Handling Group Writing Assignments—A Process

Being assigned to write a group paper is both blessing and curse. You don’t have to do it alone, and if you feel you’re a weak, unconfident writer, the group outcome might benefit you. On the other hand, working with others lengthens and complicates the process, can lead to unpleasant disagreements, and if you feel you’re a strong, confident writer, the group outcome might not benefit you. In either case, you will likely learn something.

Suggested below is a process groups might use to help guide them through a group writing process. Before starting, group member should remember—

• Leading is not dominating. Leading is collaborating; dominating causes others to fight for air because they can’t be heard or give up because they don’t want to be shouted down, insulted, or belittled.
• Following is not quitting. Following is collaborating; quitting is avoiding work and responsibility for your role in the group and its outcome.
• Writing can threaten the ego. Writers lay open their ideas, thought patterns, knowledge bases, communication styles, language skills, and more. Discussing someone else’s writing can be threatening to the writer. Be very gentle with each other. Work hard at not giving or taking offense.
• In any group process, compromise is always necessary. Be ready to compromise at every stage.

Here’s a group process you might try:

1. Group Meeting 1: Get organized and started:
a. Discuss and clarify the assignment so all group members agree on the paper’s goal and all aspects of the assignment, such as what documentation style is needed (if any), what kinds of reference sources should be used (if any), and roughly what a good final draft would look like.
b. Select a group process on which all agree—the one suggested here or something else.
c. Select a topic or define/narrow the assigned topic to something with which everyone is comfortable.
d. Write a thesis statement together (single sentence, controlling idea). Debate and discuss the sentence and its specific phrasing because this sentence/discussion will guide the group. Insist on specificity; being fuzzy here may create surprises and disagreements later.
e. Based on your thesis statement, create an outline together. You may not need a formal outline, but the more detailed and specific you can be, the smoother the rest of process will go. While outlining, move between your developing outline and your thesis statement until both are solid. This will help to hone the group’s thinking.
f. When the outline is complete, assign each group member a section of the paper to research and draft.
g. Set a time by which each member will share a first draft of his/her section with other members. Email will probably work well for this.
h. Set a second meeting time that is a few days after the deadline set in g above.

2. Individual group members, draft your section of the paper, keeping in mind the group’s understanding of the assignment, goals, thesis statement, and outline. When finished, email your section to other group members by the agreed-upon deadline. Next, put the paper sections you receive in order according to your group’s outline, beginning with the thesis statement. Read through the essay. Don’t label sections “good” or “bad.” Naturally improvements are needed; it’s not done yet. Instead, take constructive notes based on the following kinds of questions:

o Where does focus seem to be lost or muddy? Where must focus be honed?
o Is important content missing? Where should it be worked in? Where is more information needed?
o Where is extraneous information included that should be removed?
o Where do general ideas need better or more support from specific details (examples, arguments, data, etc.)?
o Where might organization of ideas or information be changed to flow better for readers?
o Where are better connections needed between ideas, paragraphs, and sections to help the reader transition smoothly and/or to better define relationships among ideas? (Improvement will almost certainly be needed to help transition between sections written by different group members.)
o What technical language (if any) needs to be used more precisely or incorporated more thoroughly or consistently?

Don’t worry yet about sentence- and word-level issues and mechanics. At this point, such concerns will only distract you from the more important content, focus, and organizational issues.

3. Group Meeting 2: Discuss the above and similar questions. Note:
o Before the discussion begins, decide on one group member who will take notes for the group on the revisions needed, take the draft away from the meeting, and make the revisions.
o Discuss the substantive changes that should be made to the draft; all should take good notes so everyone knows what has been agreed to.
o Set a deadline for Draft 2 to be emailed to all group members and set another meeting time.
o Repeat step 3 as needed to arrive at a draft everyone can accept. Use a different group member each time to take the group notes and carry the draft away for revision. Always save old drafts in case you want to come back to something.
o At some point, make a group decision to stop revising, set an editing meeting and a deadline a day or so before when everyone will receive the most recent draft by email.

4. Individual group members, edit the draft for sentence-level, word-level, and mechanical correctness and clarity—and any remaining formatting issues. Take the paper to completion, from your perspective.
a. Every member should take at least one read through the paper and edit it thoroughly before the meeting.
b. As a group, make the changes on which everyone agrees. For issues of sentence clarity and style, read aloud to the group; your ears can often make better decisions than your intellect. Where there is disagreement on issues of grammar and usage, use a basic style guide or grammar text to decide.
c. Decide which member should make the final changes and email the next draft to others.
d. Set deadlines for receiving and replying to the final draft.

5. One group member, incorporate the final changes and prepare the paper for submission. Email the final draft, including all agreed-upon final changes, to the other group members. Group members, read and email back your approval of the final draft by the agreed-upon deadline. (This is not the time to restate your disagreement with group decisions, though you should speak up if you believe decisions weren’t correctly implemented.)

6. Agree on who is going to print and submit the final paper. All members, keep your copy of the paper.

Unhappy with the group process or outcome?

If you as a group member are unhappy with the group’s outcome, you may wish to talk with your instructor. Contact your instructor, tell him/her that you have some concerns with the group process and/or product you just completed and would like to discuss it. If you are unhappy with the process or the assignment, be ready to suggest specific ways it might change and why. If you are unhappy with the group’s product, take a copy of your paper to your instructor and talk with him/her about how you think it could have been better and why the process didn’t allow for these improvements; this discussion of the final product should happen before you receive feedback and/or a grade from the instructor. In all cases, try to avoid complaining about other group members specifically.