Collaborative writingCollaborative writing

The term collaborative writing refers to projects where written works are created by multiple people together (collaboratively) rather than individually. This allows for the editing and reviewing of a text document by multiple individuals either in real-time or asynchronously.

• Collaborative groups draw upon the strengths of all their members

• Students practice workplace readiness skills by working collaboratively.

• Facilitates built-in peer review

An Adjustment for Students

• They are not used to collaborative writing• They are used to writing it and turning it

in for a grade– Only the student & instructor see it– It’s individual work

• They don’t revise it or even think about it again

Collaborative Writing

More team members

Increased need foreffective communicationMultiple

perspectives

Effective Teamwork• Know your teammates

– What areas of expertise to team members have?– What does each team member hope to achieve?

• Define roles– Team leader– Lead writer– Proofreader

An Adjustment for Teachers

• Creating an appropriate group task• Providing clear expectations• Providing group skills training• Monitoring group process• Conveying assessment criteria clearly• Fairly assessing student work

Theorists’ Suggestions• Don’t begin collaborative writing assignments right

away—but do start learning collaboratively from the first day

• Collaborative assignment should be something better accomplished by a group than by an individual

• Allow student-initiated collaboration• Let the class decide how groups will be constituted

Theorists’ Suggestions• Give groups flexibility to decide their methods and

timetables, but require that they commit them to writing

• Explain in advance how the project will be graded—ideally, ask for students’ input

• Give student groups “real purposes” and ”real freedom”

• Make it fun—”play” can be an additional source of motivation

Students’ Suggestions

• The larger they are, the harder they fall—often, the groups that do best are twos and threes

• Projects should connect to how a given discourse works in the “real” world

• Project should require a lot of thought and discussion

Students’ Suggestions

• Assignments often work best when group members can divide work into distinct chunks—but not too many specific components.

• Don’t make it too large or complex–“Too much work for too many students will totally bring down the quality of the project.”

• Assignments with low stakes work best—a smaller portion of the grade + more fun/play

• Assignments that allow creativity are “a plus”

Pitfalls & Stumbling Blocks

• How to grade (“It’s not my fault!”)• Too many cooks (“It doesn’t fit together.”)• Introverts can get left behind (No one

listened.)• Too few cooks (“I did all the work.”)

Pitfalls & Stumbling Blocks

• Remembering group decisions (“People forget and go off in their own directions.”)

• Scheduling (“Scheduling!”)• Groups with dissimilar interests (“We

couldn’t even agree on a topic.”)• Other group problems (“I was working with

a complete moron!”)

Collaborative Writing

• Benefits of team-based writing:– Multiple perspectives– Increased social interaction– Skills for conflict resolution

Hey! What about me?

What forms of technology aid in the collaborative

writing process?

Applications that Facilitate Collaborative Writing

• Blogs -http://dowell.typepad.com/harriet_tubman/

• Wikis – Cornwall Hill• VoiceThreads – Sample• Photostory

Applications that Facilitate Collaborative Writing

• PowerPoint – Choose your own Adventure• Google Docs• Writeboard – collaborative writing

software application• Zoho Writer – online word processing

application