Table of Contents

Abstract

We inherit the language with which we write, and the language we inherit is a product of many influences, some traceable, some not traceable. We may coin new phrases, invent new spellings, create new words, and establish a particular style of writing connected with our names (such as Addisonian sentences), but we inherit the language that enables us to do any of these things. We may build on the work of others who have had a hand in building the language (or neglect their work or seek to tear it down), but we cannot deny that we collaborate with them in our use of the language. For most of us, this collaboration, this free use of their ideas and even the way the ideas have been shaped, is unconscious.This unconscious collaboration with language begins when we learn to speak by listening to the way we hear our parents and friends speak, and because speaking is so natural, we may never stop to question our facility with the spoken language. When we write, we may begin to transcribe our speech, until we find that writing is not exactly speaking. As Sperling (1996) reminds us, "Because virtually everyone learns to speak fluently while only some people learn to write well, writing's relationship to speaking is especially compelling for educators to ponder" (p. 53). As writers, we know something about the complex relationship between writing and speaking as we try to find out how to write. In trying to find out how to write, we are influenced by our teachers, whether for good or ill, as they provide us with rules, guidelines, models, and opinions about what constitutes "good" writing. Little do we realize that 3 Facilitating Students' Collaborative WritingThe production of "finished" text is a recursive process with blind alleys and potholes, making revision an inescapable reality.