Using Blogs To Facilitate Collaborative Writing Projects Without Silencing The Individual Student Voice

Collaborative writing projects in first-year composition courses teach students to write in groups while attending to the academic needs of the university and the post-graduate needs of business and government employers. However, collaborative writing can silence individual student voices because the writings are merged instead of collected. This thesis reviews literature concerning collaborative writing, empowering student voices, introducing computers to the classroom, creating blogs as assignments to understand the current obstacles for collaborative writing, and introducing blogs to a first-year composition class. A three-week unit was designed along with pre- and post-assignment surveys, interviews, and observations to determine if blogs could be used to facilitate collaborative writing projects without silencing the individual student voice. The findings suggest that the technology barrier is subsiding as students have ready access to the Internet. The study also shows that blogs can be used to address the needs of both the business and academic communities, providing teachers with an assignment-level option that adheres to academic standards by using a structure becoming prevalent in the private and public sector.