Collaborative Writing With Colleagues:
Writing for Publication
by Randall Wallace and Beth Hurst
Writing is the ultimate way thoughts and ideas can be refined and clarified. It is the means in which teachers can articulately express their teaching thoughts and experiences to other teachers. We have found that solitary writing, writing alone, can be a daunting task and an overwhelming challenge for many individuals; on the other hand, collaborative writing helps us overcome those obstacles and makes the writing experience more productive and enjoyable. It is such a joy to gather around a computer and write about interesting subjects with people you like. There is laughter and learning, two things teachers love. Writing together is not only fun, but it is a great way to improve your own
writing skills. We learn so much about writing when we write elbow-to-elbow with our colleagues, and we often hear their voices in our minds even when we write alone. We have found from our own experiences that writing with colleagues helps us learn more about ourselves as writers and about the difficulties our own students face when writing, ultimately making us better writers and writing teachers. The purpose of this article is to share a simple way we found to write collaboratively and to encourage you to write for publication. We believe that, like us, you will find great satisfaction from writing with your colleagues and seeing your work published.
Collaborative writing encourages busy teachers to work together with support, encouragement, and accountability to express their ideas in ways that are often difficult for many teachers to do when writing alone.
According to
Axelrod and
Cooper (2010),
"Collaboration not
only draws on the expertise and
energy of different people but can also create an outcome that is greater than the sum of its parts” (p. 486). For us, writing together has brought together different people with varied interests to explore diverse perspectives on education and then come together to deliver a common message. Many times, collaboration provides us a way to explore our ideas and develop our thinking more deeply (Murray, 1982). The synergy that evolves when we meld our ideas has led to new thoughts not initially considered by any one member of the group—a depth of perspective usually beyond what we originally anticipated.
Collaboration Collection
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Randall Wallace, PhD, is an Associate Professor of Literacy at Missouri State University where he teaches foundational and assessment-focused courses in literacy at both the undergraduate and graduate levels.
Beth Hurst, PhD, is a Professor of Literacy at Missouri State University where she teaches graduate and undergraduate literacy courses for elementary, middle, and secondary preservice and practicing teachers.
Randall and Beth have been collaboratively writing together for many years.