Browsing by Author "Colombo, Laura"

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Interdisciplinarity as an opportunity in argentinian and ecuadorian writing groups
(2021) Colombo, Laura; Rodas Brosam, Elisabeth Luisa
At the university level, writing groups have shown to be useful to teach and learn research writing as well as to advance academic-scientific publication and to discover collaboration opportunities among members from different disciplinary fields. At the same time, peer review, an important practice in the academic sphere, is learned within the groups through mutual peer feedback. A key feature of a writing group’s formation and progress is connected to how it is organised. One of the variables that seems to influence a group is interdisciplinarity. Nevertheless, the impact of the greater or lesser disciplinary distance in a group’s functioning has not been analysed in depth to determine its advantages or disadvantages. This article analyses interdisciplinarity of writing groups in two Latin American countries. In Argentina, the writing groups were formed by master's and doctoral students in the process of writing their thesis, while the writing groups in Ecuador were formed by early career academics and experienced research professors. The analysis of interview and group session transcriptions of the groups in both countries indicates that disciplinary distance mainly presents advantages if the distance is not too great, if there is, as one member put it, a ‘close distance.’ In this sense, research writing becomes, it seems, a meeting point for members, facilitating enriching exchanges.
Looking at faculty writing groups from within: some insights for their sustainability and future implementations
(2021) Rodas Brosam, Elisabeth Luisa; Colombo, Laura; Calle Calle, María Daniela; Cordero Carpio, Guillermo Alejandro
Scholarly publications are a key component of academics’ development in their roles as teachers and researchers. Writing groups seem to be effective to accompany this process as participants share their texts to improve them through peer feedback. To help academic developers in the understanding and implementation of faculty writing groups, a detailed analysis of what members talk about during their meetings was carried out with three Ecuadorian writing groups, complemented by in-depth interviews. Results show that in all groups most interactions focused on their common goal, the text and comments, and the organization of their meetings, supported by the facilitator.
Self-managed peer writing groups for the development of EFL literacy practices
(2021) Colombo, Laura; Rodas Brosam, Elisabeth Luisa
Peer response writing groups present several benefits in language learning classrooms. However, they are usually supervised by the instructor and thus become time consuming when carried out in class. This descriptive case study offers a model for extramural peer feedback and analyzes 12 meeting transcriptions of four undergraduate EFL writing groups implemented outside class time as support for an academic writing course with limited time for student interaction. These peer response groups were organized to: 1) provide participants with an additional audience, 2) open a space to practice the L2 in an authentic communicative situation, and 3) engage in peer review activities, a literacy practice associated with scientificacademic writing. Based on the data analysis of participant interactions, three main themes emerged according to what the members talked about: interacting as authors and reviewers of research articles, using the L2 in authentic communicative situations, and talking about and enacting literacy practices Although the experience of these writing groups was mainly positive, one of the limitations was their short lifespan, which prevented additional training to model peer response that would help facilitate the interaction among the participants, an important consideration to achieve beneficial peer feedback and to scaffold the process
Ventajas y desafíos de la interdisciplinaridad en grupos de escritura latinoamericanos según sus miembros
(2019) Rodas Brosam, Elisabeth Luisa; Colombo, Laura
Writing groups in Ecuador as support for academics on the road to publication
(2018) Rodas Brosam, Elisabeth Luisa; Colombo, Laura