that system.

Wikipedia -- Negotiation

Negotiation all too often focuses on setting disputes but the reason I'm attracted to this word is this definition:

to craft outcomes to satisfy various interests. It is the primary method of alternative dispute resolution.

• What can we learn about negotiated writing from online writing workshop?
◦ Can negotiated (as in crafting outcomes to satisfy various interests) writing experience extend beyond the workshop/class for knowledge transfer and self efficacy?

I'm still working things through but it seems I might be getting there with these questions. I think they address the questions my committee raised. Perhaps enough to be able to write my IRB. Maybe.

Writing a dissertation question is messy

Then we met with my full committee (Fred Kemp and Becky Rickly) and that is when things got really messy.


Problems:
~ Writing workshop has been done a lot (even online writing workshop)
~ Community is problematic (not accurate, overused)
~ Knowledge doesn't transfer or contribute to self-efficacy

Solutions:
~ Look at the "why" workshop does (or does not work) in specific context
~ Look at how we can create a "community" (need to find a new term) that extends beyond the finite context (of a class) to promote transfer and self-efficacy

Some points to think about:
~ What can make the lessons/benefits of writing workshop longterm and sustainable?
~ What can help writers create their own writing "communities"?
~ What can motivate writers to continue with this work on their own (self motivation)?
~ Self-sponsored learning is transfer
~ How can this work contribute to tc?

The evolution of a dissertation question

Clearly, that was too much and too unfocused so we distilled it down to:

What is the role of community in developing transfer and self-efficacy in writers?

Where I started...

My chair, Brian Still, suggested I come to May Seminar with a list of possible questions/topics and so this is where I started:

• Do writers prefer face-to-face or online writing workshop? Why?
• Do writers develop a sense of community through online workshop?
• Does face-to-face interaction change that? How so?
• How long does it take writers (of differing ages and backgrounds) to feel comfortable with online workshop?
• Does online workshop help writers improve? In what ways?
• Is technology a bridge or wall for communication/community?
• How can online workshop be supported and facilitated to be more effective?
• Does the type of writing matter? (for a class or not)