Re: single voice in collaborative papers

["Michael Spooner" <mspooner@press.usu.edu>]

	Notes from lurkage:

You go, Eric! And we should notice also that there are many  examples of
works written by a single author that are not single-voiced. These are 
usually works of "creative" writing, but still they question our 
traditional take on stuff like "unity" or "coherence". 

	Yet, and obviously, on the other hand, one has to acknowledge 
	the conventions of the genre in which one writes. So the business 
	report that Lisa mentions surely ought to come out comprehensible 
	to a business audience--which likely 	means a single voice, even 
	if it is written by a group. Students gotta know this.

But on the *other* other hand, there must be business genres that 
encourage multivocal experiments. Marketing venues come to mind. Are 
students getting the chance in writing classes to write ad copy (say for
the WC?) or the script for a hypothetical TV ad, or homepages or . . . ?

	One could argue that experience of creating multivocal texts, 
	by heightening students' awarenenss of voice, might make them 
	better at writing in a single voice as well. 

Michael(s)

---------------------------------
Eric wrote:
) . . . 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.

_______________________________________________________________

Michael Spooner, Director    <mspooner@press.usu.edu>
Utah State University Press              801/797-1362
Utah State University                   fax: 797-0313
Logan UT 84322-7800      http://www.usu.edu/~usupress

"Would you trade Rene Descartes for Kant *and* Martin Heidegger?"
"Nope. No. No, I'd keep Descartes. Definitely."      --M. Python
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