About Online Class Discussion

Small Conference Groups

Throughout the WWWriters' PLACE you will practice writing, reading, and thinking collaboratively. To make this easy for you, most online courses have small group conference rooms or chat rooms. During the first week of the course, your teacher may assign you to one of these conference rooms. Throughout the term you will share your ideas and questions with your group. You will also share drafts of your work and give each other feedback.

There are several ways you may choose to share and respond to drafts:

You may choose to send your drafts to each other as e-mail attachments. You can address one e-mail message to everyone in your group, attach your file to the message, and send. In your message you should share with your readers the questions and concerns you have about your work. Your readers will open your file in their word processors, insert comments and save. Then they can return your edited file to you as an e-mail attachment. If you are using Microsoft Word, you might want to try two helpful tools:

INSERT ... COMMENTS
TOOLS...TRACK CHANGES...HIGHLIGHT CHANGES

You can exchange drafts by U.S. mail. Snail mail still works. It usually takes only a day or two for delivery in your local area.
You may FAX drafts to each other.
You can even meet face to face, either on campus or at a location convenient to everyone in your group.

Participating in a writing group is crucial to the success of every writer. Even those published writers who insist they always work alone, in truth work with an editor at least. Moreover, the goal of every writer is to interact with readers.

View the PowerPoint presentation "Writing Collaboratively" to explore why writers collaborate, what makes collaboration difficult sometimes, and how to collaborate successfully.

View another PowerPoint Presentation "Writers' Groups: Giving and Receiving Readers' Responses" for tips on how to write more effectively with feedback from readers.

Go to Projects to find assignments that focus on writing groups.

Go to Readings to find out more about others' experiences with collaboration.

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