Editorial: Forms of collaboration in writing

Abstract

This paper introduces a special issue on forms of collaboration in writing. The four contributions in the issue present a range of perspectives on collaborating to produce and construct text. The studies are outcome-driven and/or process-oriented and use a range of research methodologies. Taken together, the papers in the issue confirm the complexity of collaboration in writing and show that many questions remain and much more research is needed. However, the papers also illustrate that the future research focus in collaborative writing might focus on the interactions of variables on the individual, collaborative and contextual level that count rather than the variables separately. Only an all-encompassing picture of the complex interplay between the different variables may allow us to grasp and exploit the full potential of collaborative writing both as an instructional or working method and as a research methodology.