Rhetoric and Composition/Collaborating
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[edit] What is Collaboration?
During your education/professional career, you will be working with others. It is necessary to understand the importance of collaboration. Professors frequently assign group projects in which you must participate as one part of a team. Many professional writers collaborate on the documents they write. Newspaper reporters, novelists, and magazine writers collaborate extensively with their editors. Scholars collaborate with other scholars to review and add insight to their work. Business writers work closely with colleagues, administrators, and consultants to ensure their work meets the highest possible standards set by their company. Even poets meet to discuss their ideas and techniques.
As the effects of globalization continue to resonate through every level of the workforce, collaboration takes on ever-more prominent roles in the day-to-day lives of employees. So while coming up with one piece of cohesive writing as a group of diverse writers is a daunting task, it is one you need to get used to. Even though collaborative writing does pose some new challenges, it is an important part of becoming a well rounded writer and worker. Plus, some projects are simply too large to effectively complete alone, and collaboration might very well be your saving grace. If you wish to succeed as a writer, you must have an effective social process while working with others. You may prefer to work alone and resist collaborating with others. Effective collaboration skills, however, can make a powerful difference in the scope and quality of your work.
There are different types of collaboration. Cooperation entails a joint operation or action involving individuals working together towards a similar objective. Coordination is an organized and synchronized effort toward a similar goal between individuals. Teamwork is a joint effort. Individuals collaborate in writing everything from memos to books, proposals to annual reports, and even web sites -- such as this Wiki Book. Peer review would also fall under this category. Peer review happens when others are asked to critique or give constructive criticism to an individual writing assignment. Although the project still remains an individual one, by asking and allowing others to give feedback, collaboration is taking place. Another reason this is considered collaboration is because all members in the peer review group have the same assignment and are working toward the same goal "together."
This chapter introduces some helpful strategies for successful collaboration. It also discusses some of the common pitfalls that can wreck an otherwise promising collaborative opportunity.
[edit] Advantages to Collaboration
Writers who collaborate often produce stronger documents because collaborators have a greater pool of knowledge to access. Each group member is like a different part of the audience; therefore, there can be more discussion of ideas regarding how the audience will interpret a document. Every individual offers more questions and suggestions to explore, and as members share ideas or ask questions, the communication will increase. They can work together and share techniques on how to create the outcome desired. Brainstorming with more than one person can lead to more comprehensive and accurate information.
Another advantage is that in a group, there are more skills available to be used. There is the opportunity to find specialties among your group members in different areas: managing, writing, researching, editing, designing, and producing. The strengths of all the members add to the overall product, just as the strengths of some group members can cancel out the weaknesses of others. So be sure to have an open coversation at the beginning of a collaborative project in which your group honestly discusses all of your strengths and weaknesses. Identifying those skill sets will get your group and your project off to a good start.
Combining knowledge not only produces a fine product, but it can also be a valuable learning experience to the collaborators involved. Group members can learn about others in the group or organization. New employees will be acclimated in an organization and can learn how things work in that organization. Others can teach them what is necessary to ensure a productive, flowing work space.
Perhaps the most important part of collaboration is respecting what other people have to say. In a collaboration, your work no longer is an individual piece; it will be the work of two (or more) individuals all of whom have something to say. While it is a challenge to have all the voices in a collaboration be heard, the product is oftentimes rewarding. If you are writing a collaborative work, make sure to ask your fellow collaborator(s) questions that will allow their voices to be heard. Try not to dominate a piece, so your individual ideas are not the only ones heard. An important benefit of collaboration is hearing other people's ideas, becoming comfortable voicing your own, and finding an effective balance incorporating your group's diverse voices in your final product.
[edit] Disadvantages to Collaboration
[edit] Disadvantages
- Collaboration takes more time than individual writing.
- A disjointed document may be produced.
- There are unequal work loads for individuals involved.
- Some individuals may lose motivation.
- Interpersonal conflicts can occur.
[edit] Overcoming these Disadvantages
- Meet early on in your project to decide its direction.
- Devise a way to evenly split up the work between members.
- Create a time line for when the various sections are due.
- Set up meetings where members can gather and share progress or obstacles.
- Meet near the end of the project to make revisions.
[edit] Conducting Meetings
In order to have a successful meeting, it is important to set a group agenda. More will be covered if you stick to an outline or plan. Setting up efficient face-to-face meetings is a good idea. When everyone gets together and communicates openly with one another more can be accomplished. Additionally, individuals should communicate diplomatically and be sensitive when critiquing a group member's draft. You still have to work with this person and you probably wouldn't like it if he or she said bad things about one of your drafts. Successful meetings and good group cooperation will result with a better project.
[edit] Setting an Agenda
One member of the group is usually responsible for organizing the agenda. It is important to note that the agenda describes the purpose of the meeting. Without it, members may become frustrated or question why they are at the meeting in the first place. An agenda should be given to all members well before the actual meeting takes place. He or she may need to communicate with the other members to gather ideas for the agenda, which can be done through emails before the meeting. Each group member might want to look over the assignment sheet and discuss possible items to add to the agenda. They will want to consider all the stages that need to be accomplished in order to complete the assignment. The person organizing the agenda will record the suggestions and create an agenda (or outline) which can be distributed to the members and used to guide the subsequent meetings. Including a time line can also help keep the group on task.
Sample Agenda
[edit] Taking Minutes
Keeping a brief and accurate record of group meetings, with the dates, attendees, and discussion points, is important to a well-run group project. These minutes will serve as a record of group discussions, and can function as a reminder of previous group decisions and activities. At each group meeting, one member should be elected to record the discussion, or take the meeting minutes. The minutes should be a brief summary of the main points discussed, and will roughly follow the agenda format. A copy of the minutes should be distributed to each member within a day of the meeting. A record of decisions made and tasks assigned can protect interpersonal conflicts from arising in your group. Instead of having to be the member who speaks up and risks mistakenly blaming another group member for not completing their said task, the meeting minutes have a record of that for you.
[edit] Communicating Away from Meetings
If you need to communicate with other members, but putting together a meeting is not possible, there are other ways to communicate. E-mail is probably the most effective, since you can reach more people with one document and the recipients can respond when they have the time. The telephone works great if you only have to call a small number of people and the conversation will be short. Memos are a lot like e-mail, but will take more effort to send. A fax will also work to communicate information to other group members. All you need to do is decide which form of communication will work best for the respective message.
[edit] Strategies for Effective Collaboration
The two most important aspects of effective collaboration are discussion and planning.
If group members participate in an active, open discussion, they all should walk away with a clearer understanding of the assignment. Important decisions must be made from the start. The assignment may be divided up among the group members or all aspects of the assignment may be worked on collaboratively. Open discussion can also aid an individual in overcoming obstacles. For many students, it is easier to tackle obstacles as a team than it is to do so alone.
It is very important to schedule group meetings when all members are able to attend. Committing to these scheduled times will help the group to meet the required deadline in a timely manner. It is most useful to meet with the group in person. Group meetings can also take place with the group online simultaneously.
[edit] Practical Guidelines for Good Group Work
- Be honest about your abilities. If you know you aren't good at something specific, let your group members know. They'll respect you for your honesty.
- If you're unhappy with the way a project is going, say so. This is your grade and you have a right to let your instructor know when things aren't going the way you think they should.
- Respect your group members. Everyone has unique abilities and backgrounds to contribute to the project. You may not agree on everything, but being kind is sometimes the most important ingredient in getting things accomplished.
- Have fun. Although it's homework, this is an opportunity to get to know new people you haven't met before.
- Be responsible for your part. Do the work that's expected but don't be afraid to ask for help if you need it.
[edit] An Example of Collaborative Work/Group Conferencing
Many students struggle with group/peer editing: you are put in small groups and told to help each other with your papers, but you really have no clue yet how to go about this most effectively. The result is often a lot of patting one another on the back, fixing a few commas, and then a long conversation about last night's game. Little constructive work comes from these meetings. Many have tried using worksheets for students to follow, but often the comments on the worksheets are brief and unhelpful. Students, however, can be taught how to do this well by having "group conferences." A group conference consists of three steps: One, students are put into groups of three, four, or five (four is ideal) and give drafts of their papers to one another, so that each students has a copy of every other student's paper in the group. Two, students read each others' papers and fill out a "group conferencing worksheet" which is very much like a peer editing worksheet; be sure to only ask open-ended questions. Three, students get together as a group with an experienced writing instructor or tutor there to lead them through the worksheet, asking them the questions on the worksheet but making sure that they answer them thoroughly. The key to this is that the instructor or tutor has not read the papers. Because they don't know what the papers are about, how they are organized, how they support their arguments, or even what the purpose of the paper is, they can ask all kinds of tried and true probing questions that get the students to not only think critically about the papers they are working on, but also teach the students what kind of questions should be asked in an effective peer review.
Students need to go through this process with some guidance a couple times and then can have incredibly productive and worthwhile self guided peer sessions afterward. They also learn to think critically about the writing of others and then to think about their own papers in the same way. In addition to this, it is more productive and interesting for the students because, unlike a regular one-on-one conference with an instructor, they get the input of several readers.
