Collaboration

1
Collaboration

• Dr. Spinuzzi

2
Collaboration A Definition

• Collaboration A team effort an effort in which
  work is divided among workers.
• Writers collaborate in various ways.
• Writers collaborate more often than not.
• Collaboration often follows the pattern of
  initiation, execution, and public presentation.

3
Structuring Collaborative Writing

• Divide and Conquer Each member takes a section.
  Assembly line
• Specialization Each member is an expert on
  her/his task.
• Dialogic Nonhierarchical, flexible roles.
• Sequential Sections are passed from writer to
  writer.
• Synthesis Different perspectives are compromised.

4
Dealing with Conflict

• Conflict is a normal part of collaboration
• Conflict comes about because team members have
  different perspectives
• Conflict is good -- if its substantive and if
  its handled properly

5
No Conflict

• Margaret --for the memo. In fact, I think that
  this covers most of the memo this will be, like,
  75 of the memo just describing the different --
  how we should organize the facts. Um, lets see.
  The main idea we had for organizing the facts
  were using titles and subtitles?
• Jessica Yes.
• Margaret And key points and bullets under the
  titles and subtitles. Is that correct?
• Jessica Um. Yeah. Titles -- a title for the
  product name.
• Margaret Okay.
• Jessica And subtitles for a specific product
  component, coupled with a few descriptive
  sentences stating their benefits.
• Margaret Okay.

6
Non-Substantive Conflict

• Josh What font do you think we should use?
• Pete I personally think we should use Geneva
  12-point.
• Josh I kinda like Chicago 12-point. Makes it a
  little more spacious.
• Pete Ill have to see what happens on the
  computer when I put it on, but I really like the
  Geneva 12.
• Josh Do you? And I prefer the Chicago 12, so --
• Pete Chicago 12 or Chicago 10?
• Josh Chicago 12. Its more spacious.
• Pete Well, well see. Geneva comes up better and
  bolder.
• Josh Yeah. Well, well see.

7
Substantive Conflict

• Dorothea Both I think are going to be about the
  same. Theyre going to be four pages of text, and
  theres a front and a back of one and the front
  and back of another. Put together and its almost
  like a little booklet And as you open it up,
  have all the information of how it works, the
  components of it, on two pages that face each
  other, so we can put all that text right there
  and then put the diagram on that open page.
• Matthew I disagree. I think that the A version
  should be like a -- It should be, like, a not one
  8x11 it should --
• Dorothea No.
• Matthew -- be perhaps like a thr-- you know, a
  smaller size. With much smaller pages and a lot
  more pages and larger text. Because I think
  perhaps, like you mentioned already, that the B
  version could be just, like, one piece of paper --

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Substantive Conflict (cont.)

• Dorothea I dont think itll fit on just one.
• Matthew No, because we wont be adding a hell of
  a lot more information thans already on the
  information sheet that we have. The information
  sheet we have, all this information fits on one
  page.
• Dorothea It looks so cluttered. I just think
  that for the ease of reading --
• Matthew But I mean one one, two -- both sides of
  a page.
• Dorothea Oh. Oh. Okay.

9
Managing Conflict

• Pseudo-conflict
• Simple conflict
• Ego conflict

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Stage 1 Initiation

• Find and get acquainted with team members
• Share background assumptions
• Clarify goals
• Choose approach and schedule meetings
• Generate ideas and plan

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Stage 2 Execution

• Maintain trust
• Establish ways to resolve conflict
• Clarify work styles
• Share information
• Establish procedure to assess progress
• Do the work (plan, draft, revise, edit)

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Stage 3 Public Presentation

• Establish final division of credit
• Acknowledge each others work
• Reach closure on the work
• Package the work for public presentation