Week 4 - collaborative writing

 
 

The background is a stereogram of lizards.. can you see them?


Please have a good look at http://www.salon.com - highly recommended stories about People, Technology, Media, Health, Travel, Politics, Entertainment, and even News. This is my idea of good writing, on the edge or otherwise. RA

First Hour: Publish online; read other students' work, give feedback; and shift the Frame by clicking and moving; so you can see the inside vertical bar to scroll down to the bottom few names!

Second Hour: Exercise (to be started in class, today):

Your exercise today is to create a collaborative piece of writing, which three or four people can claim to have equitably worked upon.

The process:

Break up into groups of three and four.

Brainstorm ideas for a collaborative piece.

For those groups who cannot think of a topic, try some free writing - turn on the computer, go to Word, turn the monitor OFF, and simply start writing whatever comes into your head, without any editing whatsoever. After 5 minutes, change seats with one of your group members and turn the monitor ON in order to read their thoughts. See if there is any commonality?

Decide on a topic.

What are your understandings of the topic? What do you consider to be the important points to consider/study? What areas are you sure/unsure of? Are there clear sub-sections of the topic? If so, organize them into a framework.

Decide HOW you will all work together. Who will do what tasks? Will you take individual parts of the piece; or will one person do the 1st draft, another the 2nd draft etc; perhaps one person will be the editor, and the others will all create drafts; Can you use any previous work?; if you need to do research, perhaps one person can be assigned to finding info on the Web.

Your collaborative piece needs to be worked on throughout the week. Use the bulletin boards, and e-mail in order to accomplish this.

Publish your piece on the Class bulletin board for next week.

 

Third Hour: Reading aloud personal work

 

Some ideas starters for the collaborative exercise 

1. To write an informal  (could be satire or parody or even a script/story board, sales brochure) using one of the following sets of words as your guiding theme.

2. Or any two of starter words: black, sex, food, joke, freedom, wedding, computer, sea.

3. In groups, pick a genre and a "thesis" in the sense of combing the two words into something that makes sense as a unifying principle or main idea or focus. Try to suggest an interesting relationship between the two words.

As individual work, your assignment is to revise the group text as you individualy see fit. Your level of revision will reflect your own creative/authorial "take" on the text.

Keep track of your decision-making processes.

How did your group begin solving the problem?
Did any thing to happen to make sure every one contributed?
How was the work allocated?
What method of producing the text was used?

Here is a paper which I adapted from http://www.knowarch.com/index/thinktank/_collaboration.htm. 
It discusses the benefits and issues involved in collaborative research and writing.

What is Collaborative Research and Writing?

It may appear on the surface that collaborative research and  writing simple involves the coming together of two or more people to work on a single project. However, working collaboratively involves more than simply working toward the same end; it involves more than dividing up the research duties or the merging together of individually developed pieces of work. Collaborative work, at it's heart, is the coming together of ideas. Ideas that begin as trains of thought and thematic threads and are then developed, discussed, dissected, analyzed, synthesized, critiqued, challenged, shaped and reshaped in a process of give and take between partners who have the same goal in mind. The goal of an  worthy of presentation.

Collaborative work can take on many forms and formats depending on the persons involved, but the element of communication is essential. In order for a piece of work to be collaborative the voices of all the authors must come through much like a vocal chorus. No one voice dominates but collectively the resulting sound soars to new heights. Does this mean that duties cannot be divided up or that each word, sentence, and paragraph is the result of intensive consultation and debate? Of course not, however, all the assigned duties and your work must be discussed thoroughly.

Why Engage in Collaborative Research and  Writing?

Why would anyone engage in this process? It involves the difficult task of trying to articulate underdeveloped thoughts in the hope that another person can understand them; relate to them; help you develop them into something comprehensible. Collaborative work involves letting another person see your unfinished work; work that is raw; unadorned with stylized writing and neat formats. It involves compromise, and with that a reduced sense of control over what the finished product will be. None of these elements appear to be overly appealing, yet they are the very same reasons that people come together to work as a team.

Some people enjoy the process of interacting with others on a single mission. It reduces the solitude of the individual project and allows the collaborators to bounce ideas off each other, which often takes the project into new and unexplored territory. Some people get much needed energy from their partners. A heightened sense of motivation to measure up; reach the standard; improve and get the job accomplished. Let's take the example of the recent Olympic Games held in Atlanta, Georgia. Canada's two-time gold medallist, Donovan Bailey, experienced the individual glory of winning the 100-metre dash in record time, but also had the opportunity to be a part of the winning 4 x 100 metre relay team. He undoubtedly felt a strong sense of energy, motivation and pride that comes with being part of a group that comes together to accomplish incredible feats.

Others find a security in the belief that whatever the results, there is a security in knowing that the work has been scrutinized and critiqued by another individual who also has a vested interest in the outcome. But perhaps the most significant reason why people engage in collaborative work is the desire to seek out people who have skills and expertise that we may lack or compliment the ones we possess. This understanding of ourselves allows us to work with others to make a final piece of work that is perhaps greater than what we could have achieved alone.

When Should One Engage in Collaborative Research and Writing?

This section on collaborative research and  writing is not included to suggest that individual work should be abandoned or that collaborative working environments are always the best choice to make. There are times when individual projects should be undertaken and one have the opportunity to participate in and control all aspects of the  process from start to finish. In this way one learns much about themselves; their strengths and weaknesses; which in turn allows one to make informed decisions about with whom you should collaborate.

Still, there are other factors involved in making the decision as to when it is appropriate to engage in collaborative research and writing. The following list has been compiled that, while by no means complete, offers some insight into the decision:

a) when the theme of the project involves multiple ideas which are deemed necessary but serve to make the work unmanageably large for one person

b) when you have a skill or expertise deficit in an area that is deemed pertinent to the project

c) when another person brings new perspectives, approaches or insights to your expertise area, thus complementing your work.

It should be noted that one should not engage in collaborative research and writing because of time limitations. Collaborative work is far more time consuming than working on an individual basis because of the necessity of communicating with others in order to forge a coherent and cohesive piece of work that reflects the input of all the partners.

How Do I Collaborate on a Research and Writing Project?

Once you've decided on partners with whom you believe you can work and can contribute effectively to the  project, you enter into a strange netherworld. Where do we go from here? What exactly do we do? There are no exact answers to these questions because each project is different and the people involved will bring unique qualities to the project. Still, there are some suggestions that can be offered as a very rough guideline. These suggestions are not fixed, but must be shaped to suit the needs of you and your collaborator(s).

a) Ascertain a topic area to study. Clearly articulate any imposed deadlines or decide upon a mutually acceptable completion date.

b) As a team, "brainstorm" the topic. What are your understandings of the topic? What do you consider to be the important points to consider/study? hat areas are you sure/unsure of? Are there clear sub-sections of the topic? If so, organize them into a framework to study.

c) As a team, discuss what background information you already have. Put forth any authors or resources which pertain to the topic for further discussion. Compile a list of authors/resources to consult in the research process (e.g., you find all of Halleren's work, while I search relevant Internet sites and obtain articles).

d) Break apart with assigned duties and agree to meet again at a specified time to share the results of your search.

e) Obtain the relevant information, including any unexpected discoveries. Peruse through it to glean the key points and be prepared to discuss it at the next meeting.

f) As a team, share the results of your data collection. Discuss the importance or relevance of each resource. Offer new ideas, perspectives and approaches used by these works and discuss how they might contribute to your work. Discard anything that does not assist in the further development to your topic. This process is known as "vetting" the ideas contained in the resources. Repeat steps (c)-(f) as necessary.

g) As a team, begin constructing a more formal outline of the topic including the argument, the theme and the key points which you wish to focus on. As a side note, it is better to concentrate on a few specific points rather than trying to "do the topic" on a superficial level.

h) Once all the relevant data has been collected and "vetted" the team can undertake the writing process in one of two ways. The first way is to have each person take a particular sub-section of the topic and begin writing individually; always keeping the main argument/theme in mind. Then coming back together to discuss what they've written and permitting the other(s) to read the results. The partners must the offer suggestions for the improvement of focus and tone, as well as, critiquing statements, assumptions, claims, etc. made within the work. The writer of this section must defend his work while listening carefully to the concerns of his/her partners and adjust as necessary.

i) The second way to undertake the writing process is to have one person, known as the primary writer, do the bulk of the writing, while the other(s) to serve as editor and critic of the results. They may also take on the role of secondary writer whereby they re-write sections during the critique process. Of course, the secondary writers comments and re-writes are open to discussion and challenge from the primary writer and others on the collaborative team. As well, it is wise to have the editor/critic/secondary writer continuing to search for new resources/data while the primary writer composes. This reduces the concern that one person is doing the bulk of the work.

j) Upon completion of the writing the various parts are brought together into one piece of work. The results are further critiqued by the collaboration team. Each section of the from the introduction, through the body, to the conclusion must be examined and re-examined again. Each part must contribute effectively to the overall work. As always, sequence, comprehension, coherence, tone, spelling, grammar, punctuation, etc. must be considered before the work is deemed complete.

k) Consider how the work is going to be presented and adjust accordingly.

Once the assignment has been written and presented one should take some time and reflect upon the collaborative process and the results. Was this a successful collaboration? In what ways? What could have been improved upon? What were the major stumbling blocks? How did I meet the challenge of collaboration? What were my strengths and weaknesses in the process? What did I learn about myself? What were the strengths and weaknesses of my partners? What did I learn about working with others? Would I collaborate with each of them again? Why or why not?

This may seem like a long list of meaningless questions to ask after the project is done, and quite honestly most people by-pass this very important exercise. They are content to breathe a sigh of relief after their work has been presented and move on to something else; anything else. However, reflection can prove very helpful for the next time you undertake collaborative work. You'll be much more in tune with yourself and the process thus reducing the amount of time "feeling" your way through the initial stages of working on a team. You can be up front and state that "I have real difficulty with people missing scheduled meetings and not explaining why" or "I enjoy the research process, but I struggle when it comes to writing". Collaboration is not easy, and the skills required to work effectively in a team environment can only be developed through practice and the commitment to improve with each new effort.