Chapter 3 — Writing Collaboratively

Chapter 3 of Houp/Pearsall/Tebeaux's Reporting Technical Information, 9th ed. (New York: Allyn & Bacon, 1997) presents strategies for collaborative writing. Accompanying the textbook, this chapter of the online instructor manual provides the following:

Chapter Objectives

• Understand the important role of collaboration in the workplace and the different types of collaboration.

• Know the different ways of collaborating on writing projects.

• Understand how the key phases of the writing process—planning, drafting, revising, and editing—can be accomplished collaboratively.

• Know how software tools, including tools available on the Internet, can facilitate the collaborative writing process.

• Know the behaviors that facilitate or hinder group conferences.

• Know the different group roles that people play in group conferences.

Employers are demanding not only that students express themselves well both in writing and speech but also that they work well in teams. For some time, "teams," "teamwork," and even "teaming" (but not "teeming"!) have been buzzwords in the workplace. And just as students are doing academic technical projects in teams (for example, engineering design projects), they should have some training and experience in doing writing projects in teams.

Team, or collaborative writing has been a factor in writing courses long enough that your students may have prior experience with it. In fact, don't be surprised if some have had some bad experiences with poorly designed collaborative projects.

A problem with a chapter like this one as well as with chapters 1 and 2 is that it's hard to address these issues in isolation from substantive writing projects. You may want to tuck this unit on collaboration away until you arrive at a suitable application unit later in the textbook.

Here are some ideas for workshop activities to help students learn about collaboration and the other issues covered in chapter 3:

1. Give the initial quiz. Give the quiz at the beginning of your unit on collaboration. It's a good way to get discussion going on how professionals write collaboratively. When students have completed the quiz, you can go through the answers with them.

2. Review chapter contents and get some discussion going. Get students to open up with ideas, observations, and concerns about writing collaboratively. By now, your students have probably done collaborative projects in other courses; they may even sarcastically remark, "Oh no! Don't make us collaborate!"

3. Interview professionals concerning their writing processes. If you have your students interview professionals concerning their writing and their writing processes, your students can also ask these same people about the collaborative writing that they do. How does their collaborative writing compare to the options discussed in the textbook?

4. Go through a mock collaborative writing process. Divide the class into teams of 3 to 5 students, and have these teams collaboratively go through the phases of the writing process up to the rough draft. Either pose some realistic situation that calls for a report, or turn your students loose on a monster topic such as solar energy, computers, or AIDS. Have them plan a writing project up to the rough draft: narrow and brainstorm the topic, decide on a purpose, define their persona and audience, and select and arrange information. Have each team write up the results of their process and then appoint a member to present that information to the rest of the class. In addition, have each team observe and report on its group dynamics, which behaviors help or hinder the processes and which members of the group take on which of the group roles discussed in the chapter.

Here are some discussion questions related to this chapter:

Planning (pages 45- 47)

• What do you see as the advantages and disadvantages of planning a technical writing project collaboratively?
• How do you see the effects of collaboration in helping to establish situational analysis? Defining goals?
• What do you consider the most important decisions for the team members to agree on?
• How can a team best build consensus?

Drafting (pages 48-49)

• In what ways do you consider collaborative drafting an advantage or disadvantage from your individual work in a writing project?
• What will be the problems of consistency and agreement, and what will be the best ways to save time?

Revising and Editing (pages 49-51)

• How will your team agree on standards for style, revision, and editing?
• Which of these roles is most difficult? Should one person be assigned or several?

Collaboration in the Workplace (pages 51-52)

• In what ways is collaboration and team building an important career skill?
• What best prepares professionals to collaborate rather than compete?
• How can an individual best serve his or her goals by collaborating?
• Of the team roles and group maintenance roles on pages 57-58, which seem most important in defining goals? In keeping people on track with duties and deadlines? In recognizing individuals?
• In what ways does good teamwork redefine "winning"?

Collaboration on the Internet (pages 52-58)

• In what ways can the Internet speed up collaboration? In what ways might it create new problems?
• What are the temptations of the "send" button?
• In what ways do FTP sites offer opportunities for larger group collaboration?
• In what ways is synchronous discussion like and unlike face-to-face meetings?
• How can careful planning and extra courtesy make better working relations possible in such Internet collaboration?

Here are some ideas for journal writing in your technical communication courses:

Planning (pages 45-47)

• What do you consider the advantages and disadvantages of planning a technical writing project in a group?
• How can a brainstorm help define the needs of readers?
• What are some of the ways such a group project might take longer? Save time?
• How will such a group make you feel?

Drafting (pages 48-49)

• In what ways does collaborative drafting seem unlike drafting a college writing assignment?
• What are the advantages or disadvantages of such a plan?

Revising and Editing (pages 49-51)

• What do you see as the conflicts that might arise from collaborative editing?
• How strongly attached to your own style and ideas do you typically feel?
• What are the ways in which you might feel comfortable about giving and receiving criticism?

Collaboration in the Workplace (pages 51-52)

• In what ways do you see collaboration and courteous teamwork a way of building long-term relationships?
• What task roles (page 57-8) feel most comfortable to you? How do you see your ability to contribute to an effective team?
• How does participation in such a group redefine the academic idea of the "right" answer? What are some ways to test and evaluate it?

Collaboration on the Internet (pages 52-58)

• In what ways do the kinds of interactions of E-mail, FTPs, and synchronous discussions feel different from the face-to-face ones you experience? How does your behavior differ?
• What can you do to be a cooperative team member?
• How do electronic media demand a different kind of courtesy from collaborators?

You may want to hold off doing a writing project with this chapter until you get to one of the application chapters later in the book. Putting collaborative practices to work counts for much more when a substantial writing project is at stake. But here are some ideas for immediate projects related to chapter 3, including ideas for collaborative projects (naturally):

1. Write a memo on the collaborative writing done by professionals. After your students present the information they've gathered on collaborative writing done by professionals (item 3 in the workshop activities), have them write a memo summarizing that information.

   To turn this into a collaborative project, suggest that student teams organize themselves into these roles:

   • Researcher. Locates area professionals willing to be interviewed by students.
     
   • Agenda Planner. Develops survey questions to be used in the interviews.
     
   • Interviewers. Ask students to respond to the interview questions, take notes, write summaries.
     
   • Facilitator. Leads the group in a discussion of interview findings.
     
   • Scribe. Takes notes of the discussion.
     
   • Editor. Compiles the responses and the discussion notes into a memo report for the group.

2. Write a memo on the group dynamics of the mock collaborative writing project. After your students have done the mock collaborative project (item 4 in the workshop activities), have them write a memo summarizing their observations on the dynamics of their group—what problems they had, what worked well, what roles group members found themselves playing.

   To turn this into a collaborative project, suggest that student teams organize themselves into these roles:

   • Journal Keepers. Record their personal responses to others during the collaborative project.
     
   • Facilitator. Conducts a final meeting in which team members discuss their responses to one another and the project.
     
   • Scribe. Takes notes of the discussion.
     
   • Editor. Compiles the responses and the discussion notes into a memo report for the group.

The following cases draw upon the concepts and strategies presented in this chapter:

• Team Spirit
• A Taxing Problem
• Negative Impressions

The following point summaries focus on key points in this chapter of Houp/Pearsall/Tebeaux's Reporting Technical Information: