College English May 2014

Collaboration (in) Theory: Reworking the Social Turn’s Conversational Imperative

William Duffy

Abstract

This article examines the limitations of social constructionist theory that conflates collaboration with “conversation,” an idea that not only informs how many writing scholars understand the concept of collaboration itself, but one that also allows writing theorists to argue that all writing is inherently collaborative. After briefly tracing the history of this social turn collaboration theory, the article offers an object-oriented definition of collaboration to initiate a rhetorical framework for understanding what collaborators actually do with their discourse, especially when they compose texts. Following a discussion of Donald Davidson’s concept of triangulation and its relevance for understanding the discursive work of collaboration, the article concludes with a consideration of how this revised approach to collaborative composition reflects the goals of postprocess theory, including the habits of mind discussed in the Framework for Success in Post-Secondary Writing.

Journal
College English
Published
2014-05-01
DOI
10.58680/ce201424743
CompPile
Open Access
Closed
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Citation context

Cited by in this index (3)

  1. Mussack et al. (2024)
    Collaboration as a Shared Value: Instructor and Student Perceptions of Collabor…
    Communication Design Quarterly
  2. Li (2024)
    A “Dance of storytelling”: Dissonances between substance and style in collabora…
    Computers and Composition
  3. Mussack et al. (2024)
    Collaboration as a Shared Value: Instructor and Student Perceptions of Collabor…
    Communication Design Quarterly

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