However, collaborative writing is not a single homogeneous procedure, nor of itself necessarily a 'good thing', so comparison of research studies must proceed with caution. Rigorous outcome evaluations with primary school pupils are, in any event, scarce. This article reports on a specific structured replicable procedure for collaborative process writing between pairs of primary children, who receive training in Paired Writing, focusing on effects on the quality of writing and attitudes toward writing found in three research projects. The method provides a structured framework to support interactive collaborative behaviours through all stages of the writing process. There is clear role division of labour at every stage, to modulate information processing, promote flow and reduce anxiety.
Partners offer a continuous sense of audience and almost immediate feedback.
A sense of participant ownership of a learner-managed process is considered important, not least to avoid feelings of helplessness and dependency. Peer assessment is inbuilt, one of several features designed to ensure manageability without extra work by busy class teachers. It can be linked to work on thinking skills. Space does not permit a fuller exposition here. At first sight this method might seem very linear, and perhaps in conflict with more holistic and recursive models of the writing process and with hypertextual rather than textual models of literacy, in which any component of the writing process might repeat and overlap with, link to, or incorporate any other.