Abstract
Writers use the abstractions of words to create meaning. But the activity of writing spans multiple concrete senses and modes. Technology-enhanced collaborative writing systems need to be sensitive to the preferred senses and modes of information in which writing teams want to work. Some preferences seem rooted in the senses (seeing vs. motor coordination); others seem based in the preferred modality of inputting or outputting information (speaking vs. writing; listening vs. reading). Still others seem based in the role of the writer on the team (author or commenter). We offer a framework for understanding some of these preferences and a prototype editor (the Prep Editor) we have been using to study them empirically.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Brandt, D. (1990):Literacy as Involvement: The Acts of Writers, Readers, and Texts Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press.
Brandt, D. (1994): Remembering Writing, Remembering Reading.College Composition and Communication, vol. 45, no. 4, pp. 459–479.
Chafe, W. (1994):Discourse, Consciousness, and Time. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Chandler, D. (1992): The Phenomenology of Writing by Hand.Intelligent Tutoring Media, vol. 3, no. 2/3, pp. 65–74.
Demers, A. (1989): Epidemic Algorithms for Replicated database Maintenance.Technical Report CSL-89-1. Xerox.
Dewan, P. and R. Choudhary (1991): Flexible User Interface Coupling in a Collaborative System. In S.P. Robertson, G.M. Olson and J.S. Olson (eds.)CHI'91 New Orleans, April 28–May 2. ACM, pp. 41–49.
Flower, L. and Hayes, J.R. (1981): A Cognitive Process of Theory of Writing.College Composition and Communication, vol. 32, pp. 365–387.
Geisler, C. (1994):Academic Literacy and the Nature of Expertise. Hillsdale: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Gibson, J.J. (1982):The Ecological Approach to Visual Perception. New York: Houghton Mifflin.
Haas, C. (1990): Composing in Technological Contexts: A Study of Note-making.Written Communication vol. 7, no. 4, pp. 512–547.
Ishii, H. Kobayashi, M. and Grudin, J. (1992): Integration of Inter-personal Space and Shared Workspace: Clearboard Design and Experiments. In J. Turner and R. Kraut (Ed.)CSCW'92, Toronto: ACM, October 31 to November 4, 1992, pp. 33–42.
Kamps, T. and Reichenberger, K. (1994):Automatic Layout Based on Formal Semantics. Institute for Integrated Publication-and Information Systems, Dolivostr. 15, Darmstadt, Germany.
Kasden, L. and Daniel Hoeber (eds.) (1980):Basic Writing: Essays for Teachers, Researchers, and Administrators. Urbana: NCTE.
Kaufer, D. (1992):Annotating Graphics. Talk Delivered at the Conference on College Composition and Communication, March, 21. Cincinnati, Ohio.
Kaufer, D. and Carley, K. (1993):Communication at a Distance: The Influence of Print on Sociocultural Organization and Change. Hillsdale: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Kaufer, D. and Geisler, C. (1989): Novelty in Academic Writing,Written Communication, vol. 6, 286–311.
Kaufer, D., Geisler, C. and Neuwirth, C. (1989):Arguing from Sources: Exploring Issues throught Reading and Writing. Orlando: Harcourt Brace.
Kaufer, D. and Neuwirth, C. (1995): Supporting on-line Team Editing: Using Technology to Shape Performance and to Monitor Individual and Group Action.Computers and Composition, vol. 12, pp. 113–124.
Kraut, R.E., Galegher, J., Fish, R.S. and Chalfonte, B. (1992): Task Requirements and Media Choice in Collaborative Writing.Human-Computer Interaction, vol. 7, pp. 375–407.
Leland, M.D., Fish, R.S. and Kraut, R.E. (1988): Collaborative Document Production using Quilt. In I. Grief (ed.).CSCW'88. September 26–29, Portland, Orgeon. ACM, pp. 206–215.
Munson, J.P. and Dewan, P. (1994): A Flexible Object Merging Framework. In R. Furuta and C. Neuwirth (eds.)CSCW'94, Chapel Hill: ACM, October 22 to November 26, 1994, pp. 231–242.
Neuwirth, C., Chandhok, R., Charney, D., Wojahn, P. and Kim, L. (1994): Distributed Collaborative Writing: A Comparison of Spoken and Written Modalities for Reviewing and Revising Documents. In B. Adelson, S. Dumais, and J. Olson (eds.).CHI'94. Boston, April 24–28, 1994.
Neuwirth, C. and Kaufer, D. (1989): The Role of External Representations in the Writing Process: Implications for the Design of Hypertext-based Writing Tools. In In F. Halasz (ed.).Hypertext '89, November 5–8, 1989, Pittsburgh: ACM, pp. 319–342.
Neuwirth, C., Kaufer, D., Chandhok, R. and Morris, J. (1990) Issues in the Design of Computer Support for Co-authoring and Commenting. In F. Halasz (ed.)CSCW'90, October 7–10, 1990. Los Angeles: ACM, pp. 183–195.
Neuwirth, C., Kaufer, D., Chandhok, R. and Morris, J. (1994): Computer Support for Distributed Collaborative Writing: Defining Parameters of Interaction. In R. Furuta and C. Neuwirth (eds.)CSCW'94, Chapel Hill: ACM, October 22–26, 1994, pp. 145–152.
Neuwirth, C., Kaufer, D., Keim, G. and Gillespie, T. (1988):The Comments Program: Computer Support for Response to Writing. CMU-CECE-TR-2. Carnegie Mellon.
Neuwirth, C.M., Chandhok, R., Kaufer, D.S., Erion, P., Morris, J. and Miller, D. (1992): Flexible Diffing in a Collaborative Writing System. In J. Turner and R. Kraut (eds.):CSCW'92, Proceedings of the Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work, Toronto, Canada, October 31 to November 4, 1992. pp. 147–154.
Reece, J. (1994): The Listening Word Processor.Writing and Computers Newsletter, vol. 9, 7–11.
Sharples, M. and Pemberton, L. (1988):Representing Writing: An Account of the Writing Process with Regard to the Writer's External Representations (Cognitive Science Research Paper No. 119): University of Sussex.
Shen, H. and Dewan, P. (1992): Access Control for Collaborative Environments. In J. Turner and R. Kraut (eds.):CSCW'92, Proceedings of the Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work, Toronto, Canada, October 31 to November 4, 1992. pp. 51–58. Toronto: ACM.
Smith, J., Weiss, S., Ferguson, G.J., Bolter, J.D., Lansman, M. and Beard, D.A. (1986):WE: A Writing Environment for Professionals (Department of Computer Science No. TR86-025): University of North Carolina.
Spoehr, K.T. and Lehmkuhle, S.W. (1982):Visual Information Processing. San Francisco: Freeman.
Wood, C.C. (1992):A Study of the Graphical Mediating Representations Used by Collaborating Authors (Cognitive Science Research Paper No. 230). University of Sussex.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Kaufer, D.S., Neuwirth, C.M., Chandhok, R. et al. Accommodating mixed sensory/modal preferences in collaborative writing systems. Comput Supported Coop Work 3, 271–295 (1994). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00750743
Received:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00750743