Chapter Four: How to Collaborate

and Write With Others

Why Collaborate on Writing?

Considering (and Balancing) the Two Extremes of Collaboration
Peer Review as Collaboration
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A sample recipe for how peer review can work
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A few last things to remember about successful peer review
Collaborative Writing on Larger Projects
Three Ideas for Collaborative Projects
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Research Idea Groups
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Research Writing Partners
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Collaborative Research Writing Projects
Collaborating With Computers and the Internet

Why Collaborate on Writing?

In my teaching experience, students have mixed feelings about collaboration.
Many of my students initially say they dont want to work with their classmates
on their writing. When it comes to in-class peer review sessions or more
involved collaborative project such as small group work, they believe there is
nothing they can learn about their writing from their classmates; After all, they
tell me, the teacher gives the grade.
However, most of my students tell me after the course ends that the times in
which they collaborated with their classmates were occasions where they felt
they learned a lot about writing. While they might enter into collaborative
exercises and writing projects reluctantly, its been my experience that most
students end up finding them worthwhile.
Collaborating in different ways on writing projects is a good idea for several
reasons. First, composition and rhetoric teachers and scholars have known for a
long time now that one of the best ways for students to improve their writing
skills is to have them share their writing with other students. If you think about
it for a moment, this is common sense. If you never show your writing to other
readers, or if you limit your audience to simply the teacher, how will you as a
writer learn about the effectiveness of your writing beyond a grade in a class?
Second, almost all real writing is the product of collaboration. Of course, you
probably dont collaborate on your diary or journal entries, letters to relatives, or
emails to your friends. But almost all of the writing you read in academic or
popular publications has involved different levels of collaboration, sometimes in
surprising and hidden ways. For example, while I am indeed the author of The
Process of Research Writing, this book has been a collaborative project in the sense

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Chapter Four, How to Collaborate and
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that I received a lot of advice and ideas from my wife, friends, students,
colleagues, and editors.
Considering (and Balancing) the Two Extremes of Collaboration
Collaboration always implies people working together toward a goal, but I like
to think of the way collaboration actually works as being somewhere between
two extremes.
One extreme is what I call very immediate and intimate collaboration, where
writers collaborate extremely closely, literally sitting together in front of the
computer keyboard or the pad of paper and going over each sentence of each
paragraph together.
The advantages of this very close collaboration include:

An equal and immediate sense for everyone involved about how the
project is going;

Writing projects that are more seamless: that is, all of the different parts fit
together clearly as one complete text; and

A greater sense by individuals within a group of their roles, since all the
group members are working together in the same time and place.

The disadvantages of this type of collaboration include:

Hard workers in the group might resent the group members who do
not seem to contribute an equal part, or some members of the group might
feel they are being silenced and manipulated by more forceful group
members;

It can be difficult to coordinate times and places to meet; and

It is extremely time consuming, especially if the group is collaborating on

creating a more detailed writing project.
The other extreme of collaboration is what I call very distant collaboration,
where writers divide up the labor of a particular project into smaller tasks that
can be then assigned to members of the group and put together later, assemblyline fashion.
Some of the advantages of this type of collaboration include:

It is easy to set up tasks so each group member has the opportunity to

contribute equally without duplicating the work of others;

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It can be done with few (if any) meetings where all of the group members
need to be present; and

Tasks can be accomplished quickly since all group members are

simultaneously working on their parts of the project.

The disadvantages include:

Because it is being done in parts, the completed project may seem

disjointed and uneven;

It can be difficult to manage this sort of collaboration since the individual

parts of the project have to somehow be put together, usually by a group
leader, someone who is named by the others, or someone who takes on
the role; and

There can be resentment within the group, either from leaders who other
members of the group feel are doing a poor job, or of those within the
group perceived as not doing their share of the work.

Where most collaborative projects end up on the collaboration spectrum

depend on the nature of the collaborative task. For example, things like in-class
peer review of each others rough drafts, in-class reading and writing
assignments, or shorter collaborative writing projects tend to end up closer to
very immediate and intimate collaboration. Things like collaborative research
writing projects, research oriented web sites, or to other longer and more
detailed writing projects tend to be closer to the very distant collaboration side
of the spectrum.
Clearly, one sort of collaboration isnt automatically better than another; it
depends on your purposes. The best approach to any collaborative project is to
be conscious of the strengths and weaknesses of both sides of the collaborative
spectrum and strive to emphasize the strengths of the approach within which
you are working.
For example, one way to avoid some of the pitfalls of the very immediate and
intimate types of collaboration is to make sure that each member of the group
has a clear sense of their role in the writing project and is allowed to contribute.
Conversely, the disadvantages of very distant types of collaboration might be
avoided if members of the group strive to work on producing writing in a similar
style and if there is frequent communication among group members.
Peer Review as Collaboration
One of the most common types of collaboration done in writing classes comes in
the form of in-class group work or as peer review sessions. Peer review has

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become a common practice for contemporary composition and rhetoric
classrooms. Basically, it is the process where small groups of students read,
comment on, and make suggestions for other students work.
While successful peer review can be hard and takes practice, it really can work.
But first, you have to be willing to accept two premises.

Your fellow students have valid comments to make on your writing

projects. Students often assume that the only person whose opinion really
matters is the teacher because, after all, the teacher is the one who assigns the
grade. I understand the logic of the assumption that the teacher is always
right, but I dont think its true.
The best writing projects are ones that strive to fulfill a purpose and reach an
audience that is beyond a particular class and a particular teacher. But beyond
that, your classmates represent an audience you should be trying to reach. You
should listen to your classmates suggestions because they are in same writing
situation as you. After all, they too are trying to reach an audience that includes
their fellow classmates, and they are also writing a project that will have to be
read and evaluated by the teacher.

All writing projects can be improved by revision. Sometimes we have an

overly romantic view of writing and of writers who are able to create great
works without ever having to make any real changes. Rarely (if ever) has this
been the case. Any writing project can be improved with revision.
As straightforward as these premises might be, they can often be difficult to
accept. But with practice, patience, and work with your classmates, seeing these
premises as valid becomes easier.
How peer review can work, step by step
I offer the following advice on how to get started with peer review sessions as a
recipe where ingredients and methods can be altered to fit the particulars of
the class, the writing project, time limitations, and so forth. After all, you and
your teacher probably have ideas on what will or wont work for peer review in
your specific contexts.

With the help of your teacher, break into groups of three to five
students. Groups of five work well only if the writing project you are
considering is short or if you have a lot of class time to go over each project. I
would also recommend not working in pairs since that overly limits the size of
the audience.

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Some students and teachers like to work with the same peer collaborators for the
entire semester, while others like to work with different collaborators with each
project.

Exchange a copy of your writing project with each person in the group.
You should come to the peer review session class with several copies of your
writing project to share with others in your peer review group.

Select someone to start, and have that person read their essay out loud
while the other members of the group read along. The extent to which you will
be able to read your essays out loud will vary according to the particular
circumstances of your class and of the assignment, but I would encourage you to
try to include this step in the process of in-class peer review. Actually reading
your writing out loud to others gives the reader and writer a real sense of the
voice of an essay and is a great way for writers and readers to catch small
grammar errors.

While the writer up is reading, the readers should read along,

marking comments in the margins of the draft they are reading. As a reader,
you should note points you hope to come back to in group discussion. You can
also mark any grammatical errors you might notice as you read.

When the writer is done reading, the readers should provide their
comments. This is not the time for the writer to explain things that the readers
say they didnt understand. Rather, this is the time for the writer to listen to
what the other members of the group have to say.
This is a crucial part of the process because the questions that readers have are
ones that point to changes the writer should make in revision rather than being
answered in person. After all, you will never be able to be there when other
readers (your teacher or other people in your audience) try to understand your
writing project. Readers questions have to be anticipated and answered in the
writing itself. So, the role of the person who just finished reading is to try and be
as open-minded (and open-eared!) to their classmates advice as possible.
Giving good advice to classmates in peer review sessions can be a tricky process.
Readers often have a hard time expressing their comments to the person whos
writing is being discussed. On the one hand, it isnt productive or nice to say
things that might hurt the writers feelings; but on the other hand, it also isnt
productive to be so nice as to not say anything that can help the writer. So the
goal here should be to somehow balance the two: advice that is nice, but also
constructive.
Here are two suggestions to help make this step of readers giving writers
constructive advice a bit easier:

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Try to keep the focus of the constructive advice on the big issues.
By the big issues, I mean things like the clarity of the points the writer is
trying to make, the use of evidence, the points where readers are
particularly persuaded or particularly confused, and so forth. This is not
to say things like grammar and proofreading and such are not
importantfar from it. But those issues are more about proofreading
than they are about changing the substance of an essay.

Consider some of the questions I have at the end of each of the

chapters in Part Two of the book, Exercises in the Process of Research.
Each of the chapters in this part of the book end with sections titled
Questions to Ask While Writing and Researching and Review and
Revision. The questions you should consider very according to the
writing exercise, but the goal is always the same: what changes can you
make to your writing project to make it more accessible to your readers?
Making revisions as a result questions like these (and the ones provided
by your teacher) will make it much easier for you and your group
members to give each other useful advice, and it will also help keep the
group on task.
A few final things to remember about successful peer review

Peer review takes practice. If you dont think peer review works that well
for you and your classmates the first time you try it, give it another chance with a
different writing project. Like most things in writing (or life!) that are rewarding
and useful, good peer review takes practice and time. If you stick with it, youll
see that the peer review sessions you have toward the end of term are much
more productive than the ones at the beginning of the term.

If you dont get good advice about your writing projects in class, seek
out advice elsewhere. Show a draft of your writing project to someone whos
opinion you valuefriends, family, classmatesand ask them for suggestions in
making the project better. If your school has a writing center, writing lab, or
other sort of tutoring center, take a copy of the writing project to it and have a
staff member look at your work.

It is always still up to you to choose what advice you want to follow.

Inevitably, you will receive advice from your reviewers that is conflicting or that
is advice you simply dont agree with. That is okay. Remember that you are not
under any obligation to incorporate all the suggestions you receive, and part of
the process of becoming a better writer is learning for yourself when you need to
follow advice and when you need to follow your own instincts.
Collaborative Writing on Larger Projects

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Collaboration on large and ongoing writing projects can be a rewarding
experience for both teachers and students for several reasons.

Collaborative groups provide a support mechanism that can often

times be very important when working on a research project. Writing and
researching are hard work, and it can be comforting and encouraging to have the
support of classmates to help you successfully complete projects.

Collaborating with others can often make more elaborate and

sophisticated research projects possible. Simply put, by putting their heads
together, writers working in groups can usually do more research and more
analysis of a topic than someone working alone.
Collaborating With Computers and the Internet
Two of the most significant obstacles to collaborative writing, especially
collaboration on larger writing projects, are time and place. It can be difficult to
set up a meeting outside of class time that fits into the schedule of all the
members of the group. This can obviously make for a frustrating and unpleasant
collaborative experience.
Computers and the Internet have dramatically extended the possibilities of
collaborative writing projects. With tools like e-mail, chat room, and instant
messaging, students can collaborate asynchronously: that is, they can work
with each other without having to meet in a specific place or at a specific time.
While live communication tools like chat and instant messaging require
participants to be interacting at the same time, students can still collaborate with
each other without having to be in the same place.
Chances are, you have already used email or instant messaging to do a form of
collaboration online. Most of my students are familiar with these technologies,
and many of my students use things like email or instant messaging to plan
meetings or evening plans, even to do homework. Collaborative peer review
doesnt need to be any more complicated than this: emailing each other (usually
by including a group of email addresses in the to line) or chatting with each
other with one of the many commercial chat and instant messaging services.
The Internet also has a lot of potential as a collaborative writing tool. For very
immediate and intimate styles of collaborations, writers can work together on
the same web site, but they can do it asynchronously. For projects that tend
toward the very distant side of the collaboration spectrum, web writers can
work on parts of a web site individually and then assemble them later. For more
detail on creating collaborative web projects, see chapter 12, The Web-based
Research Project.This title will change...

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Of course, collaborating with each other with computers and the Internet is
slightly different than collaborating face to face with each other. Here are
some things to be think about and some things to avoid as you try to collaborate
asynchronously:

Make sure everyone in your collaborative group is included in the

discussion. This can be a problem with some email applications since
automatically replying to the sender of a message doesnt necessarily mean it
will go to all of the members of your group. To make sure no one is left out,
make sure that all members of the group have everyones correct email address,
and make sure all of these addresses appear in the To: line of your email
software. To include multiple email addresses in the To: line, separate each
email address with a comma.

Make sure everyone in your collaborative group understands how to

read and write messages in the format they are being sent. For example, if you
and your group members decide to send attachments of writing projects to each
other, make sure that everyone has access to the appropriate software and
understands how to use it.

All of the group members need to read and respond to each others
messages in a timely fashion. If some group members are in the habit of
checking their email once every other week, that person will have to change their
habits for the purposes of this project. Collaboration with email works best
when each member of the group checks their email at least once a day.

Keep in mind the rules of good netiquette when working with your
group members. In chapter two, Understanding and Using the Library and the
Internet for Research, I provided a brief guide to the practice of good online
etiquette, or netiquette. I would encourage you to review those guidelines as
you work with your group members online. Remember that simple
misunderstandings and miscommunications, the sorts of things that are usually
easy to clarify in face-to-face interactions, can sometimes become arguments or
flames online. So be sure to use common sense courtesy, and remember that
there are real people behind the emails that you are sending.

Remember that some things are better done face-to-face, so be

prepared to schedule some more traditional collaboration time. Computers
and the Internet are rarely suitable to serve as a complete substitution for more
traditional face-to-face collaboration experiences. While collaborating via email is extremely convenient, it often isnt very efficient. Writing and reading
tasks that would only a few moments to discuss face-to-face can take days or
longer to discuss online. So while using electronic tools like email can minimize
the number of more traditional collaboration meetings you will need to have
with your group members, it probably wont eliminate them entirely.

Steven D. Krause | http://www.stevendkrause.com/tprw | Spring 2007