What this handout is about.
Whether in the academic world or the business world, all of us are likely to participate in some form of group writing—an undergraduate group project for a class, a collaborative research paper or grant proposal, or a report produced by a business team. Writing in a group can have many benefits: multiple brains are better than one, both for generating ideas and for getting a job done. However, working in a group can sometimes be stressful because there are various opinions and writing styles to incorporate into one final product that pleases everyone. This handout will offer an overview of the collaborative process, strategies for writing successfully together, and tips for avoiding common pitfalls. It will also include links to some other handouts that may be especially helpful as your group moves through the writing process.
As this is a group writing handout, several Writing Center coaches worked together to create it. No coaches were harmed in this process; however, we did experience both the pros and the cons of the collaborative process. We have personally tested the various methods for sharing files and scheduling meetings that are described here. However, these are only our suggestions; we do not advocate any particular service or site.
All writing can be considered collaborative in a sense, though we often don’t think of it that way. It would be truly surprising to find an author whose writing, even if it was completed independently, had not been influenced at some point by discussions with friends or colleagues. The range of possible collaboration varies from a group of co-authors who go through each portion of the writing process together, writing as a group with one voice, to a group with a primary author who does the majority of the work and then receives comments or edits from the co-authors.
Group projects for classes should usually fall towards the middle to left side of this diagram, with group members contributing roughly equally. However, in collaborations on research projects, the level of involvement of the various group members may vary widely. The key to success in either case is to be clear about group member responsibilities and expectations and to give credit (authorship) to members who contribute an appropriate amount. It may be useful to credit each group member for their various contributions.
Here we outline the steps of the collaborative process. You can use these questions to focus your thinking at each stage.
Attitude counts for a lot.
Group work can be challenging at times, but a little enthusiasm can go a long way to helping the momentum of the group. Keep in mind that working in a group provides a unique opportunity to see how other people write; as you learn about their writing processes and strategies, you can reflect on your own. Working in a group inherently involves some level of negotiation, which will also facilitate your ability to skillfully work with others in the future.
Remember that respect goes along way! Group members will bring different skill sets and various amounts and types of background knowledge to the table. Show your fellow writers respect by listening carefully, talking to share your ideas, showing up on time for meetings, sending out drafts on schedule, providing positive feedback, and taking responsibility for an appropriate share of the work.
Getting started early is important in individual projects; however, it is absolutely essential in group work. Because of the multiple people involved in researching and writing the paper, there are aspects of group projects that take additional time, such as deciding and agreeing upon a topic. Group projects should be approached in a structured way because there is simply less scheduling flexibility than when you are working alone. The final product should reflect a unified, cohesive voice and argument, and the only way of accomplishing this is by producing multiple drafts and revising them multiple times.
One of the difficult aspects of collaborative writing is finding times when everyone can meet. Much of the group’s work may be completed individually, but face-to-face meetings are useful for ensuring that everyone is on the same page. Doodle.com , whenisgood.net , and needtomeet.com are free websites that can make scheduling easier. Using these sites, an organizer suggests multiple dates and times for a meeting, and then each group member can indicate whether they are able to meet at the specified times.
It is very important to set deadlines for drafts; people are busy, and not everyone will have time to read and respond at the last minute. It may help to assign a group facilitator who can send out reminders of the deadlines. If the writing is for a co-authored research paper, the lead author can take responsibility for reminding others that comments on a given draft are due by a specific date.
Submitting drafts at least one day ahead of the meeting allows other authors the opportunity to read over them before the meeting and arrive ready for a productive discussion.
There are many different ways to share drafts, research materials, and other files. Here we describe a few of the potential options we have explored and found to be functional. We do not advocate any one option, and we realize there are other equally useful options—this list is just a possible starting point for you:
Note that even when you are sharing or storing files for group writing projects in a common location, it is still essential to periodically make back-up copies and store them on your own computer! It is never fun to lose your (or your group’s) hard work.
It may be helpful to assign giving feedback on specific items to particular group members. First, group members should provide general feedback and comments on content. Only after revising and solidifying the main ideas and structure of the paper should you move on to editing and proofreading. After all, there is no point in spending your time making a certain sentence as beautiful and correct as possible when that sentence may later be cut out. When completing your final revisions, it may be helpful to assign various concerns (for example, grammar, organization, flow, transitions, and format) to individual group members to focus this process. This is an excellent time to let group members play to their strengths; if you know that you are good at transitions, offer to take care of that editing task.
Your group project is an opportunity to become experts on your topic. Go to the library (in actuality or online), collect relevant books, articles, and data sources, and consult a reference librarian if you have any issues. Talk to your professor or TA early in the process to ensure that the group is on the right track. Find experts in the field to interview if it is appropriate. If you have data to analyze, meet with a statistician. If you are having issues with the writing, use the online handouts at the Writing Center or come in for a face-to-face meeting: a coach can meet with you as a group or one-on-one.
While this may initially seem to be the best way to approach a group writing process, it can also generate more work later on, when the parts written separately must be put together into a unified document. The different pieces must first be edited to generate a logical flow of ideas, without repetition. Once the pieces have been stuck together, the entire paper must be edited to eliminate differences in style and any inconsistencies between the individual authors’ various chunks. Thus, while it may take more time up-front to write together, in the end a closer collaboration can save you from the difficulties of combining pieces of writing and may create a stronger, more cohesive document.
Although this is solid advice for any project, it is even more essential to start working on group projects in a timely manner. In group writing, there are more people to help with the work-but there are also multiple schedules to juggle and more opinions to seek.
Not everyone enjoys working in groups. You may truly desire to go solo on this project, and you may even be capable of doing a great job on your own. However, if this is a group assignment, then the prompt is asking for everyone to participate. If you are feeling the need to take over everything, try discussing expectations with your fellow group members as well as the teaching assistant or professor. However, always address your concerns with group members first. Try to approach the group project as a learning experiment: you are learning not only about the project material but also about how to motivate others and work together.
If this is a project for a class, you are leaving your grade in the control of others. Leaving the work to everyone else is not fair to your group mates. And in the end, if you do not contribute, then you are taking credit for work that you did not do; this is a form of academic dishonesty. To ensure that you can do your share, try to volunteer early for a portion of the work that you are interested in or feel you can manage.
It may be tempting to leave all merging, editing, and/or presentation work to one person. Be careful. There are several reasons why this may be ill-advised. 1) The editor/presenter may not completely understand every idea, sentence, or word that another author wrote, leading to ambiguity or even mistakes in the end paper or presentation. 2) Editing is tough, time-consuming work. The editor often finds himself or herself doing more work than was expected as they try to decipher and merge the original contributions under the time pressure of an approaching deadline. If you decide to follow this path and have one person combine the separate writings of many people, be sure to leave plenty of time for a final review by all of the writers. Ask the editor to send out the final draft of the completed work to each of the authors and let every contributor review and respond to the final product. Ideally, there should also be a test run of any live presentations that the group or a representative may make.
When giving feedback or commenting on the work of other group members, focusing only on “problems” can be overwhelming and put your colleagues on the defensive. Try to highlight the positive parts of the project in addition to pointing out things that need work. Remember that this is constructive feedback, so don’t forget to add concrete, specific suggestions on how to proceed. It can also be helpful to remind yourself that many of your comments are your own opinions or reactions, not absolute, unquestionable truths, and then phrase what you say accordingly. It is much easier and more helpful to hear “I had trouble understanding this paragraph because I couldn’t see how it tied back to our main argument” than to hear “this paragraph is unclear and irrelevant.”
Writing in a group can be challenging, but it is also a wonderful opportunity to learn about your topic, the writing process, and the best strategies for collaboration. We hope that our tips will help you and your group members have a great experience.
We consulted these works while writing this handout. This is not a comprehensive list of resources on the handout’s topic, and we encourage you to do your own research to find additional publications. Please do not use this list as a model for the format of your own reference list, as it may not match the citation style you are using. For guidance on formatting citations, please see the UNC Libraries citation tutorial . We revise these tips periodically and welcome feedback.
Cross, Geoffrey. 1994. Collaboration and Conflict: A Contextual Exploration of Group Writing and Positive Emphasis . Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press.
Ede, Lisa S., and Andrea Lunsford. 1990. Singular Texts/Plural Authors: Perspectives on Collaborative Writing . Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press.
Speck, Bruce W. 2002. Facilitating Students’ Collaborative Writing . San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
You may reproduce it for non-commercial use if you use the entire handout and attribute the source: The Writing Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
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Critical thinking is a term originating from the second part of the 20th century. It was defined by the National Council for Excellence in Critical Thinking (1987) as “the intellectually disciplined process of actively and skillfully conceptualizing, applying, analyzing, synthesizing, and/or evaluating information gathered from, or generated by, observation, experience, reflection, reasoning, or communication, as a guide to belief and action.”
At its core, it is the ability to clearly and rationally analyze the information we receive without allowing our biases, prejudices, and misinformation to inform our conclusions and opinions, and to be deliberate and conscious in our judgments. It allows people to distinguish important ideas in arguments, find links between them, find faults in arguments and, in turn, build efficient ones. Ultimately, it is a skill that is useful both for internal dialog, to analyze oneself, and external dialog a sell, to analyze information from around us (Paul & Elder, 2009).
However, it is important to understand that critical thinking is not necessarily an inherent part of human character. Most of the time people are deeply affected by our preconceptions and opinions about ourselves and the world around us. Like any other higher-level cognitive skill or talent, critical thinking requires a conscious effort on behalf of the thinker to achieve improvement. Since it is agreed upon as one of the fundamental skills in most industries, from business to science and art, a lot of thought was put into developing new ways to train people to develop critical thinking (Lau, n.d.).
And a divisive question among psychologists and educators is the use of group work and discussion as a means to develop critical thinking. On the one hand, group problem solving can promote interest and engagement, inspire people to engage with and question new ideas and data. By being faced with fully developed opposing views, they have a chance to gain new perspectives, learn to shape their opinions better, and grow as persons. Many researchers (e.g. Jones, 2014) of this topicc view collaborative discussions and effects of group dynamics as vital for developing critical thinking.
On the other hand, peer pressure and the “bandwagon effect” are phenomena well known to sociologists, psychologists, and educators, which are detrimental to the individual, and thus also critical, thought. If in a group a majority shares the same belief, it is very likely to be picked up by others, sometimes in spite of the evidence against said belief (Vitelli, 2015). People placed in a group suffering from a bandwagon effect or with a strong peer pressure factor are likely to avoid participating in the conversation, or even delegate to the opinions of others rather that develop their own.
This brings us to the question if group discussions improve critical thinking skills or not? Despite arguments against this statement, I believe that research and modern critical thinking development practices have sufficient evidence that collaborative discussions and interactions can successfully improve critical thinking skills.
To explain why this stance was chosen, it is important to consider both advantages and disadvantages of group discussions as a tool of teaching pedagogy, the inherent responsibility it places on the person conducting them, and their role in the development of the skill in question.
The effectiveness of group work in classrooms was studied by Fung (2013), who aimed to confirm whether student engagement in classrooms could be enhanced through quality group work and if it could be used to inspire positive effects on students’ critical thinking. While he used Hong Kong as the location of his study, his conclusions can be useful for the purpose of this argumentative essay.
His training workshops and teaching interventions showed that all students who participated in the group studies and discussions significantly enhanced their critical thinking ability over those who worked individually. After having worked in teacher-monitored groups, the students have shown themselves to become more inquisitive, analytical in the evaluation of received information, and more argumentative in their responses. They also showed a more creative approach to tests than students working alone.
Studies by other researchers further prove that cooperative work shows a higher level of thought; with participants becoming adjusted to participating in discussions and take the opportunity to learn new ideas faster. These qualities define them as critical thinkers. In particular, the doctorate study by Meredith Godad (2012), while focusing on the effect of technological environment on the development of critical thinking, also evaluated the effects of group work on the development of critical thinking among students. Not only did she confirm the results of previous researches, but she also noted that collaborative discussions reduced cognitive frustration and load, allowing students to focus on their cognition further.
These studies confirm that group activities, collaboration and discussions help in developing critical patterns of thinking. However, these examples were all tested in tightly controlled situations, with teachers or researchers directing most of the conversations, allowing for maximization of results. However, if such skilled assistance is not provided, this can cause the opposite effect to the desired.
Humans have a natural desire to fit into their social circle. It is a protective instinct which is meant to help us adjust to the society around us. If a person does not already have a solid individual critical thinking ability developed, when placed under pressure from their peers they might be willing to either abandon their opinions in favor of more popular ones, or accept a new one, based purely on the prevailing number of people supporting it (Hendra, 2013).
We can conclude that group activities indeed have a proven record of improving the critical thinking skills of people involved. But, on the other hand, such discussions often require an outside influence to deter clique formation and development of peer pressure. It is clear that with an equal, well-educated group, the members will only benefit from the interactions, and will be able to evaluate any given idea or situation much more efficiently and clearly and on their own, particularly if people with different opinions participate in the conversation. But in a more uneven group, dominated by dominated by several particularly charismatic individuals, even a correct idea can be overlooked, or even figuratively brought down, if it does not fit with the opinions of the leaders or the majority opinion.
Consequently, it is the responsibility of the teacher or tutor to create and regulate a healthy educational environment, where students are encouraged to put forward their opinions and actively participate in the discussion, even when voicing opinions that are not popular in the group. He should encourage discussion participants to evaluate their ideas and compare them against ideas of other speakers, find pros and cons both of different views spoken.
Bibliography
Fung, D. (2014). Promoting critical thinking through effective group work: A teaching intervention for Hong Kong primary school students. International Journal of Educational Research, 66 , 45-62.
Godat, M. (2012). Collaborative Learning and Critical Thinking in Technology-enhanced Environments: An Instructional Design Framework (Unpublished doctoral thesis). Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia
Hendra, M. (2013). Peer Pressure Changes Perspective . Web.
Jones, J. M. (2014). Discussion Group Effectiveness is Related to Critical Thinking through Interest and Engagement. Psychology Learning & Teaching Plat, 13 (1), 12-23.
Lau, J. (n.d.). What is critical thinking? Web.
Paul, R., & Elder, L. (2009). The miniature guide to critical thinking: Concepts and tools . Dillon Beach, CA: Foundation for Critical Thinking.
The National Council for Excellence in Critical Thinking . (1987). Web.
Vitelli, R. (2015). Riding the Bandwagon Effect . Web.
IvyPanda. (2020, August 25). Does Group Discussion Improve Critical Thinking Skills? https://ivypanda.com/essays/does-group-discussion-improve-critical-thinking-skills/
"Does Group Discussion Improve Critical Thinking Skills?" IvyPanda , 25 Aug. 2020, ivypanda.com/essays/does-group-discussion-improve-critical-thinking-skills/.
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Group discussion, an interactive activity where individuals exchange ideas and opinions, is a crucial part of the modern academic and corporate world. It is not merely a conversation, but a structured process that tests the ability to think critically, communicate effectively, and work in a team.
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This paper discusses the importance of group discussion and analyze the important procedures that are required for it to be effective.
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Group discussion is a communication process that involves the exchange of ideas, information, and opinions among a group of people. It is a powerful tool for problem-solving, decision-making, and generating new ideas.
Group Writing. What this handout is about. Whether in the academic world or the business world, all of us are likely to participate in some form of group writing—an undergraduate group project for a class, a collaborative research paper or grant proposal, or a report produced by a business team.
Why is a group discussion an important activity at college level? As a student, it helps you to train yourself to discuss and argue about the topic given, it helps you to express your views on serious subjects and in formal situations.
GROUP DISCUSSION OF ESSAYS and ARTICLES. The purpose of a group discussion is not to win an argument or to amuse your classmates. The purpose of a discussion is to help each group member explore and discover personal meanings of a text through interaction with other people.
And a divisive question among psychologists and educators is the use of group work and discussion as a means to develop critical thinking. On the one hand, group problem solving can promote interest and engagement, inspire people to engage with and question new ideas and data.