Collaborative Writing Individual and Team Research Paper

It is easy, in this instance, to overlook spelling mistakes and errors in clarity and reasoning.

Team dynamics can benefit or harm the collaborative writing process. There is an advantage to working with individuals one already knows; there are few surprises with respect to personality traits as they relate to the work. Sometimes better writing can be accomplished when teams are assigned, as this can facilitate diversity and ensure less "groupthink" and more substantive discussions (Powers, Dunn-Lewis, and Fraser, n.d.). Team identity can be forged purposefully, as when a leader is formally appointed or agreed upon by the group. In some cases, leadership emerges without conscious decision. Strong writers or content area experts are natural choices for leadership roles, but sometimes personalities come into play. This is not necessarily a negative. An individual who is neither the strongest writer nor the most knowledgeable in terms of content may possess the organizational skills, the charisma and the insights needed to lead a project successfully through to completion.One of the greatest advantages of the collaborative writing process is the opportunity to bring together individuals with diverse talents and abilities to strengthen the overall approach to the project. As Kittle and Hicks (2009, p.527) point out,

Genuine collaboration involves a number of tasks beyond simply getting along and adding one part: giving ideas and feedback, creating content, debating the merits of an overall argument for the paper, writing and revising a particular section, research information for that section, sharing one's writing by raising questions for peers about content and style, editing all parts of the document, taking a risk as a writer by sharing all of this publicly, and encouraging one's group members to engage in all of these tasks.

References

Kittle, P., & Hicks, T. (2009). Transforming the group paper with collaborative online writing.

Pedagogy 9 (3), pp. 525-538.

Powers, S.R., Dunn-Lewis, C., & Fraser, G. (n.d.) Collaborative writing resources. UConn

Writing Center. Retrieved from http://www.writingcenter.uconn.edu/collabwriting.php.....