Alien Environments or Supportive Writing Communities?

Abstract

This article addresses the impetus for joining and maintaining writing groups in academe. The authors consider the motivations and purposes for organizing and forming such groups. Revealing the complexities of writing both as profession and in pursuit of the profession, they analyze their experiences as collaborative writers. They examine the delicate negotiations that accompany the organization and maintenance of writing groups. Their dialogue places writing groups into a sociocultural teaching and learning model with a constructivist epistemology, making concrete concerns expressed in the professional debate about publishing in higher education and sustaining learning.