Understanding and Supporting Collaborative Academic Writing as a Fragmented Process

Abstract

I present an overview of findings from a qualitative study regarding territorial functioning and fragmentation in collaborative academic writing. The findings demonstrate how collaborative writing may be characterized as a fragmented process, due to territorial functioning manifesting in segregation of the work as well as fragmentation across constellations of tools with similar functionality. I describe co-writers' appropriation of existing tools to achieve double-level language and outline a focus for future design efforts for a co-design process.