Shelley Jackson, dead or alive, was definitely the author of Patchwork Girl. If she didn't provide an order, she did provide a structure, orchestrated by the organization of the links. She still retained authority over what the reader read even if she surrendered authority over how it was read. She 'provided the information', even if the reader 'had to construct it.' Similarly, the reader remained the reader, the consumer of another's words.

But JS pinpointed a third person joining the group, "…the reader becomes the writer soon after the beginning of the story." According to A, the author creates the pieces of the puzzle: "this is opposed to creating the final product." The reader as writer turned the information, the raw narrative data provided by the author, into a coherent 'story,' though not necessarily 'the story.' And, for perhaps the first time in the semester, almost everyone in the class learned how to 'write' their own text of an assigned novel. "The challenge of exploring information on our own, connecting different pieces together, and drawing an understandable conclusion is very exciting" (RA)

Again, the text itself activated the process. JS 'becomes:' she starts as reader alone. The interaction creates the writer, a process in which the student is intimately involved. As M, who completed her best work on Patchwork Girl, gaining a solid B for her final essay, excitedly wrote (and commented several times in class), "I was able to use my imagination and become Shelley Jackson."

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