Chauncy Rucker
chauncy@connsensebulletin.com

Editor's Note: For an excellent article describing the Writers Brigade (WB) Project written earlier by Johana Schwartz, AAC-RERC Writers Brigade (WB) Project Manager, please follow this link:
http://www.connsensebulletin.com/johana2.html

Nice photo of Joe Hemphill, but I was on the wrong side of the room for a photo of Tracy.

While at the CSUN Conference conference this year I attended a presentation on the The Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center on Communication Enhancement (AAC-RERC) Writers Brigade Project. Johana Schwartz, the WB Project Manager was to have directed the session, but she was unable to attend. However, she did program an AAC device so that Tracy Rackensperger could make it deliver her introductory remarks on the WB project.

After Johana's introduction, Sarah Blackstone of the AAC-RERC managed the presentation. Tracy and Joe Hemphill were 2004-2005 WB participants and had prepared presentations on their AAC devices covering their feelings about the project and what they had gained from it. Both gave very able presentations. I was particularly interested in the extent of research Tracy had put in to some of her articles. She would interview sources via email and ask many questions to improve her articles. She is quite an accomplished writer and has published several articles including one on the ConnSENSE Bulletin website.

Joe has been writing for some time including novels and he maintains his own website with some of his articles. Since Joe had written quite a bit of fiction he needed to learn a different approach for the kind of technical writing the participants were being trained in for this project. He has published many articles this year including two that appear on the ConnSENSE Bulletin website.

Not a great picture of Sarah Blackstone, but on the screen you can see the five phases of the WB writing process - PreWrite, submit draft for eval., revision, PostWrite, and Publish.

After Tracy and Joe gave their presentations Sarah Blackstone asked each a number of questions concerning their experience in the WB project. Tracy and Joe knew the questions ahead of time and had programmed their answers into their AAC devices. However, after answering all of Sarah's questions they responded to questions from the audience. They proved quite able to handle these questions as well and reported very positive feelings about their experience in the WB project.

Johana is now selecting candidates for the next group of WB participants. I offered to help her attract candidates, but I discovered that they were already swamped with applications from AAC users anxious to be involved in the project.

Although I thought I knew quite a bit about the WB Project, the session provided a lot of new information. For example, I assumed that all of the participants were from California where Johana is located. It turns out that they were from all across the country and telecommunicated into the Writers Brigade. They went through a process from topic and audience considerations through publication and beyond - all through email.

I also assumed the participants were probably all of pre college age, but I was wrong again. Their ages ranged from 27 to 62 and most of the participants already had a college degree. In fact, Tracy has a Bachelors and Masters degree. Also, most had a background in technology.

Results:

A major focus of this WB presentation was to indicate the value of the Writers Brigade Project. Sarah Blackstone presented an amazing array of positive results and I've included some of them below.

The five participants produced a total of 34 publications (range 4 to 22). In prior years several had never had a publication, but one had produced 5.

By surveying the participants they found that they agreed or strongly agreed that the project enabled them to: