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This document describes Steve’s experiences of writing in partnership with Ricky on the Bankside Hostel project.

‘Writing in partnership’ . . . the term suggests a shared experience and perhaps an equal one. But how is writing in partnership enacted? Does one person write and then the other(s) respond and so it goes, back and forth, until somehow all parties feel the process is ‘complete’? Or does each person write separately and then find some sort of compromise? Or, is ‘writing in partnership’ literally writing together, dependent upon people physically working alongside one another on a ‘shared’ account? All of these possibilities beg questions about the processes in which different writers’ insights and perspectives are shared and in some way ‘come together’. As the document How do you write in partnership describes, writing alone can be painful enough, let alone trying to do it ‘in partnership’.

My writing with Ricky approaches the latter (side by side) method. However, I feel I must problematise the word ‘partnership’, as we have in other documents, before I proceed. Although the word may imply equality, the truth is that in most partnerships the parties do not have shared past experiences or an equal balance of power in (or outside of) the partnership. Very often, however, people talk about partnerships as if differences will somehow be equalized or at least reconciled in the work. Although we might aspire to this somewhat utopian vision of partnership, the risk is that in doing so we ignore the differences and inequalities that we wish to address through the enactment of partnership research. We do not suddenly become ‘partners’ (in any real sense of the word) with those we want to work with. Instead, there is the possibility that such a relationship may develop through hard work, commitment and good fortune. Sometimes, however much we want to develop a partnership, the particular dynamics between people mean this is impossible.

In relation to the experience of writing, Ricky and I have very different backgrounds. I have been writing for myself and for different audiences (teachers, parents, friends, colleagues, etc) for a long time. Various types of writings form the end products of the work I do and have become a part of how I am defined by others and how I define and represent myself. This is not to say that I am a particularly good or honest writer, rather that I am practiced and have some understanding of how writing can be used to reveal or conceal.

Ricky is a few years older than me. I don’t know how long he has been reading and writing (this, along with other personal things, Ricky rarely talks about). Ricky does read and write (he reads well and writes less well), but he says that he doesn’t enjoy writing. Most of Ricky’s writing involves only necessities like completing official paperwork and paying bills.

So, when we have been ‘writing in partnership’ I am the one actually doing the writing (usually typing) and Ricky is reading and speaking, reacting to what I’ve written. This is an important distinction because I am the one with the ultimate power to choose and represent, in words, what he is saying. In doing so, I can appropriate or manipulate, even if unintentionally, Ricky’s thoughts and words.

One of the things I have learned, then, is that because of the imbalances of our particular partnership, I need to take an active role in making it easier for Ricky to contribute to the writing process. This has involved:

• Actively encouraging Ricky to contribute in terms of building his confidence. This means going at quite a slow pace to start with, showing Ricky that I take his ideas seriously by writing them down and thinking about them. It means being positive about his ideas in a very overt way, wherever I can. It also means finding ways of being honest about ideas that I don’t agree with, in ways which are not too undermining and in ways that hopefully provoke further discussion.
• Working hard at creating spaces where Ricky feels able to contribute. Sometimes this means sitting in silence for what feels like a long time. Sometimes it means giving something in writing to Ricky to take away and think about. The next meeting could then be organized around his responses to that piece of work. It can also be a good idea to return to a piece of writing several times, as this gives people the opportunity to change and develop it. This is the sort of process we go through ‘naturally’ if we are drafting and redrafting things on our own.
• Making it as easy as possible for Ricky to say ‘no’ to things that he disagrees with. One example of this is to ‘de-personalise’ a piece of work by printing it out without any names on and asking someone to use a highlighter pen to mark anything they are confused by, disagree with, would like to add to. The focus then becomes the words on the page, rather than a discussion about a particular person’s ideas. This requires listening very carefully to what people say and picking up on clues that suggest they are not happy with the work (even when they don’t say so directly).

For further, practical, suggestions about writing in partnership, see How do you write in partnership? The process of writing with Ricky has not always been straightforward or successful, however. Some of the difficulty of writing together has come from our different conceptualizations of the project itself. I have perhaps been overly concerned with how we represent what we have done on the project to others. I think I have sometimes let that concern overshadow some of the actual work we have been doing. However, Ricky’s primary concern has consistently been with the work we were doing on a daily basis and, particularly, the people we worked with. He knows we have to write about the project but has, I think, seen it as my job to do most of the writing, with his support. Of course, there are lots of ways in which I have tried to encourage him and show him I value his ideas. However, this is the sort of thing that can happen a lot in ‘partnership working’ – Ricky has his own views about who should take responsibility for different elements of the work and that, of course, is his right.

I am left feeling that this could have been done better. I could have done better. As difficult as it may have been for Ricky to contribute to the writing, it has also been difficult at times for me to listen to Ricky when he has tried to contribute. This is partly as a consequence of writing to a deadline. I have perhaps not always been aware of it, but it has been much easier to think that I’ve been listening to Ricky than to actually listen. The appearance of partnership writing is the easy part. What actually happens is far more difficult to enact, to describe and understand.