Journal #8

I would define collaboration as two or more people sharing ideas to create something together. In The Daily Prophet, hundreds of kids all over the world submit articles for a newspaper created by Heather Lawver as a community for Harry Potter fans to join together to make something they can all enjoy. In this news article, collaboration is used in several different ways. Firstly, there are many authors contributing to the paper, which is a form of collaboration in and of itself. There is another way that these individual articles are put through collaboration- when Lawver goes through them and checks for spelling, grammar, and content. This is her making changes to the original drafts sent in to her, which is definitely a form of collaborating. This collaboration can be difficult, as Lawver has to decide how much control to take on in another person's writing. She has to decide what can and cannot be put on the site.

Collaboration is necessary for publishing a novel, as it has to go through an editor, and many people usually read through drafts and suggest things to the author. When writing a paper for a class, some people seek help from a friend or from the writing center. This is a form of collaboration because the author is not the only one contributing to the text. Collaboration is important, though not necessary, in everyday writing. In a to-do list or a text, there doesn't need to be any outside help with the text. For a tattoo however, collaboration between the tattoo artist and the customer is beneficial. Also, graffiti in gangs requires collaboration because the gang members need to stay consistent in their tagging. It really just depends on the purpose and medium of the text whether or not collaboration is needed.