This study explores how collaborative writing for a digital platform can enable students to (re) imagine audience. Although in the context of process writing peer feedback is foreground, in practice, its effectiveness is uneven. The digital revolution offers new opportunities for alternative peer feedback through collaborative writing and re-imagining self and other in the process. This study examines data from a creative writing course in which pre-service teachers wrote collaborative short stories for the FunDza digital site and individual reflective essays about the process. The study’s research questions are the following: (1) what were the affordances of this multilayered audience for engaging the students’ imaginations? (2) How did this process of (re)imagining audience impact on students’ conceptions of themselves as writers? The data set comprised 16 collaboratively authored stories (published on the site) and 34 individual reflective essays. Six of the latter were selected for detailed analysis. Hence, the data for this study encompass detailed analysis of two groups’ reflective essays on the process of writing their stories. These groups were selected because they exemplified contrasting collaborative, imaginative writing processes. Group 1 was familiar with the FunDza audience and context, while Group 2 struggled to imagine it. Thematic content analysis was used for analysis. Each essay was read first in relation to the entire data set, then in relation to the other reflections in the author’s group. The combination of gearing stories towards the FunDza audience and writing stories collaboratively created two sets of audiences that writers needed to hold in mind simultaneously. Analysis indicates that both audiences challenged students to make imaginative leaps into the minds of an unfamiliar audience, deepening their understanding of the writing process. It also highlights students’ mastery of writing discourses and increasing awareness of the choices authors make for specific audiences. Theoretically, this study theorises audience in relation to imagination. A number of concepts have emerged from this research that may enable a more fine-tuned analysis of the audience – imagination nexus. Structured freedom is an important thread that connects the central concepts of audience, imagination and collaboration, foregrounding the idea that imaginative freedom needs to be understood and worked with in nuanced ways. While freedom and imagination are closely related, the provision of free pedagogic spaces with specific constraints in creative writing courses can be extremely productive, as illustrated by the data analysed in this study.

中文翻译：

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“您在FunDzaland”：岗前老师（重新）在创意写作课程中想象观众

这项研究探索了数字平台的协作写作如何使学生能够（重新）想象观众。尽管在过程编写过程中，同伴反馈是前台，但在实践中，其效果并不均衡。数字革命通过协作写作和重新构想自我及其他过程，为替代对等反馈提供了新的机会。这项研究检查了创意写作课程中的数据，在该课程中，岗前教师为FunDza数字站点撰写了协作式短篇小说，并对过程进行了个人反思。该研究的研究问题如下：（1）这个多层次的听众在吸引学生的想象力方面有什么能力？（2）这个（重新）想象观众的过程如何影响学生对自己作为作家的观念？数据集包括16个合作撰写的故事（在网站上发布）和34条个人反思性文章。选择后者中的六个进行详细分析。因此，本研究的数据包括对两个小组关于他们的故事写作过程的反思性文章的详细分析。之所以选择这些小组，是因为它们体现了对比鲜明的协作性，富有想象力的写作过程。第一组熟悉FunDza的受众和背景，而第二组则难以想象。主题内容分析用于分析。首先阅读有关整个数据集的每篇文章，然后与作者小组中的其他思考有关。面向FunDza受众的报道故事和写作故事的结合，共同创造了两组读者同时需要牢记的受众。分析表明，两个听众都向学生发出挑战，要求他们想像力地跳入陌生听众的脑海，加深他们对写作过程的理解。它还强调了学生对写作课程的精通和对作者为特定受众做出选择的意识的增强。从理论上讲，这项研究从理论上将受众与想象联系在一起。这项研究提出了许多概念，可以对受众进行更精细的分析-想象联系。有条理的自由是连接受众核心概念的重要线索，想象力和协作，提出了需要以细致入微的方式理解和运用想象自由的想法。尽管自由和想象力密切相关，但在创造性写作课程中提供具有特定约束的免费教学空间可能会非常有成效，如本研究中分析的数据所示。