The trend in business today is toward more collaboration. Computers have made collaborative writing both easier and more essential, and the need to write collaboratively will only increase. This chapter describes a number of ways groups of people produce documents collaboratively.

Advantages of Collaborative Writing
Collaborative writing builds on collective talents-a group of writers can do a better job than one writer. It provides writers with productive feedback. It increases productivity and saves time. It ensures more effective writing-the more people involved, the greater the thoroughness and cohesion. It offers psychological benefits, boosting employee confidence and morale. And it contributes to customer service and satisfaction, since collaborative teams are better able than individual writers to assess and describe products effectively.

The Process of Writing Collaboratively
Groups use the same strategies and confront the same problems as individual writers do. They must plan, research, prepare drafts, and revise and edit. Before groups begin writing, however, they must establish ground rules for how these tasks will be accomplished. This includes assigning tasks, establishing schedules, and selecting a facilitator.

Here are some guidelines for successful group writing:

1. Know your group. Learn group members' schedules, backgrounds, special competencies, and so on. Being concerned and friendly will help you create an atmosphere that increases productivity.
   
   
2. Do not regard anyone as more important than the others. Think collectively: everyone's input is important for optimum success.
   
   
3. Establish guidelines. Before you begin, discuss the document's audience, scope, format, and importance at an introductory meeting.
   
   
4. Agree on the group's organization. Will there be a group leader? What will his or her responsibilities be? Who will speak for the group to upper management?
   
   
5. Identify each member's responsibilities. Each member should feel comfortable with his or her assigned duties.
   
   
6. Establish the times, places, and length of group meetings. Establish a schedule, considering likely conflicts and other obligations of group members.
   
   
7. Follow a timetable, but leave room for flexibility. Don't forget: projects always take longer than initially planned.
   
   
8. Provide clear and precise feedback. Don't frustrate others with nonspecific feedback ("Needs work" or "Looks good"). Offer detailed advice, and don't hold back valid criticism.
   
   
9. Be an active listener. Be an active participant, not a passive observer.
   
   
10. Use a standard reference guide for matters of style, documentation, and format. Many companies have their own style manuals; if not, make sure everyone in the group uses the same standard reference.

Managing Conflict in Collaborative Groups
To avoid conflict, stress these principles: (1) Individuals must seek and adhere to group consensus. (2) Compromise may be necessary to meet a deadline. (3) The group leader's final decision on resolving conflicts must be accepted.

Here are a number of guidelines to help you avoid some common problems in collaborative writing groups:

1. Don't resist constructive criticism. Collaboration requires being open to suggestions, and constructive criticism is vital to group success.
   
   
2. Don't give unhelpful criticism. Don't be negative-be diplomatic, and point out how a specific revision will help the document.
   
   
3. Don't refuse to participate. Withholding your opinion hurts the group effort.
   
   
4. Don't interrupt with incessant questions. Some people interrupt so often that nothing gets done; don't be one of them.
   
   
5. Don't inflate small details out of proportion. Nitpicking can derail the group.
   
   
6. Don't dominate meetings. Group members need to share and respond, not try to take over.
   
   
7. Don't be too deferential. You won't help your group by being a "yes person" to avoid conflict.
   
   
8. Don't finish late or submit an incomplete document. Meeting deadlines is the group's most important obligation to themselves and their company.

Models of Collaboration
There are many different models of collaboration. The scope and complexity of your document and the organization of your company will determine which one you use. Here are a number of possibilities:

Cooperative Model
In this model, an individual goes through all of the stages of the writing process but gets feedback from colleagues or supervisors along the way.

Sequential Model
In this model, each individual in a group is assigned complete responsibility-from brainstorming to revising-for a section of a document. One employee writes the introduction, another writes the body, and so on.

Functional Model
In this model, the work is divided by skills or job functions. A group leader schedules and conducts meetings, issues progress reports to management, and so on. A researcher collects data, conducts interviews, and the like. A designated writer and editor prepares outlines and drafts and circulates them for review. A graphics expert handles visuals and document layout. This model fosters much more group interaction than the sequential model.

Integrated Model
In this model, all the members of a team are engaged in planning, researching, and revising. Members participate in every stage of the document's creation and design, and the group goes back to each stage as often as needed.

Co-writing Model
In this model, the team drafts the document together, word by word. This model offers the highest degree of collaboration but is unwieldy and inefficient. It works only for short documents such as memos.

Collaborating On-line
There are many advantages to collaborating on-line. It eliminates time barriers and removes geographic limitations: team members can send and receive messages anywhere, anytime. It generates more information, since people are more willing to risk making innovative suggestions on-line than in face-to-face meetings. Likewise, it makes it easier to give and receive criticism. E-mail allows for flexible group organization and lowers the cost of collaboration. More and more companies are using handheld computers such as Palm Pilots to make collaborative meetings, writing, and editing more efficient.

Meetings
To prepare for a meeting, jot down the main ideas your group must cover and collect any data you will need to discuss. Then write an agenda: a one or two-page outline of the main points you will cover in your meeting. The minutes of a meeting are a written summary of what happens in a meeting. They help people recall what happened at previous meetings and function as the official record of a group's deliberations. They are regarded as legal documents and must be clear, accurate, and objective.