Re: Single voice in collaborative papers

[Eric Crump <wleric@showme.missouri.edu>]

I realize that quite often audience expectations suggest that a unified
voice is the way to go in collaborative papers, but I wonder why that is,
or why we necessarily comply with that expectation. 

I remember seeing Christina Murphy talk at a CCCC workshop a few years ago
& she was rather critical of collaborative writing. One of her points was
that the prose was so often so bland--so, well, *unified*. 

I agree! but I don't think it's necessarily an indictment of
collaborative writing but rather of homogenous voice, of the misplaced
assumption that a single text should, if collaboratively composed, try to
imitate the unity of a single-author work, as if that was the standard to
meet. Better, I think, to have a rich mix of voices present. More fun,
more interesting, perhaps more provocative.

--Eric Crump