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last.updated 3.26.06

Collaborative Writing

Purpose

In both our academic careers and in our professional careers, we will be called on to do various degrees of collaborative work that will entail generating a product for a specific audience. In many instances, that product will be a written document, or it will be accompanied by a written document. As a result, each member of the group will be responsible for contributing to this product. But, as we have read, there are multiple strategies for accomplishing this task. Today we will discuss the nature of collaborative writing, as well as strategies for making it a relatively successful experience.

Article Reviews

We will listen to article reviews by Liz and Laura.

Discussion–Allen et al. and Monseau et al

We will address the following questions...

• What questions do you have about either of the articles?
• What are your thoughts about the methodology that Allen et al. use for their research? What might you do differently?
• Allen et al. describe true collorative writing as entailing production of shared document, substantive interaction among members, and shared decision-making power over and responsibility for the document. We will talk about the relevance of each. Be prepared to apply each to past or future experiences with collaboration.
• From Allen et al.'s article, how do you see professional academic collaboration being different from professional workplace collaboration? How is this different fromacademic student collaboration?
• According to Monseau et al, how is a masculine notion of collaboration different from a feminine notion of collaboration? Do you agree?
• Does supervisorial or editorial requests (or suggestions) count as collaboration? Explain.
• These articles were both written before the Internet was a popular means of transferring data and information. How might these situations been different had the writing group had the technologies we have today?
• Drawing from your response to your exercise, what suggestions do you have for having successful collaborative work? What other
  

Activity–Hypothetical Situation

Consider the following situation:

A group of four with members at three different locations are charged with the responsibility of composing a web site. At the proposal stage of the process, one member of the group is unable to contact the other members and the deadline is looming. Both the individual and the rest of the group have claimed to have tried to contact the other, but their "wires got crossed."

As a group, you will be assigned to think about the following questions in either an academic (i.e., as a student) or professional context.

• What challenges does the distance pose?
• Who is responsible for making sure the group is successful?
• What should the rest of the group do while they are waiting for a response from the individual?
• What should the individual do while waiting for a response from the rest of the group?
• What strategies should the group members use to ensure better communication in the future?
• Most importantly, how can the individual get reincorporated back into the group dynamic?
• Once the members have all regrouped, how should they go about dividing labor for this project? ensuring they stay on task as group?

You will work in groups with people at your site (or by yourself, if there is no one else at your site) for twenty minutes, we will use the last twenty minutes of class to report your results.