I think of it this way: if there were a group of people who wanted to find out about a subject -- in this case, literary journalism -- how would we best go about doing that if there were no formal course, but that all the usual scholarly, electronic and library resources were available? This is, in fact, how most independent, "real-world" learning is conducted -- it's how I go about finding out about a new subject, for instance.

What this means is that what actually happens in class meetings is quite different from what happens in many courses. There are, for example, no formal lectures. There is some full-class discussion, and I do some explanation of background and context (as little as possible; I try to do this only in answer to questions, though I don't always succeed in keeping myself quiet). The primary activities during the course are individual and group investigation of the course's focal issues or questions. That means that members of the class read extensively, do library and other research, interpret, describe and comment on their reading, and -- most important -- share what they learn in writing and discussion with the rest of the class. We learn, that is, from and with each other.

Although a few central texts -- I'll choose a couple; for the others, we will decide which as we go -- may be read by the entire class, most are read only by individuals or small groups, who share them, and what they find out about them, by writing descriptions, commentaries, précis, or interpretations, which are then circulated (occasionally photocopied; more often, posted on Web sites and public forums for reading by the rest of the class).

By dividing our efforts in this way, and using writing to share what we learn, we can "cover" a far wider range of works and ideas than we could otherwise. One practical thing this means is that there are frequent and concrete reading, research and writing tasks that need to be completed by inflexible deadlines. These have as their purpose spreading knowledge and understanding around the class, rather than demonstrating to a teacher that the writer knows or remembers something.

It is important to be clear about this: I do not comment on or grade the documents written in connection with such tasks. Often, in fact, I don't even have a chance to read them. They are, however, read -- and used -- as part of the course by others in the class who need to understand what they say in order to get on with their own work, and thus they are tacitly (sometimes overtly) evaluated by everyone involved. The viewers of the documents are convinced, amused, informed, or engaged by them -- or they're not (and they may say so). At first, I will create and assign some of the writing and research tasks, but as early in the course as possible, assignments are derived from, and arise out of, the developing interests of members of the class.

A good deal of the work of the course occurs in the library or on the computer network (in the lab or through people's off-campus computer access), or reading independently. The scheduled class time is occasionally used for such work in the library or the computer lab rather than in the classroom. One way to characterize the "collaborative investigation" approach, in fact, is to say that it is a course in how to use a library and other resources (primarily, the Internet) to learn about a scholarly field -- in this case, the work of a writer and a genre of writing. It is also, in effect, a course in writing in various forms and media, for various audiences, and for various purposes.

There are two ways in which this investigation is "collaborative." First, members of the class learn from, and teach, each other through research, discussion and writing; and, second, some of the actual assignments are undertaken and completed by groups rather than individuals. There are a number of reasons for this. One is that in many cases it's more efficient to spread a task among a number of people. Another is that doing things with others can promote conscious reflection on what you're doing, and why. And finally, learning how to organize and work in and through groups of people is often a difficult task: it's worth it.