Collaborative Writing Project

 Most people think of writing as an individual act.  Most of your experience in school has probably reflected that view- "do your own work" and "to share ideas is cheating".  You have been warned against cheating "looking on someone else's paper" and plagiarism, "stealing someone else's ideas".  However, we do not write alone.  Our ideas are shaped by others.  When we read each other's pieces in class each week, we get ideas for our own writing.  Many things and people help to give us topics.  When we read our classmates' or published authors' pieces, we sometimes try out their ideas or their style. At another level, we are all influenced by ideas in our culture that we may not even be aware of. Sometimes the connection is very direct and clear and other times it may be difficult for us to sort out where our ideas come from.
 A good part of the writing done outside of school, especially in an organizational setting, is collaborative.  Members work together to produce reports, memos, recommendations, policy statements and other documents.   In this class, we will try some collaboration of our own.  This is how it will work:
 On [insert date here]  you will meet with your group for the first time.  You should come prepared with ideas about what the group might write about.  In your groups you will discuss possible topics and decide on what you will use for your paper. You should plan on using the class periods of ___, ___, and ___ to work on this project.  I request that you work on this project entirely in class. As a group, you must decide what you will write and how you will write it.  You are free to choose the form the paper will take and how it will be.  You must write the actual text together.  In this manner, you will experience true collaborative effort.   However, it is not cheating to use the strengths of individual group members.  If one person is strong at dialogue for example, feel free to have that person take the lead in writing that section.  If you have a good proofreader in the group, by all means have that person do the proofing.  Same goes for the typing.  Think about the way each person will contribute.
 If you have a draft completed before [insert date here]  you may schedule a 15 minute conference with me during that class period, plan to hand in your portfolio and you will not then be required to attend the actual class.   Whenever you have a draft, arrange time for a conference with me then meet back with each other to decide on revisions and editing.  Allow ample time for revision.  You should try to complete a draft by the end of class on [insert date here] . Although the paper will have been written jointly, it must appear unified and coherent.
 The group paper is due [insert date here] . This paper will be graded by the same criteria I will use to grade the pieces in your portfolios.  Each group member will receive the same grade for the paper.   However, other factors will be taken into consideration in determining each person's project grade.  As the project will be completed mainly in class, any absences will significantly lower your grade for the project.  I will also require a written evaluation (see below) of the project and this will be taken into consideration as well as completion of the conference about the paper.

Evaluation Response:  When your group has completed the paper, please write a detailed evaluation of the project in which you include how you felt about the project before you began.  Please be specific. The evaluation should be at least a full page in length.

· What had your previous experiences with collaborative work led you to expect? 

· How well did your group work together? 

· What were the strengths of each group member? 

· What were the obstacles you faced and how did you overcome them?

· What did you notice about the way others in your group went about writing? 

· What did you learn about yourself as a writer and a group member?  

· How would you evaluate the success of this project overall?