how to write a group work essay

How to write a Reflection on Group Work Essay

Chris Drew (PhD)

Dr. Chris Drew is the founder of the Helpful Professor. He holds a PhD in education and has published over 20 articles in scholarly journals. He is the former editor of the Journal of Learning Development in Higher Education. [Image Descriptor: Photo of Chris]

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Here are the exact steps you need to follow for a reflection on group work essay.

• Explain what Reflection Is
• Explore the benefits of group work
• Explore the challenges group
• Give examples of the benefits and challenges your group faced
• Discuss how your group handled your challenges
• Discuss what you will do differently next time

Do you have to reflect on how your group work project went?

This is a super common essay that teachers assign. So, let’s have a look at how you can go about writing a superb reflection on your group work project that should get great grades.

The essay structure I outline below takes the funnel approach to essay writing: it starts broad and general, then zooms in on your specific group’s situation.

Disclaimer: Make sure you check with your teacher to see if this is a good style to use for your essay. Take a draft to your teacher to get their feedback on whether it’s what they’re looking for!

This is a 6-step essay (the 7 th step is editing!). Here’s a general rule for how much depth to go into depending on your word count:

• 1500 word essay – one paragraph for each step, plus a paragraph each for the introduction and conclusion ;
• 3000 word essay – two paragraphs for each step, plus a paragraph each for the introduction and conclusion;
• 300 – 500 word essay – one or two sentences for each step.

Adjust this essay plan depending on your teacher’s requirements and remember to always ask your teacher, a classmate or a professional tutor to review the piece before submitting.

Here’s the steps I’ll outline for you in this advice article:

Step 1. Explain what ‘Reflection’ Is

You might have heard that you need to define your terms in essays. Well, the most important term in this essay is ‘reflection’.

So, let’s have a look at what reflection is…

Reflection is the process of:

• Pausing and looking back at what has just happened; then
• Thinking about how you can get better next time.

Reflection is encouraged in most professions because it’s believed that reflection helps you to become better at your job – we could say ‘reflection makes you a better practitioner’.

Think about it: let’s say you did a speech in front of a crowd. Then, you looked at video footage of that speech and realised you said ‘um’ and ‘ah’ too many times. Next time, you’re going to focus on not saying ‘um’ so that you’ll do a better job next time, right?

Well, that’s reflection: thinking about what happened and how you can do better next time.

It’s really important that you do both of the above two points in your essay. You can’t just say what happened. You need to say how you will do better next time in order to get a top grade on this group work reflection essay.

Scholarly Sources to Cite for Step 1

Okay, so you have a good general idea of what reflection is. Now, what scholarly sources should you use when explaining reflection? Below, I’m going to give you two basic sources that would usually be enough for an undergraduate essay. I’ll also suggest two more sources for further reading if you really want to shine!

I recommend these two sources to cite when explaining what reflective practice is and how it occurs. They are two of the central sources on reflective practice:

• Describe what happened during the group work process
• Explain how you felt during the group work process
• Look at the good and bad aspects of the group work process
• What were some of the things that got in the way of success? What were some things that helped you succeed?
• What could you have done differently to improve the situation?
• Action plan. What are you going to do next time to make the group work process better?
• What? Explain what happened
• So What? Explain what you learned
• Now What? What can I do next time to make the group work process better?

Possible Sources:

Bassot, B. (2015).  The reflective practice guide: An interdisciplinary approach to critical reflection . Routledge.

Brock, A. (2014). What is reflection and reflective practice?. In  The Early Years Reflective Practice Handbook  (pp. 25-39). Routledge.

Gibbs, G. (1988)  Learning by Doing: A guide to teaching and learning methods . Further Education Unit, Oxford Brookes University, Oxford.

Rolfe, G., Freshwater, D., Jasper, M. (2001). Critical reflection in nursing and the helping professions: a user’s guide. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

Extension Sources for Top Students

Now, if you want to go deeper and really show off your knowledge, have a look at these two scholars:

• John Dewey – the first major scholar to come up with the idea of reflective practice
• Donald Schön – technical rationality, reflection in action vs. reflection on action

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Step 2. Explore the general benefits of group work for learning

Once you have given an explanation of what group work is (and hopefully cited Gibbs, Rolfe, Dewey or Schon), I recommend digging into the benefits of group work for your own learning.

The teacher gave you a group work task for a reason: what is that reason?

You’ll need to explain the reasons group work is beneficial for you. This will show your teacher that you understand what group work is supposed to achieve. Here’s some ideas:

• Multiple Perspectives. Group work helps you to see things from other people’s perspectives. If you did the task on your own, you might not have thought of some of the ideas that your team members contributed to the project.
• Contribution of Unique Skills. Each team member might have a different set of skills they can bring to the table. You can explain how groups can make the most of different team members’ strengths to make the final contribution as good as it can be. For example, one team member might be good at IT and might be able to put together a strong final presentation, while another member might be a pro at researching using google scholar so they got the task of doing the initial scholarly research.
• Improved Communication Skills. Group work projects help you to work on your communication skills. Communication skills required in group work projects include speaking in turn, speaking up when you have ideas, actively listening to other team members’ contributions, and crucially making compromises for the good of the team.
• Learn to Manage Workplace Conflict. Lastly, your teachers often assign you group work tasks so you can learn to manage conflict and disagreement. You’ll come across this a whole lot in the workplace, so your teachers want you to have some experience being professional while handling disagreements.

You might be able to add more ideas to this list, or you might just want to select one or two from that list to write about depending on the length requirements for the essay.

Scholarly Sources for Step 3

Make sure you provide citations for these points above. You might want to use google scholar or google books and type in ‘Benefits of group work’ to find some quality scholarly sources to cite.

Step 3. Explore the general challenges group work can cause

Step 3 is the mirror image of Step 2. For this step, explore the challenges posed by group work.

Students are usually pretty good at this step because you can usually think of some aspects of group work that made you anxious or frustrated. Here are a few common challenges that group work causes:

• Time Consuming. You need to organize meetups and often can’t move onto the next component of the project until everyone has agree to move on. When working on your own you can just crack on and get it done. So, team work often takes a lot of time and requires significant pre-planning so you don’t miss your submission deadlines!
• Learning Style Conflicts. Different people learn in different ways. Some of us like to get everything done at the last minute or are not very meticulous in our writing. Others of us are very organized and detailed and get anxious when things don’t go exactly how we expect. This leads to conflict and frustration in a group work setting.
• Free Loaders. Usually in a group work project there’s people who do more work than others. The issue of free loaders is always going to be a challenge in group work, and you can discuss in this section how ensuring individual accountability to the group is a common group work issue.
• Communication Breakdown. This is one especially for online students. It’s often the case that you email team members your ideas or to ask them to reply by a deadline and you don’t hear back from them. Regular communication is an important part of group work, yet sometimes your team members will let you down on this part.

As with Step 3, consider adding more points to this list if you need to, or selecting one or two if your essay is only a short one.

8 Pros And Cons Of Group Work At University

You’ll probably find you can cite the same scholarly sources for both steps 2 and 3 because if a source discusses the benefits of group work it’ll probably also discuss the challenges.

Step 4. Explore the specific benefits and challenges your group faced

Step 4 is where you zoom in on your group’s specific challenges. Have a think: what were the issues you really struggled with as a group?

• Was one team member absent for a few of the group meetings?
• Did the group have to change some deadlines due to lack of time?
• Were there any specific disagreements you had to work through?
• Did a group member drop out of the group part way through?
• Were there any communication break downs?

Feel free to also mention some things your group did really well. Have a think about these examples:

• Was one member of the group really good at organizing you all?
• Did you make some good professional relationships?
• Did a group member help you to see something from an entirely new perspective?
• Did working in a group help you to feel like you weren’t lost and alone in the process of completing the group work component of your course?

Here, because you’re talking about your own perspectives, it’s usually okay to use first person language (but check with your teacher). You are also talking about your own point of view so citations might not be quite as necessary, but it’s still a good idea to add in one or two citations – perhaps to the sources you cited in Steps 2 and 3?

Step 5. Discuss how your group managed your challenges

Step 5 is where you can explore how you worked to overcome some of the challenges you mentioned in Step 4.

So, have a think:

• Did your group make any changes part way through the project to address some challenges you faced?
• Did you set roles or delegate tasks to help ensure the group work process went smoothly?
• Did you contact your teacher at any point for advice on how to progress in the group work scenario?
• Did you use technology such as Google Docs or Facebook Messenger to help you to collaborate more effectively as a team?

In this step, you should be showing how your team was proactive in reflecting on your group work progress and making changes throughout the process to ensure it ran as smoothly as possible. This act of making little changes throughout the group work process is what’s called ‘Reflection in Action’ (Schön, 2017).

Scholarly Source for Step 5

Schön, D. A. (2017).  The reflective practitioner: How professionals think in action . Routledge.

Step 6. Conclude by exploring what you will do differently next time

Step 6 is the most important step, and the one far too many students skip. For Step 6, you need to show how you not only reflected on what happened but also are able to use that reflection for personal growth into the future.

This is the heart and soul of your piece: here, you’re tying everything together and showing why reflection is so important!

This is the ‘action plan’ step in Gibbs’ cycle (you might want to cite Gibbs in this section!).

For Step 6, make some suggestions about how (based on your reflection) you now have some takeaway tips that you’ll bring forward to improve your group work skills next time. Here’s some ideas:

• Will you work harder next time to set deadlines in advance?
• Will you ensure you set clearer group roles next time to ensure the process runs more smoothly?
• Will you use a different type of technology (such as Google Docs) to ensure group communication goes more smoothly?
• Will you make sure you ask for help from your teacher earlier on in the process when you face challenges?
• Will you try harder to see things from everyone’s perspectives so there’s less conflict?

This step will be personalized based upon your own group work challenges and how you felt about the group work process. Even if you think your group worked really well together, I recommend you still come up with one or two ideas for continual improvement. Your teacher will want to see that you used reflection to strive for continual self-improvement.

Scholarly Source for Step 6

Step 7. edit.

Okay, you’ve got the nuts and bolts of the assessment put together now! Next, all you’ve got to do is write up the introduction and conclusion then edit the piece to make sure you keep growing your grades.

Here’s a few important suggestions for this last point:

• You should always write your introduction and conclusion last. They will be easier to write now that you’ve completed the main ‘body’ of the essay;
• Use my 5-step I.N.T.R.O method to write your introduction;
• Use my 5 C’s Conclusion method to write your conclusion;
• Use my 5 tips for editing an essay to edit it;
• Use the ProWritingAid app to get advice on how to improve your grammar and spelling. Make sure to also use the report on sentence length. It finds sentences that are too long and gives you advice on how to shorten them – such a good strategy for improving evaluative essay  quality!
• Make sure you contact your teacher and ask for a one-to-one tutorial to go through the piece before submitting. This article only gives general advice, and you might need to make changes based upon the specific essay requirements that your teacher has provided.

That’s it! 7 steps to writing a quality group work reflection essay. I hope you found it useful. If you liked this post and want more clear and specific advice on writing great essays, I recommend signing up to my personal tutor mailing list.

Let’s sum up with those 7 steps one last time:

• Explain what ‘Reflection’ Is
• Explore the benefits of group work for learning
• Explore the challenges of group work for learning
• Explore the specific benefits and challenges your group faced
• Discuss how your group managed your challenges
• Conclude by exploring what you will do differently next time

• Chris Drew (PhD) https://helpfulprofessor.com/author/chris-drew-phd-2/ 25 Number Games for Kids (Free and Easy)
• Chris Drew (PhD) https://helpfulprofessor.com/author/chris-drew-phd-2/ 25 Word Games for Kids (Free and Easy)
• Chris Drew (PhD) https://helpfulprofessor.com/author/chris-drew-phd-2/ 25 Outdoor Games for Kids
• Chris Drew (PhD) https://helpfulprofessor.com/author/chris-drew-phd-2/ 50 Incentives to Give to Students

2 thoughts on “How to write a Reflection on Group Work Essay”

Great instructions on writing a reflection essay. I would not change anything.

Thanks so much for your feedback! I really appreciate it. – Chris.

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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. 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.

Disclaimer and disclosure

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.

The spectrum of collaboration in group writing

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.

Overview of steps of the collaborative process

Here we outline the steps of the collaborative process. You can use these questions to focus your thinking at each stage.

• Share ideas and brainstorm together.
• Formulate a draft thesis or argument .
• Think about your assignment and the final product. What should it look like? What is its purpose? Who is the intended audience ?
• Decide together who will write which parts of the paper/project.
• What will the final product look like?
• Arrange meetings: How often will the group or subsets of the group meet? When and where will the group meet? If the group doesn’t meet in person, how will information be shared?
• Scheduling: What is the deadline for the final product? What are the deadlines for drafts?
• How will the group find appropriate sources (books, journal articles, newspaper articles, visual media, trustworthy websites, interviews)? If the group will be creating data by conducting research, how will that process work?
• Who will read and process the information found? This task again may be done by all members or divided up amongst members so that each person becomes the expert in one area and then teaches the rest of the group.
• Think critically about the sources and their contributions to your topic. Which evidence should you include or exclude? Do you need more sources?
• Analyze the data. How will you interpret your findings? What is the best way to present any relevant information to your readers-should you include pictures, graphs, tables, and charts, or just written text?
• Note that brainstorming the main points of your paper as a group is helpful, even if separate parts of the writing are assigned to individuals. You’ll want to be sure that everyone agrees on the central ideas.
• Where does your individual writing fit into the whole document?
• Writing together may not be feasible for longer assignments or papers with coauthors at different universities, and it can be time-consuming. However, writing together does ensure that the finished document has one cohesive voice.
• Talk about how the writing session should go BEFORE you get started. What goals do you have? How will you approach the writing task at hand?
• Many people find it helpful to get all of the ideas down on paper in a rough form before discussing exact phrasing.
• Remember that everyone has a different writing style! The most important thing is that your sentences be clear to readers.
• If your group has drafted parts of the document separately, merge your ideas together into a single document first, then focus on meshing the styles. The first concern is to create a coherent product with a logical flow of ideas. Then the stylistic differences of the individual portions must be smoothed over.
• Revise the ideas and structure of the paper before worrying about smaller, sentence-level errors (like problems with punctuation, grammar, or word choice). Is the argument clear? Is the evidence presented in a logical order? Do the transitions connect the ideas effectively?
• Proofreading: Check for typos, spelling errors, punctuation problems, formatting issues, and grammatical mistakes. Reading the paper aloud is a very helpful strategy at this point.

Helpful collaborative writing strategies

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.

Start early and allow plenty of time for revising

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.

Plan a strategy for scheduling

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.

Find a convenient and effective way to share files

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:

• Email attachments. People often share files by email; however, especially when there are many group members or there is a flurry of writing activity, this can lead to a deluge of emails in everyone’s inboxes and significant confusion about which file version is current.
• Google documents . Files can be shared between group members and are instantaneously updated, even if two members are working at once. Changes made by one member will automatically appear on the document seen by all members. However, to use this option, every group member must have a Gmail account (which is free), and there are often formatting issues when converting Google documents back to Microsoft Word.
• Dropbox . Dropbox.com is free to join. It allows you to share up to 2GB of files, which can then be synched and accessible from multiple computers. The downside of this approach is that everyone has to join, and someone must install the software on at least one personal computer. Dropbox can then be accessed from any computer online by logging onto the website.
• Common server space. If all group members have access to a shared server space, this is often an ideal solution. Members of a lab group or a lab course with available server space typically have these resources. Just be sure to make a folder for your project and clearly label your files.

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.

Try separating the tasks of revising and editing/proofreading

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.

Immediately dividing the writing into pieces

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.

Procrastination

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.

Being a solo group member

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.

Waiting for other group members to do all of the work

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.

Leaving all the end work to one person

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.

Entirely negative critiques

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.

Works consulted

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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Group Work That Really Works

A group essay writing activity pushes every student to contribute—and it can lead to real growth in writing ability.

Group work is a mode of learning I’ve struggled with for much of my teaching career. The concept of students working together to learn is valuable for many reasons, but creating a group activity where all students are engaged in the collective work can be challenging. Recently, I tried a group essay writing activity that not only involved every student in the task but also created conditions for rich student discussion that resulted in some real growth in their writing skills.

A Group Essay How-To

1. On the day before the group essay, each student first writes an essay on their own. I’ve moved more and more over the years toward having the students write their first draft of most of the writing we do in class. This eliminates many of the distractions that can intrude on student writing and ensures that I’m there to support them. If students need additional time to finish their paper after class, I’ll usually accommodate them.

2. I read the essays myself , writing some quick feedback on a separate sheet of paper—usually just a rubric score, one thing the student did well, and one thing they could do to improve their essay. I use the individual scores and feedback for conferencing with students later that week, when we’ll discuss their reflections on their writing and ways to improve. I also assess the essays as a group for areas that seem to call for more instruction for the whole class.

3. I teach a mini-lesson on one or two of those areas of need I’ve identified for the class as a whole (e.g., thesis statements, finding and integrating evidence, transitions, etc.).

4. And then, the group essay. After handing back the individual essays—with no marks on them—and organizing students into groups of four or five, I give them instructions for group work.

First, students take turns sharing their thesis statements with the group. They discuss the relative merits of each and come to consensus on a group thesis statement. They write this in large letters on one regular sheet of paper that I’ve given them.

Next, students decide on supporting points for the thesis. They need to have a number of supporting points equal to the number of the people in the group because each student is responsible for individually writing a body paragraph for one of the supporting points, using evidence and commentary to connect their supporting point back to the thesis. They each write their own body paragraph on another sheet of paper.

Once students have finished writing their supporting body paragraphs, they come back together as a group and puzzle the essay together, adding transitions to connect the body paragraphs and writing a concluding paragraph on a final sheet of paper.

Although this composing step worked well on paper, I’m looking forward to having the students try it out on shared Google docs, as that would make the editing process easier—particularly when the students come together to combine their paragraphs into a cohesive whole.

5. Finally, the groups get up in front of the class and read their essay aloud. After each group reads, we take a few minutes to discuss the strengths of the essay and ask any questions we might have about it.

Why Group Essays Work

The success of this activity stems from the shared responsibility of writing the essay. As I walked around the room while the groups were working, the focus and richness of the discussions showed me just how much impact this activity would have when it came to developing students’ understanding of the elements of an effective essay. Almost every single student was engaged, and those who became distracted were quickly brought back to focus by a group that was relying on their contribution.

Having the students read their essay aloud in front of the class provided some valuable results. The entire class benefited not only from hearing what students had done with the thesis and support but also from the feedback given by me and their classmates. And I was provided with a great formative assessment opportunity and took notes for further mini-lessons my classes might need. In the very next essay we wrote in class, I noticed significant growth in the skills students had worked on in their groups.

One more not-so-small detail: Students loved the group essays. The complaints I sometimes hear about group work—that one person ended up doing all the work, that one or more people weren’t contributing, that it was hard to figure out who was supposed to do what—were rare. All students were essential, the roles and tasks were clearly defined, and the time constraint of needing to get all the writing and discussion done in one class period added an urgency to the task, so that very little time was wasted. (It is possible to break the group activity into two class periods if necessary.)

Students agreed that this was an activity that actually helped them understand how to improve their writing, and they asked if they could do it again for their next essay.

I’m looking forward to trying some variations on the group essay—perhaps having students write the essay together before trying on their own, or having them create mini-lessons for the writing needs they see in the classroom.

Collaborative and Group Writing

Introduction

When it comes to collaborative writing, people often have diametrically opposed ideas. Academics in the sciences often write multi-authored articles that depend on sharing their expertise. Many thrive on the social interaction that collaborative writing enables. Composition scholars Lisa Ede and Andrea Lunsford enjoyed co-authoring so much that they devoted their career to studying it. For others, however, collaborative writing evokes the memories of group projects gone wrong and inequitable work distribution.

Whatever your prior opinions about collaborative writing, we’re here to tell you that this style of composition may benefit your writing process and may help you produce writing that is cogent and compelling. At its best, collaborative writing can help to slow down the writing process, since it necessitates conversation, planning with group members, and more deliberate revising. A study described in Helen Dale’s “The Influence of Coauthoring on the Writing Process” shows that less experienced writers behave more like experts when they engage in collaborative writing. Students working on collaborative writing projects have said that their collaborative writing process involved more brainstorming, discussion, and diverse opinions from group members. Some even said that collaborative writing entailed less of an individual time commitment than solo papers.

Although collaborative writing implies that every part of a collaborative writing project involves working cooperatively with co-author(s), in practice collaborative writing often includes individual work. In what follows, we’ll walk you through the collaborative writing process, which we’ve divided into three parts: planning, drafting, and revising. As you consider how you’ll structure the writing process for your particular project, think about the expertise and disposition of your co-author(s), your project’s due date, the amount of time that you can devote to the project, and any other relevant factors. For more information about the various types of co-authorship systems you might employ, see “Strategies for Effective Collaborative Manuscript Development in Interdisciplinary Science Teams,” which outlines five different “author-management systems.”

The Collaborative Writing Process

Planning includes everything that is done before writing. In collaborative writing, this is a particularly important step since it’s crucial that all members of a team agree about the basic elements of the project and the logistics that will govern the project’s completion.Collaborative writing—by its very definition—requires more communication than individual work since almost all co-authored projects oblige participants to come to an agreement about what should be written and how to do this writing. And careful communication at the planning stage is usually critical to the creation of a strong collaborative paper. We would recommend assigning team members roles. Ensure that you know who will be initially drafting each section, who will be revising and editing these sections, who will be responsible for confirming that all team members complete their jobs, and who will be submitting the finished project.

Drafting refers to the process of actually writing the paper. We’ve called this part of the process drafting instead of writing to highlight the recursive nature of crafting a compelling paper since strong writing projects are often the product of several rounds of drafts. At this point in the writing process, you’ll need to make a choice: will you write together, individually, or in some combination of these two modes?

Individually

Revising is the final stage in the writing process. It will occur after a draft (either of a particular section or the entire paper) has been written. Revising, for most writing projects, will need to go beyond making line-edits that revise at the sentence-level. Instead, you’ll want to thoroughly consider all aspects of the draft in order to create a version of it that satisfies each member of the team. For more information about revision, check out our Writer’s Handbook page about revising longer papers .Even if your team has drafted the paper individually, we would recommend coming together to discuss revisions. Revising together and making choices about how to improve the draft—either online or in-person— is a good way to build consensus among group members since you’ll all need to agree on the changes you make.After you’ve discussed the revisions as a group, you’ll need to how you want to complete these revisions. Just like in the drafting stage above, you can choose to write together or individually.

Person A writes a section Person B gives suggestions for revision on this section Person A edits the section based on these suggestions

Person A writes a section The entire team meets and gives suggestions for revision on this section Person B edits the section based on these suggestions

Think through the strengths of your co-authoring team and choose a system that will work for your needs.

Suggestions for Efficient and Harmonious Collaborative Writing

Establish ground rules.

Although it can be tempting to jump right into your project—especially when you have limited time—establishing ground rules right from the beginning will help your group navigate the writing process. Conflicts and issues will inevitably arise in during the course of many long-term project. Knowing how you’ll navigate issues before they appear will help to smooth out these wrinkles. For example, you may also want to establish who will be responsible for checking in with authors if they don’t seem to be completing tasks assigned to them by their due dates. You may also want to decide how you will adjudicate disagreements. Will the majority rule? Do you want to hold out for full consensus? Establishing some ground rules will ensure that expectations are clear and that all members of the team are involved in the decision-making process.

Respect your co-author(s)

Everyone has their strengths. If you can recognize this, you’ll be able to harness your co-author(s) assets to write the best paper possible. It can be easy to write someone off if they’re not initially pulling their weight, but this type of attitude can be cancerous to a positive group mindset. Instead, check in with your co-author(s) and figure out how each one can best contribute to the group’s effort.

Be willing to argue

Arguing (respectfully!) with the other members of your writing group is a good thing because it means that you are expressing your deeply held beliefs with your co-author(s). While you don’t need to fight your team members about every feeling you have (after all, group work has to involve compromise!), if there are ideas that you feel strongly about—communicate them and encourage other members of your group to do the same even if they conflict with others’ viewpoints.

Schedule synchronous meetings

While you may be tempted to figure out group work purely by email, there’s really no substitute for talking through ideas with your co-author(s) face-to-face—even if you’re looking at your teammates face through the computer. At the beginning of your project, get a few synchronous meetings on the books in advance of your deadlines so that you can make sure that you’re able to have clear lines of communication throughout the writing process.

Use word processing software that enables collaboration

Sending lots of Word document drafts back-and-forth over email can get tiring and chaotic. Instead, we would recommend using word processing software that allows online collaboration. Right now, we like Google Docs for this since it’s free, easy to use, allows many authors to edit the same document, and has robust collaboration tools like chat and commenting.

Dale, Helen. “The Influence of Coauthoring on the Writing Process.” Journal of Teaching Writing , vol. 15, no. 1, 1996, pp. 65-79.

Lunsford, Andrea A., and Lisa Ede.  Writing Together: Collaboration in Theory and Practice . Bedford St. Martin, 2011.

Oliver, Samantha K., et al. “Strategies for Effective Collaborative Manuscript Development in Interdisciplinary Science Teams.”  Ecosphere , vol. 9, no. 4, Apr. 2018, pp. 1–13., doi:10.1002/ecs2.2206.

Writing Process and Structure

This is an accordion element with a series of buttons that open and close related content panels.

Getting Started with Your Paper

Interpreting Writing Assignments from Your Courses

Generating Ideas for Your Paper

Creating an Argument

Thesis vs. Purpose Statements

Developing a Thesis Statement

Architecture of Arguments

Working with Sources

Quoting and Paraphrasing Sources

Using Literary Quotations

Citing Sources in Your Paper

Drafting Your Paper

Generating Ideas for Your Paper Introductions Paragraphing Developing Strategic Transitions Conclusions

Revising Your Paper

Peer Reviews

Reverse Outlines

Revising an Argumentative Paper

Revision Strategies for Longer Projects

Developing Strategic Transitions

Finishing your Paper

Twelve Common Errors: An Editing Checklist

How to Proofread your Paper

Writing Collaboratively

Working in Groups

Working in a group can be enjoyable or frustrating--sometimes both. The best way to ensure a good working experience in groups is to think hard about whether a project is best done in a group, and, if so, to have a clear set of expectations about group work.

Why Work in Groups?

You might choose to work or write a paper in a group rather than individually for many reasons. Some of the reasons include practical experience while others highlight why group work might provide a better learning experience:

• In group work, you can draw on each group member's knowledge and perspectives, frequently giving you a more well thought out paper at the end or a better understanding of the class material for exams, labs, etc.
• You can also draw on people's different strengths. For example, you might be a great proofreader while someone else is much better at organizing papers.
• Groups are great for motivation: they force you to be responsible to others and frequently, then, do more and better work on a project than you might when only responsible to yourself.
• Group work helps keep you on task. It's harder to procrastinate when working with others.
• Working in groups, especially writing texts together, mirrors working styles common outside school. In business, industry, and research organizations, collaborative work is the norm rather than the exception.

Writing Tasks Suited to Group Work

Although any piece of writing can be group-authored, some types of writing simply "make more sense" to be written in groups or are ideal for cutting down on certain aspects of the work load.

Whether you've chosen to do a group project or have been assigned to work together, any group works better if all members know the reason why more than one person is involved in writing the paper. Understanding what a group adds to the project helps alleviate some of the problems associated with group work, such as thinking you need to do it all yourself. While not exhaustive, the following are some of the types of papers that are typically better written when worked on in groups. To read more, choose any of the items below:

Papers Requiring "Original" Research

Whenever you have a paper that requires you to observe things, interview other experts, conduct surveys, or do any other kind of "field" research, having more than one person to divide these tasks among allows you to write a more thoroughly researched paper. Also, because these kinds of sources are frequently hard to "make sense" of, having more than one perspective on what you find is a great help in deciding how to use the information in a paper. For example, having more than one person observe the same thing frequently gives you two different perspectives on what happened.

Papers Requiring Library Research

Although most of us might be satisfied with two or three sources in a research paper using written sources, instructors usually expect more. Working with multiple people allows you to break up library tasks more easily and do a more thorough search for relevant material. For example, one person can check Internet sources, another might have to check a certain database in the library (like SAGE) while another works on a different database more specific to your topic (e.g. ERIC for education, MLA for literature, etc.). Also, the diversity of perspectives in a group helps you decide which sources are most relevant for your argument and audience.

Any Type of Argument

Arguments, by their very nature, involve having a good sense of audience, including audiences that may not agree with you. Imagining all the possible reactions to your audience is a difficult task with these types of papers. The diversity of perspectives and experiences of multiple people are a great advantage here. This is particularly true of "public" issues which affect many people because it is easy to assume your perspective on what the public thinks is "right" as opposed to being subject to your own, limited experience. This is equally true of more "academic" arguments because each member of a group might have a different sense, depending on their past course work and field experience, of what a disciplinary audience is expecting and what has already been said about a topic.

Interpretations

A paper that requires some type of interpretation--of literature, a design structure, a piece of art, etc.--always includes various perspectives, whether it be the historical perspective of the piece, the context of the city in which a landscape is designed, or the perspective of the interpreter. Given how important perspective is to this type of writing and thinking, reviewing or interpreting work from a variety of perspectives helps strengthen these papers. Such variety is a normal part of group work but much harder to get at individually.

Cultural Analyses

Any analysis of something cultural, whether it be from an anthropological perspective, a political science view of a public issue, or an analysis of a popular film, involves a "reading" or interpretation of the culture's context as well. However, context is never simply one thing and can be "read", much like a poem, in many ways. Having a variety of "eyes" to analyze a cultural scene, then, gives your group an advantage over single-authored papers that may be more limited.

Lab/Field Reports

Any type of experiment or field research involving observation and/or interpretation of data can benefit from multiple participants. More observers help lessen the work load and provide more data from a single observation which can lead to better, or even more objective, interpretations. For these reasons, much work in science is collaborative.

Any Type of Evaluation

An evaluation paper, such as reviews, critiques, or case reports, implies the ability to make and defend a judgment. judgments, as we all know, can be very idiosyncratic when only one person interprets the data or object at hand. As a result, performing an evaluation in a group allows you to gain multiple perspectives, challenge each other's ideas and assumptions, and thus defend a judgment that may not be as subject to bias.

Fact and Fiction: Common Fears about Group Work

Group work can be a frightening prospect for many people, especially in a school setting when so much of what we do is only "counted" (i.e. graded) if it's been completed individually. Some of these fears are fictions, but others are well founded and can be addressed by being careful about how group work is set up.

My individual ideas will be lost

Fact or Fiction? Both

In any group, no one's ideas count more than another's; as a result, you will not always get a given idea into a paper exactly as you originally thought it. However, getting your ideas challenged and changed is the very reason to do a group project. The key is to avoid losing your ideas entirely (i.e. being silenced in a group) without trying to control the group and silencing others.

Encourage Disagreement

It's okay to argue. Only through arguing with other members can you test the strength of not only others' ideas but also your own. Just be careful to keep the disagreement on the issue, not on personalities.

Encourage a Collaborative Attitude

No paper, even if you write it alone, is solely a reflection of your own ideas; the paper includes ideas you've gotten from class, from reading, from research. Think of your group members, and encourage them to think of you, as yet another source of knowledge.

Be Ready to Compromise

Look for ways in which differing ideas might be used to come up with a "new" idea that includes parts of both. It's okay to "stick to your guns," but remember everyone gives up a little in a group interaction. You must determine when you're willing to bend and when you're not.

Consider Including the Disagreement in the Paper

Depending on the type of paper you're writing, it's frequently okay to include more than one "right" answer by showing both are supportable with available evidence. In fact, papers which present disagreement without resolutions can sometimes be better than those that argue for only one solution or point of view.

I could write it better myself

Fact or Fiction? Usually both

Even if you are an excellent writer, collaboratively written papers are usually better than a single-authored one if for no other reason than the content is better: it is better researched, more well thought out, includes more perspectives, etc. The only time this is not true is if you've chosen to group-author a paper that does not need collaboration. However, writing a good final draft of a collaboratively written paper does take work that all group members should be prepared to do. To read more about collaborating successfully, choose any of the items below:

Divide the Writing Tasks

While everyone is not necessarily a great writer in all aspects, they usually know what they do well. Someone may be great at organizing but not be a good proofreader. Someone else might be great using vivid language, but lose their writing focus. Have group members write what they're best at and/or ask them to read the first draft for specific things they know well.

Leave Enough Time for Revising

First drafts of collaborative papers are frequently much worse than first drafts of individual papers because many disagreements are still being worked out when writing. Leave yourselves, then, a lot of time to critique the first draft and rewrite it.

Divide the Paper into Sections

People in your group may know a lot more about certain topics in the paper because they did the research for that section or may have more experience writing, say, a methods section than others. To get a good first draft going, divide tasks up according to what people feel the most comfortable with. Be sure, however, to do a lot of peer review as well.

Be Critical

One of the advantages of group work is you learn to read your own and others' writing more critically. Since this is your work too, don't be afraid to suggest and make changes on parts of the paper, even if you didn't write them in the drafting process. Every section, including yours, belongs to everyone in the group.

My grade will depend on what others do

Fact or Fiction? Fact

Although some instructors make provisions for individual grades even on a collaborative project, the fact remains that at least a part, if not the whole grade will depend on what others do. Although this may be frightening, the positive side to this is that it increases people's motivation and investment in the project. Of course, not everyone will care about grades as much as others. In this case, the group needs to make decisions early on for the "slacker" contingency. To read more about how to deal with unequal investments in the task, choose any of the items below:

Make Rules and Stick to Them

Before you even start work on a project, make rules about what will happen to those members not doing their part and outline the consequences. Here are some possible "consequences" other groups have used:

• If someone misses a meeting, or doesn't do a certain task, he/she has to type the final paper, buy pizza for the next meeting, etc.
• If more than one meeting is missed or a member consistently fails to do what she/he is supposed to, the group can decide not to include that name on the project. (Check this one with your instructor)
• In the same scenario, the group can decide to write a written evaluation of the member's work and pass it in to the instructor with the paper.

No one, usually, wants to anger their peers. When someone isn't doing his/her work, other group members need to tell that member. Many times people who end up doing more than their share do so because they don't complain.

Deal with It

This may sound harsh, but the reality of life outside of school is that some people do more work than others but are not necessarily penalized for it. You need to learn how to deal with these issues given that in the working world, you are frequently dependent on others you work with. Learning how to handle such situations now is a good learning experience in itself.

Group work will take more time than if I did it myself

There is no way around this, so be prepared. Even if you divide up many of the early tasks (research, etc.) which lessens the time you might put in individually, writing a collaborative paper takes a lot of time. It's time well spent as the final project is usually better than what any one individual could do, but don't fool yourself into thinking choosing a group option will mean less work. It hardly ever does.

My group members aren't as smart as I am

Fact or Fiction? Fiction

This is a dangerous attitude to bring into a group situation. If you honestly believe it's true, you should probably not choose group work if it's optional. If you don't have a choice, then consider the fact that other people might be thinking the same of you. To read about how your group can avoid this, choose any of the items below:

Discuss Member's Strengths and Weaknesses

At the first meeting, have each group member do a personal inventory covering a wide range of issues relevant to the work you'll do together. Remember that while one person may be good at ideas/course content, someone else may have strengths as a critical reader, researcher, or writer. Some questions might include: what do you know about our topic already? What experiences do you have that might be relevant? What have you done the best on in other parts of the course? What have you been complimented on about your writing in the past from teachers or peers? What kind of reader of other people's papers are you?

Practice Listening

It's too easy to judge someone based on personal assumptions. Assign someone each meeting to take careful notes on everything said, not just what that person thinks is relevant. Many good ideas are lost because we judge the person rather than what he/she says.

Think of your group members, and encourage them to think of you, as yet another source of knowledge just as you might a teacher, a book, or any other source you consult for a paper. Sometimes you can learn the most from someone you think is "wrong" because they can provide a perspective you've ignored.

We won't be able to agree

Group work is messy; you will disagree often. The best groups don't silence disagreement because it's usually in arguing that you can challenge each other to think more about the topic. However, groups that only disagree are no more functional than those that agree to everything. The key is balancing the two. To read more about how to handle disagreements, choose any of the items below:

Assign a Monitor/Mediator

For every meeting, ask someone to keep careful track of the differing opinions and reasons for them. At a certain point in the meeting (or for the next meeting), the mediator's job is to present all the views and try to reach a consensus which includes parts of them. To do this, the mediator must stay out of the arguments for that meeting only.

Decide Whether You Have to Agree

This won't work in every instance, but sometimes you might decide to include the disagreement in the paper itself. Presenting why two different sides of an issue are equally supportable can sometime strengthen the paper, rather than weaken it, depending on the purpose of the paper.

Make Discussion Rules

While arguing about ideas is good, personal attacks are not. Early on, decide as a group what is acceptable behavior toward each other and follow the rule: call someone on it when they go too far.

I don't have time to meet out of class

Fact or Fiction? Sometimes a Fact

Most of us, even if we're very busy, can find two hours to meet with a group. The key is having those two hours in common with other people, which is why, when forming a group, time in common is the first thing to consider. If you are assigned a group, however, this may not be possible. In this case, consider alternative ways of meeting: telephone, e-mail, meetings with some group members, etc. To read more about different alternatives, choose any of the items below:

Everyone on campus can get an e-mail account. You can work on much of the logistical (who needs to do what when) work of a group through e-mail communication. This is also a good way to exchange drafts of the paper, with each person making revisions when the draft gets to them. Or, it can serve as a way to send your "section" before you have a complete draft and/or to exchange research notes. It's not as useful for hashing out ideas or coming up with your thesis for the paper, however.

Talk to your instructor about setting up a chat room through the WWW. Although sometimes frustrating because you will be writing instead of talking, you can use a chat room to do much of the idea generation that e-mail isn't as useful for because of the time lag.

Partial Meetings

Meet in two different groups, with one person in common. Take good notes so that one person can communicate what you decided/talked about to the next group. This can work until the "final" decision stage of what the focus of the paper will be and the final changes to the draft. For these, you'll need probably to meet at least once (for the decision making) or pass the draft around continuously until everyone is ready to sign off on it.

Weekend Meetings

No one loves this option, but if you have no other free time together, you might be able to find a Sunday morning or Friday night when everyone can meet for the one or two meetings that seem as if they must be face-to-face.

I would learn more doing it on my own

While this may seem true because you'd have to do all the work, group work usually allows you to include more research than you could alone, exposes you to perspectives you wouldn't hear otherwise, and teaches you about your own writing strengths and weaknesses in ways writing alone and just getting a response never can. Thus, in group work, you learn more about writing itself, and, if done right, the topic as well.

I'll end up doing all the work

Unless you are unwilling to give up control or speak up for yourself, this shouldn't happen. Although the reality is that some people will try to get away with doing less, the chances of having a completely uncommitted group are rare. As a result, you simply have to watch for the tendency to think you "know better" than others and thus must do it all yourself and/or the attitude that your grade will suffer because everything isn't done the way you want it. To read about how not to do all the work, choose any of the items below:

• If you miss a meeting, or don't do a certain task, you have to type the final paper, buy pizza for the next meeting, etc.
• If more than one meeting is missed or a member consistently fails to do what she/he is supposed to, the group can decide not to include their name on the project. (Check this one with your instructor)

No one, usually, wants to anger his/her peers. When someone isn't doing their work, other group members need to tell them. Many times people who end up doing more than their share do so because they don't complain.

While everyone is not necessarily a great writer in all aspects, they usually know what they do well. Someone may be great at organizing but not be a good proofreader. Someone else might be great a vivid language, but lose their focus. Have group members write what they're best at and/or ask them to read the first draft for specific things they know well. Even if you're good at all aspects, this doesn't mean you can't draw on the others' strengths.

One of the advantages of group work is you learn to read your own and others' writing more critically. Since this is your work too, don't be afraid to suggest and make changes on parts of the paper, even if you didn't write them in the drafting process. Every section, including yours, belongs to everyone in the group. Thus, one way to get a better product without doing all the work yourself is to be a good reader.

What to Expect in Group Work

Several factors we may not always think about when working in a group are vital to a successful group project. You should always establish how your group will handle each of these. To learn more about these factors, choose any of the items below:

Although we might assume productive groups will always be in complete agreement and focused on task, the reality of groups, as we have probably all experienced, is much messier than this. "Ideal" productive groups do not exist. In fact, some of the most productive groups will disagree, spend a lot of time goofing around, and even follow many blind alleys before achieving consensus. It's important to be aware of the rather messy nature of group work.

Student groups will fight--in fact, they should fight, but only in particular ways. Research shows that "substantive" conflict, conflict directed toward the work at hand and issues pertaining to it, is highly productive and should be encouraged. "Personal" conflict, conflict directed toward group members' egos, however, is damaging and unproductive. The lesson is that students need to respect each other. Some groups decide to negotiate respect by making rules against inappropriate comments or personal attacks. When a damaging instance arises in a certain situation, any group member can immediately censor back the comment by saying "inappropriate comment."

Socializing

Of course, groups will not continually argue nor will they continually stay on task. Socializing, joking around, or telling stories are a natural part of group interaction and should be encouraged. It is primarily through "goofing off&qout; that group members learn about each other's personalities, communication styles, and senses of humor. Such knowledge builds trust and community among the members. Although groups should be counseled not to spend inappropriately long amounts of time simply gossiping or telling stories, they should also realize the importance and influence such interactions can have on achieving a group identity that all members come to share.

Wrong Decisions

Group members should be aware of and comfortable with the frequently frustrating reality of making the wrong decisions. Making mistakes, trying out options that don't work, and so on are not "a waste of time." In any creative situation, particularly in writing, trying out unsuccessful options is frequently the only way to discover what needs to be done. Although such frustrations take place even in individual contexts, they are particularly hard to negotiate in a group context because our immediate instinct is to blame another group member for a faulty suggestion. Students should be aware that all time spent on a task is productive even if it does not lead to any tangible product.

Unequal Commitments

In a perfect world, everyone would have as much time and desire in a group as others to create the best paper possible, but the reality is some people are procrastinators or care more about their grades in certain classes. Expect this and make contingencies for it by deciding early on what the "penalty" will be for those who miss meetings or fail to pull their weight.

Choosing Group Members

Sometimes in class assignments, you won't be able to choose your group, but if you have this option or are forming a group for your own purposes (e.g. study groups for exams), be careful of how you choose members. To read more about how to construct a group, choose any of the items below:

Time in Common to Meet

You'll want to have at least a two-hour chunk of time that everyone in the group can meet each week. While you'll probably not meet every week, everyone should be willing to keep this time free during the group project. If you plan to gather to write the text together, you'll need much larger chunks of time toward the end of the project.

Individual Strengths and Weaknesses

Any collaboratively written paper will include research, idea-generating, and writing abilities. For other groups, such as study groups, only idea-generating or understanding of class material may be relevant. As you ask people to join your group, have a specific reason why they would "add" to the group mix in terms of abilities. Choosing your friends is not always the best way to get a "balanced" group. For example, your friends might all be good at research but all lack writing skills.

If you're doing a group paper or studying together, including a diversity of people might be a real asset. For example, gender diversity may or may not be relevant depending on the topic. Past course work or job experience may or may not be relevant. Prepare a list of the types of diversity that may help strengthen your paper because of the different perspectives or types of expertise people can bring to the group.

Next to enough time to meet, this criterion is most important. Try to choose group members who have an equal investment in the project or study group as you do. It's unfair to invite someone because you think they'll do most of the work; it's equally unfair to you to invite someone you like but who will probably miss meetings or procrastinate.

Guidelines for Group Work

The members of student groups may benefit from keeping some common-sense rules and aphorisms in mind as they come to collaborate.

Collaboration teaches us what we know how to do , not just what we know. Collaboration teaches method. The activities of collaboration are as important as the material results.

Collaboration works best when it is apparent--when you know that you are collaborating. A certain amount of formality (e.g., established meeting times, a recorder to take minutes perhaps, a group monitor) is called for.

Collaboration succeeds when everybody succeeds--individual members as well as the group as a whole.

Collaboration is a key responsibility in the class experience--it means being involved in the teaching of the course.

No one ever knows how a collaborative activity will turn out.

Initial Decision-Making

This section provides suggestions about the types of decisions any group should make before getting into the work on a paper itself in order to prevent future problems.

Where many groups go wrong is not being clear about expectations from the onset. Problems are much easier to deal with when you discuses their possibility in the abstract rather than when they involve individual people and feelings. As such, making the following decisions early on can help deflect feelings of personal attack later and also help organize the group.

Agree on a Meeting Format

While many groups will (and should) spend time socializing, talking about class, etc., it's helpful to set up expectations for how much of this type of talk should/can occur during a meeting. Also, because of how much typically gets said during meetings, you need a way to keep track of what occurred and plan for the next meeting. For instance, you should:

• Appoint a secretary for each meeting
• Plan for the next meeting (set an agenda) at the end of each meeting
• Plan a short amount of time at the beginning of each meeting for chatting and appoint someone to get the group "started" after that time has passed

Construct Rules for Discussion

Although it usually seems unlikely in the beginning, a healthy disagreement can easily turn nasty when people are invested in a topic. Decide early on what will be considered inappropriate comments and make sure someone monitors these in later meetings. Here are some rules to consider:

• No personal attacks on a person's intelligence, background, way of speaking, etc.
• No yelling; all disagreements should be kept in a rational tone
• No name calling
• If a person objects to a comment directed at them, the conversation stops there, no matter anyone's opinion of the objection
• Out of Line Comments: "That's a dumb idea;" "You don't know what you're talking about;" "It figures a man/woman would say that"

Construct a Timeline

It's very easy to get lost in people's individual schedules week to week and put off certain tasks "just this time." Also, it's easy for a group project to seem "huge" until the tasks are broken down. For these reasons, it's useful to decide what tasks need to be done and when they need to be finished in order for the group to meet its final deadline.

Make a schedule and keep to it. This will also help group members monitor each other so that someone isn't stuck with all the work at the end. Consider the following:

• When will a final decision on the topic/focus be made?
• What kinds of research do we need to do? Who will do what? By when?
• When will people report back on research? What notes should they write up for others? By when?
• When must a final decision on the major point (thesis) of the paper be made?
• When will the paper be drafted initially?
• When will the comments/suggestions for revision be completed?
• When will the revisions be done by?
• When will the final proofreading occur?

Agree on Penalties for Missing Meetings or Deadlines

Although it would be great if this weren't true, the reality is some people are going to miss meetings and deadlines; some might even try to get others to do their work by not completing tasks. Groups need to be prepared for these contingencies by constructing rules and their consequences that can be applied later if individuals "drop the ball." Consider the following:

Discuss What Each Member Brings to the Group

While you might know your other group members as friends, you probably don't know as much about them as students as you might think. A very productive topic for the first meeting, after all the logistics have been worked out, is to discuss what individual members' strengths and weaknesses are. In short, have everyone conduct a "personal inventory" and share it with the other members on their experiences relevant to the collaborative assignment. Doing this also helps alleviate the feeling that some group members are "smarter" or "know more" than others. Everyone has strengths they bring to the group; we're simply not always aware of them. Consider the following:

• What's your previous experience with the topic?
• What do you understand best from class? What are you struggling with?
• Do you have any outside experience (job, internships, previous classes) relevant to the topic and/or class?
• What's your experience with the kind of research we're doing (field, library, etc.)
• What kinds of papers do you write best? What have teachers and others complimented you on?
• What problems do you have in writing?

Idea-Generating and Research Tasks

This section deals with the types of tasks that can and should occur before the group begins drafting the paper and provides suggestions on how to best distribute the work.

Although when we work on our own, all of us frequently deter from the model of "gather all your information, decide on a thesis, write and outline, and draft" typically recommended in writing text books. However, this is a useful order to try and follow in group work. Many times a group might work through this order recursively, researching, finding a topic, and then having to do more research, however breaking up these tasks initially helps lighten the workload later and helps you meet the final deadline.

Library Research

While it's a good idea to have everyone work on research, you don't want to end up finding the same sources. Consider breaking down the library research according to data bases. One person searches SAGE, another the New York Times, etc. Also construct a plan for how people will "report" back on research. Should they write a summary for everyone? Bring photocopies?

Field Research

Depending on the type of field research, you may break down what needs to be done individually or choose to send people out in pairs or groups. Pairs and groups, for example, work particularly well for observational projects where each person may observe something different. Also, construct a plan for how people will "report" back on research. Should they make a more extended copy of their notes? Should the group decide what's important to focus on and then ask each person to share that portion of their work? No matter what the decision, make sure each group member has the entire body of information to work from. Observations and interviews can't be used by everyone like a library source can unless the person doing them has a detailed, written record.

Evaluating Sources

The most difficult part of doing research individually or in pairs is deciding what's relevant or not to the group's project. It's useful, then, to either construct criteria for what makes a "good" source before the research begins, or to have people report back on everything they found, and decide a focus from there that can help you look more specifically for other sources. Developing a focus early on is especially important to field research as any surveys, observations, or interviews you do will only need to be redone if they don't elicit the information you later discover you need.

Deciding on a Focus

Depending on your topic, this may occur in different places in the process. For a library project, it's useful to have some idea of a focus before starting the research, then refining it according to what you find out. For observational research, it's useful to do a few observations without a sense of focus, and use what you see to determine what's most interesting to the group. In any type of research, however, a focus should be determined before the researching ends; otherwise, you may not end up with information you can use.

Coming to Consensus on the Main Point and Organization

Once you've gotten a focus and collected most of your data or sources, the group needs to conduct the most difficult task: decide upon the point of the paper. While in individual papers, many of us frequently "write to find a point," this is very difficult to do in a group. Before the writing starts, you want everyone to have the same conclusion or point in mind so that what they write will not lack coherence with other parts of the paper. For similar reasons, deciding on the organization of the paper beforehand, in some type of outline or list of sections, will make the writing much easier.

Writing the Paper Together

Depending on the purpose of the assignment, you can choose from a number of models for working in collaborative groups.

Determine what Final Paper Should 'Sound' Like

Before actually beginning to write, your group will need to make some decisions about the final draft, some of which may need to be checked with your instructor first. Consider the following:

• Is it okay to include disagreements? Should the paper argue for one point/interpretation/conclusion or present other possibilities that emerged in your discussions?
• Should the paper sound as if one person wrote it? Are different styles acceptable or will you have to revise for a similar style throughout?
• How will you refer to the author, as "we", as a group name, by last names? What's standard format for collaborative work in your discipline?

When you divide the writing tasks, each member does research and writes a portion of the document. The group then reconvenes to suggest revisions, smooth over transitions, and even edit style inconsistencies. This model is the most efficient and quickest for most groups that have not worked together in the past. Consider the following:

• This only works if you spend a lot of time discussing organization before writing; otherwise, sections tend to digress and/or repeat each others.
• Plan to write the introduction, conclusion, and transitions between sections together to help the text "flow."
• Edit/revise the draft for coherence; is it obvious how each section supports/leads to your main point? Skipping this stage could lead to an incomprehensible paper. People's ideas about the main point, no matter how much discussion, aren't always going to be the same.

Gather to Write Together

Writing together is efficient in that groups can sometimes make better decisions than individuals. Consequently, fewer drafts might be required. However, this kind of true collaborative writing, especially in larger groups, can be very difficult and time consuming. You may need to spend more time working together. Consider the following:

• How well this works depends a great deal on how comfortable you are with each other and if you're willing to correct and suggest in the middle of someone writing.
• Don't get caught up in arguments about sentence structure, word choice, etc. This is only a first draft and trying to be too "perfect" during the writing will increase the writing time exponentially.
• Plan more than one meeting for the drafting; writing like this cannot be done in one sitting.
• Leave time to critique the draft and make revisions. Writing together is not a substitute for revision.

Delegate Various Responsibilities

Members who might have excellent research skills might do most of the research; those who are excellent at writing correctly might do most of the editing and proofreading. This model requires a high degree of group coordination. For some groups--but definitely not all--this model is most efficient. For others, (in which no even split of skill levels exists) it will be the least efficient. Consider the following:

• Be sure everyone, not just the final editor, has approved what will be passed in. Everyone needs to read and critique each draft.
• Be sure tasks are broken down equally. Proofing the final copy is not equivalent to writing the first draft.
• For this method to work, those doing the research must keep detailed, accurate notes that others who might not have seen the original source can understand and use.
• "Planning" meetings are essential; the people drafting must have a clear idea of the point, organization, and what sources are relevant to what parts of the paper or else much time can be wasted.

Using Group Time Profitably

After making initial decisions about choice of topic and members' duties, a group will work best together if each member comes to meetings with at least some of his or her individual work and thinking already accomplished. Groups can then move directly to the more advanced writing process stages of organizing and negotiating between ideas or even of piecing together drafts. Various strategies help make group time as productive as possible:

Be Prepared

Come to the meeting with at least some of your individual work and thinking already accomplished. If you were assigned to write a portion of the draft, for example, have it done for the meeting and bring copies. If this is a planning meeting, think about the topic before hand and jot down some notes about what you think should be done.

Set an Agenda

Set aside time at the beginning of each meeting to run through (or create) the agenda and state aloud the goals for this meeting (i.e. what you want to accomplish). Save time at the end of each meeting to recap the events of the session, discuss plans for individual work, and set the agenda for the next meeting.

Appoint a Secretary

Group meetings can move very quickly with so many people talking. For each meeting appoint a scribe (a different one each time) to take down notes on the discussion and keep track of plans and decisions made. The scribe should provide each member with a copy of a particular meeting so everyone has the same sense of what happened and what was decided.

All committees need time for unfocused discussions that attempt to move the group toward consensus. More than a few group meetings may need to be devoted to what seems like unfocused talk. Allowing this to happen will make later sessions more productive since you've already explored many ideas about the topic; as a result, getting down to work will be easier.

Feel free to disagree. The best ideas come about when someone has the guts to question an idea or plan that seems to make sense to everyone else. Critiquing each other's work or ideas is essential to working together to create the best product. Don't hold to your individual ideas so strongly, however, that the group doesn't make any progress. Know when to compromise and when not to.

Be Strict about Deadlines

You expect all your other group members to complete the work they've committed themselves to; apply the same standard to yourself. Remember that you have a commitment to these people and failure to meet it will affect not only your grade but theirs as well.

Dealing With Problems in a Group

Group work is rarely flawless. Two methods for dealing with problems are monitoring the group and discussing the problems. If you agree ahead of time about how to resolve problems, you can avoid involving your instructor in the situation; however, if you can't resolve the problem it may be a good idea to ask for assistance.

Clarify Your Expectations Early

One way to avoid problems later is to make decisions about deadlines, meeting etiquette, and penalties for missed work before any of these occur. This way you can refer back to decisions already made and avoid the possibility that one member may feel like they're "being picked on" or meetings become so out of hand they can't be controlled.

Monitor the Group

One way to help alleviate some of the problems that may result from group interactions is to encourage the group to somehow monitor itself. To facilitate this monitoring, each group member can keep a journal in which she or he comments on each group meeting. The journal can become the place to express frustration, to analyze the nature of communication taking place in the group, and so on. Or the group may choose to divide up monitoring tasks. One group member might be put in charge of keeping track of turn-taking (i.e., who speaks and when; do all members have an equal opportunity to speak; are some members always silent?). Another member might watch for nonverbal cues about how members are reacting to what is being said, or to an individual speaker.

Discuss Problems

In any of these monitoring scenarios, group members should be encouraged to discuss with the entire group any problems they see arising so that the group might discuss certain aspects of the group's dynamic before they become problems. Sometimes, however, the group will not be able to solve their interaction problems on their own. When this occurs, they should be aware that they can discuss this--as a group preferably-- with the instructor.

Overall, groups should be left to negotiate their own agendas among themselves, but discussing possible problem areas may provide the ounce of prevention that prevents the need for a more painful cure.

LeCourt, Donna, & Dawn Kowalski. (1997). Working in Groups. Writing@CSU . Colorado State University. https://writing.colostate.edu/guides/guides.cfm?guideid=42

There are many ways you can approach the task of writing in a group. Whatever your past experiences and approaches may be, taking the time to implement these four simple steps will go a long way in helping you not only have a successful writing product, but also an enjoyable writing experience:

• Get to know each other
• Organize the work
• Accomplish the work
• Review the work

Get to Know Each Other

A simple way to combat this problem is to take just a few minutes to get to know your group members. Set aside some time to talk together and break the ice with a few simple questions. They needn’t be complex or overly deep, but rather just enough to ease some of the tension while providing a bit of background information on the members of your group. According to the employment search website Indeed.com, here are a few simple questions you could start with:

• What is your work or educational background?
• What has been your favorite thing about going back to school?
• Who inspires you?
• What kind of music do you like?
• What’s the best place you’ve traveled to?
• What’s something you’re proud of?
• What is one thing you’re really good at?

(see "55 Top 'Get to Know You' Questions for the Workplace" by Indeed Editorial Team, August 25, 2023.)

Ponder and Record

• What other questions could you ask to get to know your group members better?
• Are there any questions you could ask your group members that might help you organize the work of your group better?

Organize the Work

• Plan the work
• Make assignments
• Create a schedule

Step 1: Plan the Work

According to the University of Wisconsin Writing Center, “Planning includes everything that is done before writing. In collaborative writing, this is a particularly important step since it’s crucial that all members of a team agree about the basic elements of the project and the logistics that will govern the project’s completion” (see "Collaborative and Group Writing" on The Writing Center website by University of Wisconsin-Madison). One of the easiest ways to check understanding and ensure that all group members are in agreement on the basic elements of the project is to actually review the official assignment together. Read it through line-by-line and check occasionally for understanding amongst all group members. Take notes, if you need to, and start to identify the main parts of the assignment so smaller, individual assignments can be made later on.

One way you can really start to plan your work is by asking and answering the following questions in your group:

• What should the finished product look like?
• What is its purpose?
• Who is the intended audience for this product and what are their likely expectations?

Step 2: Make Assignments

Once you have fully examined the work that needs to be done and checked for understanding amongst your group members, your next step should be making assignments. As you worked your way through Step 1: Plan the Work, you likely noticed that there are some specific tasks that need to be completed in order for the project as a whole to be completed. Some of these tasks are likely smaller pieces of the project— pieces that could potentially be completed by an individual or smaller group and then brought back to the larger group for later discussion, revision, and integration into the final product.

If you find you have limited time to collaborate and write in a larger-group setting, breaking up the project into smaller pieces like this is a great approach to take. Not only will it reduce the amount of live seat time, it will also give all group members a highly specific way to contribute to the final product so no one person is carrying all the weight.

If you choose to make individual and small-group assignments, be very specific about what those assignments are and who those tasks are assigned to. Check for understanding of assignments from all group members before moving onto the next step.

Take a moment to review your group assignment and then consider the following questions:

• What parts can your group assignment be broken up into?
• Which group member(s) would be the best fit for each part of the assignment?

Step 3: Create a Schedule

Every assignment has a due date—a deadline for when the finished product is delivered to the intended audience. Group work is no different. A sure way to underdeliver on a group assignment is to fail to understand and meet important deadlines. Before any group meeting adjourns, it is vital that all group members understand not only their individual assignments, but also the due date of their individual assignments.

The due date for individual assignments should always be before the due date for the group assignment. This will give the group adequate time to come together again before that group assignment is due so the individually-completed work can be combined, reviewed, and refined to the larger group’s liking.

How far in advance that individual due date needs to be depends upon the size of the project and how soon the due date is. As a general rule though, try to give the larger group at least a few days to combine and refine the work. You may find that some individuals don’t always complete their work on time. You may also find that others don’t produce the quality of work that you were hoping for. Giving the group the buffer of a few days to work on the finished product will help the group to remain calm and unrushed, thereby leading to higher-quality writing in the end.

Take a moment to review your group’s assignment and consider the following questions:

• How big is this assignment?
• When is its due date?
• What would be a reasonable and safe due date for individual assignments that are made?

Accomplish the Work

Once you have taken the time to get to know one another and also organized your group work through planning, making assignments, and creating clear due dates, your next step should be to actually accomplish the work.

If you followed the steps above for organizing the work, you likely received an individual or small group writing assignment—something that is a much smaller piece of the larger group assignment you will be turning in. As you begin to work on this part of the assignment, it is vital that you keep the larger, group assignment in your mind at all times. You can do this by continually asking yourself a few basic questions throughout your writing process:

• What is it I am supposed to accomplish with my writing in this section I am working on?
• What comes before my section?
• What comes after it?
• Where and how does my writing fit into the larger assignment?

Continually returning to these four questions throughout your writing process will ensure that your writing doesn’t veer too far off the path that the other writers in your group are likely taking. It will also save the group a considerable amount of time later on when all the individual work of the group members gets combined. The more focused and contextualized your writing (and the writing of your other group members) remains, the easier it will be to combine and shape later in preparation for submitting the finished product.

Review the Work

The final and perhaps most important step to successful group writing is taking the time to review the work before it is submitted. This step usually goes beyond simple line-edits. As the University of Wisconsin Writing Center explains, “All [group members will] need to agree on the changes made...Revising together can spark debates and conversation that may [actually] strengthen the final paper. [For this reason], revising...will need to go beyond making line-edits that revise at the sentence-level. Instead, you’ll want to thoroughly consider all aspects of the draft in order to create a version that satisfies each member of the team” (see "Collaborative and Group Writing" on The Writing Center website by University of Wisconsin-Madison). There are many ways you can approach this task, but in general, following these four basic steps will help ensure a much better finished product:

• Combine the work
• Revise the work - Part 1
• Revise the work - Part 2

Step 1: Combine the Work

A good first step you can take to start this process of reviewing and editing is to combine all the individual work on a single document. Perhaps when you organized the work, you already considered this and had every group member complete his/her work on a single document. If not though, make this a top priority going into your final meeting.

Step 2: Review the Work

A good second step you can take to continue this process of reviewing and editing is to invite the members of your group to review that single document either before or at the beginning of your final meeting so you can collect thoughts about the initial draft. Many of those thoughts will likely focus on the varying thoughts, ideas, and even writing styles present on the draft. This observation is to be expected in group writing situations since the various parts likely had different authors. Part of the revision process should include fixing/creating a logical flow of ideas within and between the different sections and also correcting any major stylistic differences between those same sections.

Step 3: Revise the Work - Part 1

As you begin to make revisions, a good third step you can take is to focus your revisions on the larger, global issues first instead of the pesky sentence-level errors you might be seeing. Questions you could ask to easily discover these larger, more global issues might include the following:

• As we return to the original assignment description, what does it appear the overall purpose of this product should be?
• Is that purpose currently being fulfilled? If not, why, and how can we fix it?
• Who is our intended audience and what are their likely expectations?
• Are those expectations currently being met? If not, why, and how can we fix it?
• What should the finished product look like and does the product currently resemble it?
• If not, why, and how could we fix it?

Step 4: Revise the Work - Part 2

Once you have addressed these questions and revised the document to better align with them, your fourth and final step should be to take care of those pesky sentence-level errors. A simple way you can do this is by assigning your most skilled writer/editor to do one final read over of the document to correct these more minor issues. Allowing one person to review the document and make the simple final edits is a great way to polish and better unify a group writing product so it feels like a cohesive piece of writing with one voice/author instead of many.

Need More Help?

• Study other Writing Lessons in the Resource Center.
• Visit the Online Tutoring Resources in the Resource Center.
• Contact your Instructor.
• If you still need help, Schedule a Tutor .

Best Practices for Group Writing

• Author By fgacho
• Publication date March 17, 2020
• Categories: Writing Tips

Writing with a group can be challenging. How do you create a document or project that takes into account everyone’s ideas, reconciles what could be different “writerly voices,” and evenly distributes the work of researching, drafting, and editing? Though there are no easy fixes or formulas for group or collaborative writing, a few guidelines can help ensure your collective writing and research experience goes smoothly.

• Decide on the big ideas as a group. Everyone should be clear about the main ideas and purpose of the project. Each member should have a clear sense of how the different parts of the paper/project work together to form a complete thought or argument.
• Don’t divide the work too soon.  It can be tempting to delegate parts of a project immediately to each group member, but effective groups first address the big ideas for the project before breaking it into smaller units. Doing this first can prevent misunderstandings (which might lead to massive rewrites) about the content, structure, and tone of the written project.
• Write together, if possible.  Though it can be challenging to coordinate, writing together as a group allows everyone to 1) get a sense of the tone and “voice” so the writing appears as a coherent document; and 2) address ideas that might contradict or confuse the main point of the project. If it’s not possible to write together, consider working on a collaborative document like Google Docs that allows you to edit in real-time that everyone in the group can access.
• Address big issues when revising and editing before smaller concerns . Big issues include content development, argumentation, logical order of ideas, and evidence. Smaller concerns include transitional phrases, coherence, formatting, grammatical errors, and citation formats.

Doing this remotely and online?

Working with groups remotely and virtually can be challenging, especially if you’re not used to this modality for collaboration.  Writing as a group can even be more challenging as different writers have various styles, approaches, and work habits that can make remote and virtual collaboration challenging. Here are a few strategies for managing virtual and remote collaborative writing projects.

• Use online meeting platforms like Zoom or Google Meet/Hangouts to regularly meet with your team members. Read this list of conferencing options available to USC students.
• Use a shared calendar to keep everyone informed of deadlines, both internal and external, to help everyone keep track. ( Google Calendar  and iCal have options for sharing. USC students have access to Google applications, which ensures everyone has the same accessibility)
• Consider making a task or project list with all the steps necessary to complete the project.  This can help you track your progress and helps everyone stay on the same page. Doing this in the beginning of the project as a group can also help everyone grasp the scope of the project, which might help minimize writing anxiety and procrastination. 
• For example, keep (as much as possible) the same meeting day and time for the group every week that works for every member. Much like attending an in-person class, setting a consistent meeting time ensures that you prioritize the group project as opposed to “finding time” to do it. This also helps the group guarantee a minimum amount of time has been spent working on the project. In short, it helps the group keep a consistent schedule and gain momentum.
• Be flexible. Part of the beauty of remote and virtual work is the relative flexibility it provides to teams. Adjust your group’s work structure and commitments as you see fit. What might have worked at the earlier stages of the project might not work for the final stages, so be open to modifying your group’s process. The writing process is iterative–meaning it doesn’t always go in a linear path–but as long as you have a clear shared goals and approaches, collaborative writing can be manageable and even enjoyable.

More guidelines and tips are found in this PDF: Group Writing .

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February 1, 2021

5 Benefits of Group Writing Exercises You Must Know!

Group Writing Exercises

Group Writing Exercises will benefit students in practice with collaboration, building teamwork skills, support from classmates, quality work over quantity work, more focus from teacher . What is a group essay assignment? or What is group essay writing? They are the same process as how to write a 5 paragraph essay with the exception of doing it in a group. The focus of this blog will be the literary analysis essay (Lesson on Teachers Pay Teachers).

How to write a writing plan for essay is the most important steps to writing an essay. If you do not plan properly it can be a chaotic waste of time. Prior to writing or beginning an essay students receive graphic organizers to fill in about the steps in the essay process. We watch videos as students fill out their graphic organizers. We cover all the parts of the essay process: attention getter, summary of essay, thesis statement, topic sentences, transitions, evidence, commentary, concluding sentence, and writing a conclusion. Schmoop or John Green videos are an engaging and effective way to cover each of these topics . They have short entertaining videos that hold students attention long enough to learn about a less than enthusiastic topic such as transitions . They truly do a great job. If I have a lot of students who are in special education , in the process for how to plan a writing group I decide if I want to allow them to use head phones and work independently on this part of the process. This way they can pause, rewind, or forward the videos as many times as necessary to really grasp what each part of the essay process is and to allow time to fill in their graphic organizers, which they will next be taking to their assigned group.

Collaboration and Teamwork are Key to How to Write a Good Essay

The first of 5 benefits of writing in groups is collaboration. It needs to be strategic collaboration . I strategically place students in assigned groups when I begin how to plan for a writing group. An example of being strategic would be to not put three extremely shy students in one group, or not putting three students who do not typically work in the same group. The second of the 5 benefits of writing in a group is honing teamwork skills. If you do not set the teams up strategically, they will not work well as a team. It’s crucial to place them into groups of 3. The reason I choose groups of three is so that each student will be given the task of writing a body paragraph and there are three body paragraphs. They also cannot skate by on someone else’s work. In addition the pressure of your grade being a contributing factor in the group’s grade as a whole is enough to encourage full participation and effort. During this assignment, I receive more tutorial visits from students than any other time of the year. Students do not like letting their peers down, nor feeling like they do not fit in. I give them as much support as they need until they get their paper to the level that they want.

Once students are in groups they will be given a poster paper and colored pencils. Color coding will allow them to see the different parts of the essay clearly. It will also provide clarity for the different parts of the essay when they share with their classmates. They will be color coding the introduction: attention-getter, summary of essay, and thesis statement.  Once settled into their group the real work begins. We review themes from the novel-as they were covered throughout the unit and students already have a completed graphic organizer for theme.  I use videos to cover the theme from a novel. These are short entertaining videos from Pixar, or created by students in a video class that the kids love and remember. An example would be “Family heritage defines perception in “To Kill a Mockingbird”, and a short Pixar video I show is called, “Snack Attack “, where an elderly woman’s perspective of a young teen is grossly skewed. It isn’t until the end of the video that she realizes that what she perceived as disrespectful behavior was actually respectful behavior.

Group Writing Exercises: Support of Classmates

The group decides on a theme for the essay. The theme is chosen from the novel we have completed. It’s important that they have a clear picture of what the theme means in relation to the novel in order to complete a successful essay.  The third of the 5 benefits of writing in a group is the support students receive from their classmates. For example, students are less likely to choose a theme that isn’t going to work for a 5 paragraph essay, because it has to pass through three students for approval. From there they write a thesis statement in color on their poster paper. In writing their thesis statement they add an opinion to the theme. It’s essential to choose an opinion and theme for which they can find several pieces of evidence to back up this theme plus opinion. An exercise that can take place at this stage in the essay process is to have them look up three pieces of evidence that will back up their thesis statement. This is to ensure essay success because if they cannot prove their thesis statement, they will not be successful in writing the essay.

At this point I put up all posters around the room and pass out sticky notes for each group. They will now perform a gallery walk where they write four comments on sticky notes for each poster. They are to write two things they like about the thesis statement, and two suggestions. Once they have completed the gallery walk, posters are returned to groups, and groups are to share their thesis, comments, and are to then improve their thesis statement.

The next step is to write an attention-getter, which can be one of three things: an interesting fact or statistic that relates to the topic; a famous quote that relates to the topic; an anecdote, a short story about themselves that relate to the topic . If they are to write an interesting fact, statistic, or quote, they are to look it up and site it correctly. If they write an anecdote , I provide a prompt to support them through the process. An example of a prompt would be, “tell me about a time you were sure of something, even argued about it, and later found out you were wrong. What did that look like, describe how you felt when you learned you were wrong. What did you learn from the experience?” Students would then share these stories with each other and a couple would share out with the class. This would be in keeping with the theme about perception. In the groups they would choose the best story and use it as an anecdote: attention-getter.

Tips for Writing an Essay: Quality Over Quantity

From there they will write their introduction together as a group. Students will then write the topic sentence for each body paragraph as a group. In addition they will review the parts of a body paragraph as a group. At this point each student will choose the body paragraph they want to complete independently. The 4 out of 5 benefits of writing in a group is that there is quality over quantity. More often than not, students will spend the evening prior to due date, putting together a 5 paragraph essay. Only having the task of writing one body paragraph , ensures quality work over quantity. It’s important to have this part of the group essay project be independent to ensure two things: that students understand how to write a body paragraph independently and to ensure all students are participating in the essay. Once students have completed their body paragraphs, they share them with the group and the group works collaboratively to revise as necessary.

Group Writing Exercises: How to Write the Conclusion

The next step for the group essay process is to write the conclusion as a group. The conclusion is a simple process because they repeat the thesis statement in different words, repeat all topic sentences in different words, and write a lesson learned in the essay process. The introduction and the conclusion can go on the poster and typed versions of the body paragraphs can be attached to the poster. The fifth out of 5 benefits of writing in groups is that there is more focus from the teacher. A teacher who typically has 140 students, will now be able to support 45 during the essay process.

Group Writing Exercises: How to Organize Peer-Editing

Students will then exchange essays and perform a peer edit. In order to complete a successful peer edit, I provide a worksheet that gives step-by-step instructions. These are passed back to the group who make changes as they see fit. Students create a polished copy of a new poster for the introduction and the conclusion as well as each group member revising their body paragraphs. Once they have this all together, I collect them, grade them with a rubric and post them around the room. Student names are on the back of the poster for those who are painfully shy about their work being displayed. A final step can be a prompt for a individual reflection: what worked, what didn’t work, and how to change things for next time.

In this blog post we went over a step-by-step process in how to plan a writing group. If you follow these steps, you will have a successful, collaborative, essay process. As mentioned in the introduction it is crucial to plan in advance in order for this to work. If you do not plan, it will be a chaotic waste of time. The plan includes: graphic organizers and videos for each step in the essay process, assigning groups, walking students through the introduction step-by-step. Planning for a gallery walk. An instructional sheet for the essay, a peer edit form, rubric, and self reflection sheet. How to write a reflection on a group work essay? Have them write one independently and as a group. If you put this plan into place you will have an effective lesson that students have the opportunity to work on collaboratively and cooperatively . Let me know how you plan group writing in the comments below! If you enjoyed this article and want to learn more about writing essays, take a look at me How to Write a Narrative Essay blog post.

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MLA Writing Guide: Formatting for Group Papers

• Formatting for Individual Papers
• Formatting for Group Papers
• In-text Citations
• Article Examples
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• Citing the Bible

Writing Center

The Liberty University Writing Center is available to provide writing coaching to students. Residential students should contact the  On-Campus Writing Center  for assistance. Online students should contact the  Online Writing Center  for assistance.

General Rules

Group papers follow exactly the same formatting rules as student papers except for in one area, the title page. Group papers should include a title page that lists all members of the group alphabetically by last name followed by the professor's name, the class name and number, and then the date. The title is centered and two lines down the page.

There is no page number on the title page. Page numbers should start with the second page. In the example below, the last name of each group member should be listed, separated by commas, before the page number.

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Home Essay Samples Business Teamwork

My Experience Working in a Group: a Reflection

Table of contents, challenges of group work, benefits and learning opportunities, lessons learned.

• Johnson, D. W., & Johnson, R. T. (2009). An educational psychology success story: Social interdependence theory and cooperative learning. Educational researcher, 38(5), 365-379.
• Belbin, R. M. (2012). Team roles at work. Taylor & Francis.
• Tuckman, B. W. (1965). Developmental sequence in small groups. Psychological Bulletin, 63(6), 384-399.
• Forsyth, D. R. (2014). Group dynamics (6th ed.). Cengage Learning.
• Katzenbach, J. R., & Smith, D. K. (2015). The wisdom of teams: Creating the high-performance organization. Harvard Business Review Press.

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Working in a Group Essay

• To find inspiration for your paper and overcome writer’s block
• As a source of information (ensure proper referencing)
• As a template for you assignment

Introduction

Advantages of working in a group, disadvantages of working in a group, reference list.

Group work has become very common not only in learning environment but also among workers in organizations. The common believe is that working in a group is more productive than working alone. Institutions emphasize on group and team work and invest heavily in team building among their members. Formation process of a group may determine its success. Tuckman & Jensen (1977) suggests that a successful group should be formed stepwise following stages like forming, storming, norming, performing and adjourning.

Firstly, working in a group fosters an environment for learning since the individuals can learn from the experiences and expertise of each other. They learn different ways of approaching issues from his colleagues (Duch, 2000). Managers working in groups get more insight in solving problems as they interact with each other.

Another advantage is synergy creation i.e. group decisions tend to create synergy that combines and improves on the knowledge of the group to make decisions of high quality than the sum of individual decisions. This synergy results when each individual brings additional knowledge and skills to the decisions.

It also ensures that tasks are completed within the fastest time because duties are shared depending on the capability of a person in accomplishing a certain task (Traker, n. d.) As people possess different skills and capabilities, group work enhances the sharing of ideas and this has the effect of ensuring that best results are attained. Decisions made are also well thought out.

Creativity is enhanced as a result of working in groups because the diversity in culture, behaviours and attitude enables the members to become more innovative in dealing with difficult tasks.

Group work leads to the acceptance of decisions made as opposed to individual decisions because group decision making reflects acceptance. Group work also reduces the chances of intrapersonal conflicts i.e. conflicts that arise within an individual mainly about what is right and what is wrong (Belbin, 1981). Deciding the right things to do in certain situations as an individual can be quite stressful.

Group work ensures that members participate well unlike in working as individuals whereby employees can decide to sabotage work. An individual may decide not to work as effectively as would be considered reasonable and attempt not to get even the targets as opposed to a group situation (Traker, n. d.).

Also, the members of a group ensure that the resources are shared well and that there is no misuse of organizational resources for personal use.

Working in a group implies longer time frame than working as individuals because groups generally need more time to make decisions than individuals because a group has to exchange information among many individuals so as to obtain a consensus.

The decisions that are made while working in a group tends to be more extreme i.e. they are a bit riskier because no single person would be willing to shoulder the consequences of the decisions.

Also individual expertise is ignored while working in group and the group members may opt for group consensus instead.

Working in a group enhances decision making in an organization as opposed to working as an individual in which case there is information deficiency. The resources of the organization are shared and this minimizes the costs.

Belbin, M., 1981. Management Teams, Why they Succeed or Fail . Heinneman: London.

Duch, B., 2000. Working in Groups . USA: University of Delaware. Web.

Traker, H.B., n. d. Social Group Work: Principles and Practice . New York: Association Press N.Y.

Tuckman, B. W. & Jensen, M. A., 1977. Stages of small-group development revisited. Group Org. Studies, vol 2. pp. 419-27.

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Four Tips for Displaying Teamwork in Your Application Essays

Teamwork – and its close cousin leadership – are highly prized by graduate programs and universities. But if you haven’t worked in a team on any regular basis, don’t worry! You’ve probably got a number of examples of teamwork in your back pocket that you didn’t even realize were there. Consider the following four ideas when you are writing an essay about teamwork.

1. Teams come in many flavors and sizes.

Unless you’ve been living like a hermit for the past several years, you have undoubtedly participated in various groups . Maybe you were a member of a sports team; a dance, music, or theater troupe; or a youth group through your church, synagogue, or community center. You might have been a member of a committee, either as a volunteer or at work. Perhaps you helped organize an event, tutored, been part of a Scout group, or volunteered to be a Big Brother or Big Sister. 

In any of these cases, you likely worked with other people. Even if your interaction was with only one other person, you have material you can discuss in a teamwork personal statement. Yes, working with just one other person, as a mentor or guide, counts! 

2. Show that you were an active listener.

Teamwork and collaboration require effective listening. Discuss a time when you stopped to listen – really listen – to others, patiently and skillfully. Unfortunately, and perhaps unfairly, many young people today have gained a reputation for not being willing to listen to others and for quickly becoming agitated by differing views. Demonstrate to the adcom that this isn’t who you are. Show that your ability to listen to others, to take in other points of view, and to express your understanding of those views helped eased tensions and increased collaboration. This can be an impressive example of your teamwork skills.

3. Discuss morale boosting and conflict resolution.

Have you ever been involved in a project when enthusiasm was flagging, but you found a way to inject renewed excitement into it? Have you brainstormed an idea to strengthen a group, club, or assignment? These are also examples of teamwork. Perhaps you found a way to make peace between two warring members of a group who couldn’t agree on the direction your project or plan should go. If you mediated this conflict and got the two individuals to start working together, that was surely teamwork (and worthy of a peace prize!). 

Any time you proactively got involved with other people (especially when they were being difficult), discovered a better way to get things done, found a middle ground, or thought of a creative new idea, that was teamwork.

4. Consider experiences in your personal life for material.

A client once wrote about her efforts to heal a serious rift in her family after her father passed away. Siblings were fighting for control of the successful family business, and an ugly succession fight ensued. The client patiently coaxed cooperation, even in this personal and emotionally charged environment. She used both shuttle diplomacy and active listening among battling family members, leading to everyone’s agreement to use a mediator to reach a final resolution.  

Another client wrote about having organized a trip with a few friends and how he dealt with a dispute between two of them. Their  bickering had threatened to ruin the long-planned trip. His effective listening and creativity in figuring out an activity that neither of the “combatants” would be able to resist helped defuse the situation and saved the trip from becoming an outright disaster for everyone. In both these situations, the “teams” were small, but the stakes for those involved were high.

We hope you now see that you’ve been working in teams more often than you thought! No doubt you’ll have strong options to choose from when writing a teamwork personal essay.

Watch: Linda Abraham discusses two main ways you can show the adcom that you are a leader .

Our expert admissions advisors can help you identify your teamwork experiences and guide you as you write about them, or assist you with any other component of your application. Schedule a free consultation today!

By Judy Gruen, former Accepted admissions consultant. Judy holds a master’s in journalism from Northwestern University. She is also the co-author of Accepted’s first full-length book, MBA Admission for Smarties: The No-Nonsense Guide to Acceptance at Top Business Schools . Want an admissions expert to help you get accepted? Click here to get in touch!

Related Resources:

• Fitting In and Standing Out: The Paradox at the Heart of Admissions , a free guide
• Proving Character Traits in Your Essays
• Strategy for Writing an Accomplishment Essay (with examples)

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How do you write a reflection essay on group work?

A final assessment is to write a reflection essay about what you learned throughout the subject, including a paragraph about a group a work project we did including what you learned about teamwork and what you’d do better next time etc.

My question is how do you write that when you basically did everything you could, did the work of 3 people on your own and you were the only reason everyone got a decent grade?

Like, how do you write, “There’s nothing I could have done better to make it work, my teammates did fuck all and missed meetings because they just didn’t care and I basically did the whole thing myself” but in an academic way?

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ESSAY SAUCE

FOR STUDENTS : ALL THE INGREDIENTS OF A GOOD ESSAY

Essay: Working in a Group

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Working in a group Some say working alone is more beneficial, some say working in a group is more beneficial. Working either in a group or alone is personal preference. But working in a group is mostly more beneficial because there are more ideas, people with different skills work on sudden parts, and work can be done sooner than expected with a better product.

Although working in a group is more beneficial, but some people feel working alone is more convenient for them. Sam Ashe-Edmunds believes,”If you own your own business, you only answer to your clients, who have little say over how you do your work”. Working alone makes them feel free, concentrated, work on their own without disturbance. It makes people able to stay alert and work much faster.

When it comes to working in a group, one of the main benefits is there are more ideas. Lynda Moultry Belcher deeply believes, “This type of collaboration benefits the project and gives team members an outlet to bounce around ideas to find the best fit.” . Let’s say there are several good advantages about working in a group, but a member unsure which is the most appropriate one, so it gives other members an opportunities to give their ideas or opinions to help finding the best fit. A mistake that usually occurs is the project drifts off the topic; however, each member gives out good ideas that orient the project help it purposely stay on the topic. In a spirit of cooperation, be prepared that it may not work as planned, find alternative solutions. Also the group can be seen as a resource. Members work on their tasks , but further information might be needed, according to their experiences and knowledge, they will help.

Moreover, working in a group is about teamwork, people with different skills work on sudden parts that they are really good at and can get help whenever they need. Chitra Reddy demonstrates, “To solve complex problems and to complete difficult tasks, team works better than a individual.”. It drives people crazy when working in a group where there is no talking and freedom. People management skills that a group develops in order to communicate. Teamwork is not just work; it is about communication and motivation. People can’t just sit around when other people are working; there gets to be a purpose that they work in a group. When working in a group, people have to have a problem to solve; otherwise, they just aimlessly mess around. As it says earlier, people with different skills work on sudden parts does not mean they are good at those let them work on it individually. Teamwork is where members need encouragement to put their views across, make it exciting , interesting, and motivating.

Lastly, working in a group is that it enables the group as a whole to be more productive, more creative, and can get work done in small amount of time. Lynda Moultry Belcher emphasizes that,“Another key advantage of group work in the office is that it can increase efficiency”.Groups that work well together can achieve much more, creativity thrives when people work together. One of the benefits of working in a group is that it helps to raise the complete output. People work together using their best skills to make the quality better. A broader range of skills can be applied to practical activities plays an important role. Sharing knowledge excites others, makes them want to share more. Often, a group works well together because members rely on each other to bring individual talents to the business.

To conclude, working in a group helps improve skills such as communication, teamwork, and leadership. Most importantly, it makes the work more interesting, more motivating. working in a group is obviously more beneficial than working alone. People should work together and blend themselves into the community.

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21 Writing Strategies To Help Aspiring Writers Plan, Create, and Finalize Their Work

Including smart ways to break through writer’s block!

Writing well takes practice and patience, but it’s a skill that offers real benefits both in the classroom and the real world. For many, writing is incredibly challenging, leaving people asking “Where do I even start?” Even experienced authors use a variety of writing strategies to keep themselves on track. We’ve rounded up some of the best writing strategies, with explanations and examples to help aspiring writers plan, organize, get started, and polish their final drafts.

Planning and Prep Writing Strategies

Organization writing strategies, writing strategies to overcome writer’s block, writing strategies to polish your work.

Before you ever put pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard), writing takes a lot of preparation and planning. Use these strategies to get yourself ready to write.

Mentor Texts

The best writers are the ones who also read voraciously. Reading helps you develop your general language and composition skills by exposing you to correct grammar, syntax, and more. Even more importantly, reading gives you examples of great writing (and often, bad writing). It allows you to explore different writing styles so you can develop your own personal voice. Author and screenwriter Ray Bradbury recommended reading one short story before bed every single night.

Many writers, especially students, use mentor texts as examples of the type of writing they want to emulate. Reading a few of these in the style of the piece you’re working on can inspire and guide you along the way. These texts can be books, magazines, articles, poems, essays, and more. Here are some of our favorite mentor texts in various styles:

• Opinion Writing Mentor Texts
• Narrative Writing Mentor Texts
• Procedural Writing Mentor Texts

To write convincingly about a topic, you must know it well, whether you’re working in nonfiction or fiction. If you decide to set your short story in Greece in the 19th century, you’ll need to know what life was like then. Writing about a main character who loves skateboarding means knowing the terminology and language of the culture. Deep knowledge on a topic adds realism and authenticity to any form of writing.

Regardless of what you’re researching, it’s important to use reliable primary sources. The Internet makes researching easier than ever before, but it can be harder to know whether your sources are trustworthy. Dedicated writers take time to verify their sources, and it’s especially important to teach young writers how to do so .

Taking good notes is vital when you’re researching. For some people, this means bookmarks and annotated text. Others prefer outlines or mind maps. Learn about smart note-taking strategies and choose a few that work best for you.

Immerse Yourself

Take your research a step further by truly immersing yourself in the time and place you’re writing about. Visit places in person if you can, or try virtual online tours through sites like Google Earth. These virtual field trips are a good option if you can’t get there yourself.

Meet or talk with people who have personal experience with your topic. Eat the foods of a country or culture, and listen to its music. Explore lots of visual sources, like pictures and videos. You can even hang some of your favorite images around your workspace for inspiration. The more familiar you are with a topic, the more comfortable you’ll feel writing about it.

Know Your Audience

Imagine you’re writing about whales. You’ve done lots of research and have plenty of interesting information to share. But the way you share it will vary a lot depending on who you’re writing for. If your audience is your teacher, you’ll probably want to use technical terms and cite your sources. But if you’re writing a book for little kids, your writing will be more descriptive and the language much simpler.

Ask defining questions like these:

• Who will read what I’m writing?
• Why are they reading it?
• What kind of language will they understand?
• What might they already know about this topic?
• What will these readers really care about?
• How will their personal experiences affect them as they’re reading?
• What style and tone of writing are they likely to enjoy most?

Character Profiles

Fiction writers need to create believable characters, with fully developed personalities. Some writers envision entire backstories for their characters that never make it onto the page. But these backstories inform their writing, driving their characters’ actions and choices. Try some of these ideas to develop strong characters:

• Create a family tree or relationship map of your characters
• Draw the characters, or describe their physical looks in detail
• Write timelines of your characters’ lives
• List their personality or character traits
• Describe a character’s hopes, dreams, and ambitions
• Determine the character’s voice: how they talk (words and phrases, syntax, etc.) and any accents, dialects, or code-switching they use

Start at the End

It sounds a little strange, but consider writing the final sentence or paragraph of your work first. After all, when you plan a trip, you almost always have a final destination in mind. How you get there may vary, but you’re ultimately striving toward a particular goal.

If you’re working on a nonfiction essay or research paper, writing the end first allows you clarify exactly what ideas you want your reader to walk away with. Then, you can work backward to fill in the details that support those ideas. Write your first paragraph last, and you’ll find it much easier to sum up your ideas and prepare the reader for what’s to come.

Fiction writers can do this too. In fact, many mystery writers start at the end, determining the solution to their mystery first. This allows them to build up the story around that resolution, ensuring the narrative hangs together. Picture your characters at the end of the story, then decide how you’ll get them there.

One of the hardest parts of writing can be keeping everything in order, especially when you’re writing longer pieces. Writers also need to manage their time to ensure they hit any deadlines or due dates they might have. These writing techniques can help.

Establish a Routine

Every famous author has had their own particular writing routine or habits. Stephen King sat in the same place each day , with his papers arranged carefully around him. E.B. White never listened to music while he wrote (although other distractions didn’t bother him). Hemingway wrote first thing every morning , as early as possible. Simone de Beauvoir wrote a little in the morning and then again in the evening.

Each one is different, but one thing is the same: They almost always followed the same routine and habits. This kept them focused and ensured they could meet the goals they set. Set aside a specific time for writing each day, and figure out the setting and habits that suit you best. Think about when you’ve been most productive, and try to replicate that as much as possible.

Set Writing Goals

We often teach students to set S.M.A.R.T goals : specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time-bound. These are ideal for writing, especially when you have a longer or more complex piece to finish. They also work if you just want to get a little better at your craft.

If you have a deadline or due date, start with that in mind and work backward. Be sure to allow time in your schedule for items like research, planning, a first draft, revision/editing, second draft, feedback, and a final draft. When you’re writing your first draft, consider breaking it into even smaller sections that will help you meet your goal and keep you on target. (Stephen King writes six pages a day; John Steinbeck was happy with just one.)

Outline or Story Map

For longer pieces, writers turn to outlines and story maps, creating the overall structure of their composition before they start writing in sentences and paragraphs. Some do this using the traditional outline structure , starting with the main points and filling in key details. Others like the sticky note method, where they write one fact or plot point on each note and move them around as needed.

When you map things out in advance, it makes the writing process itself much simpler. For nonfiction pieces, it ensures you don’t leave out any important information. In fiction, a story map helps you plan a narrative arc that hangs together and drives the story along. When you have an outline or story map in place, you can focus on finding the words to share these ideas with your audience.

Writing Template

A template can be a real benefit, especially for beginners or young students. It lays out the various sections and guides the writer through the process of completing each one. Think of a template kind of like training wheels; they help inexperienced writers feel a little more comfortable and keep them from missing important steps while they write. Check out our huge collection of free printable writing templates for elementary students.

If you’re a visual person, try a storyboard instead. This method uses a blank comic-book-style template to sketch out the action scene-by-scene. You don’t necessarily need to be a strong artist to use a storyboard, as long as you can get your ideas across in your drawings. Find a free storyboard template for younger students here.

Once you have your sketches, go back and add some text underneath. This might be dialogue, descriptive terms, or facts you want to include in that section. This text provides a terrific jumping-off point to begin writing in earnest.

It happens to everyone: the horror of the blank page—and a blank mind. The deadline clock is tick-tick-ticking, so you know you’ve got to do something, and do it pretty quick. Take a deep breath, then see if one of these writing strategies can help you break through.

Free-Write (Brainstorm)

This is all about just putting something down on the page. It doesn’t need to be good, it doesn’t need to follow grammar or spelling rules, it doesn’t even necessarily need to make sense! Just start letting words flow from your brain through the pen or keyboard and onto paper. In the same way that the physical act of smiling can actually make us feel happier, the physical act of writing or typing can sometimes get the creative juices flowing at last.

Write about anything, even the fact that you don’t have anything to write about, in a stream-of-consciousness style. When you feel up to it, transition into writing a bit about your topic or plot. Even if you only manage to write one good sentence or phrase you can use, it’s still progress.

Writing Sprints

Set a timer and just WRITE. Keep your pen (or fingers on the keyboard) moving the entire time, no matter what. If you’re really stuck, just write or type the same word over and over again until something shakes loose. Or combine a writing sprint with a writing prompt (see below) and let your words run free.

Short sprints of 5 to 10 minutes are great for warming up before a longer writing session. But you can also try longer sprints (up to an hour or so), where you purposely block out all other distractions. Turn off or mute your phone, set your device to distraction-free mode, shut the door or put on noise-cancelling headphones, whatever it takes. For the duration of your sprint, your only job is to write.

Writing Prompts

Use prompts to spark creativity and overcome writer’s block. Whether they inspire you to write a lot or a little, they get you into a creative mood and strengthen your writing muscles. We’ve got lots of writing prompts and topics to tackle:

• Short Story Starters and Writing Prompts
• Inspiring Picture Writing Prompts
• Kindergarten Writing Prompts
• First Grade Writing Prompts
• Second Grade Writing Prompts
• Third Grade Writing Prompts
• Fourth Grade Writing Prompts
• Fifth Grade Writing Prompts
• Creative Writing Prompts for Grades 4-8
• The Big List of Essay Topics for High School

A vignette is a short, descriptive piece that tries to bring the reader fully into one single moment. It doesn’t need a plot; rather, it tries to capture the mood and atmosphere with lots of evocative detail. Vignettes are a great way to jump-start your writing, establishing the setting of your piece or a particular scene you want to describe. Learn more about using vignettes here.

Having trouble figuring out your characters’ motivations, voices, or relationships? Try dialogue. You can approach this several different ways. One is to imagine and write a conversation between two or more characters in your story on any topic. You may or may not use this dialogue in your finished work; the point is to help you hear each character and their personality more clearly.

Another option is to have an imaginary conversation with a specific character out loud. Pretend you’re talking to them, and when they “respond,” speak aloud their voice as you imagine it in your head. Then, try to put those words into writing to see how they translate to the page.

Rough Draft

Initial drafts can actually be pretty freeing, because you’re not working toward perfection. Instead, you’re trying to get all your ideas onto paper for the first time, in sentences and paragraphs. Don’t worry too much about word choice, spelling, or even grammar at this point. Instead, just keep on writing. You’ll have plenty of opportunities to go back to revise and edit.

A rough draft might wind up being much shorter or longer than your final version. Some people like to write down anything and everything they’ve researched or planned for. Then, they condense and trim their text in later drafts. Others like to lay out the overall structure, then return to add more details and depth. Both of these methods are valid, so use whichever works best for you.

With your initial draft finally on the page, it’s time to edit, revise, and make it the best it can possibly be! These techniques and strategies will help you get there.

Captivating Opening Sentence

A strong opening sentence draws the reader in from the beginning. Try writing multiple versions to see which you like best. To ensure your opening is truly meaningful, share it with someone on its own, without the rest of the text for context. Ask what they think your writing will be about based on that single sentence, and if it interests them enough to want to read the rest.

Even nonfiction writing deserves amazing opening sentences. Darwin began On the Origin of Species by saying, “When on board H.M.S. ‘Beagle,’ as naturalist …” The book itself has a lot of dry technical writing, but that opening sentence evokes a sense of time and place, of adventure in far-off places, and it draws the reader in.

Avoid starting your writing with conventional phrases like “In this paper I will prove that …” or “I’m going to tell you about …” Thesis statements are important, but they’re rarely interesting enough to really intrigue the reader. Take a cue from Virginia Woolf, who opened A Room of One’s Own with: “But, you may say, we asked you to speak about women and fiction—what has that got to do with a room of one’s own? I will try to explain.”

Very few writers write a first draft that’s ready to be turned in or published. Instead, they revisit and refine their drafts multiple times, a process known as revision. When you revise, you focus on the overall structure and clarity of your work. Ask yourself questions like these:

Nonfiction Revision

• Is/Are my main point/s clear?
• Have I completely proven all the points in my thesis statement?
• Did I use facts to back up my assertions or opinions?
• Have I included citations or quotations that support my writing?
• Are there any areas where my writing is vague or needs to be clarified?
• Have I addressed any counterarguments and acknowledged alternative views?
• Does the overall structure make sense?
• Do my paragraphs transition well from one to the next?
• Should I add headings or subdivisions to make the paper easier to follow?
• Is my language and tone appropriate?
• Have I varied my word choice, refraining from repeating words or phrases over and over?
• Does my conclusion effectively and clearly sum up my paper?
• How will the reader feel when they finish reading this work, and does it match how I want them to feel?

Fiction Revision

• Does the story have a clear beginning, middle, and end?
• Is there a strong narrative arc?
• Have I left any plot holes or unresolved conflicts that may feel unsatisfying?
• How is the pacing? Does the story move along well, or does it get bogged down in places?
• Do my characters speak with clear, individual voices?
• Have my characters grown and changed as the story progressed?
• Do the characters’ voices feel authentic?
• Have I added realistic details without relying too heavily on description to carry the story? (“Show, don’t tell.”)
• Does the setting feel real? Can I picture myself living in that place and time?
• Is the conflict interesting enough to draw in the reader and hold their attention?
• How do I want the reader to feel when they finish the story? Have I accomplished that?

Once you’re happy with the overall structure and writing itself, it’s time to get down to the technical nitty-gritty. That means details like grammar, syntax, punctuation, and spelling. In other words, the time has come to proofread your work.

Word-processing programs or apps like Grammarly can help you catch a lot of these errors, making this job easier. But the final edit is ultimately down to you, so proofread and correct, then proofread again. Do your best to make your writing as technically perfect as you can, so the reader isn’t distracted by spelling mistakes or other minor problems.

One fantastic way to revise and edit is to read your text aloud, to yourself or others. Maya Angelou often read her writing out loud to her husband in the evening. “Hearing it aloud is good,” she explained. “Sometimes I hear the dissonance; then I try to straighten it out in the morning.”

Reading aloud is also ideal for catching errors like missing words or confusing sentences. You likely read much faster in your head than you do out loud, so this method forces you to slow down and focus. This is one of our favorite writing strategies for those who have trouble with attention to detail.

Peer Review

Experienced writers welcome feedback from others. Read the acknowledgements in any book, and you’re likely to find the author thanking their peer writing group or editors for substantially improving their text.

Some people find it hard to take feedback on writing, since it can feel very personal. Remember this: If you’re writing something only you will ever see, then you don’t need to worry about others. But if your writing is intended for an audience, you have to let that audience see your work to find out if you’ve truly managed to convey your ideas.

You don’t need to incorporate every suggestion or change your peers, teacher, or editor suggests. But feedback ultimately makes writing stronger and better. Seek it actively and use it wisely, and you’ll find it’s one of the most valuable writing strategies of all.

What are your favorite writing strategies to share with students? Come exchange ideas in the We Are Teachers HELPLINE group on Facebook .

Plus, must-have anchor charts for teaching writing of all kinds ..

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APA in-text citations

APA in-text citations include the author’s last name, publication date, and, if relevant, a locator such as a page number or timestamp. For example, (Smith, 2021, p. 170) . See it as a shorter version of the entry in the reference list .

You should include in-text citations every time you’re quoting or paraphrasing someone else’s ideas or words. In doing so, you give credit to the original author and avoid plagiarism .

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APA references generally include information about the author , publication date , title , and source . Depending on the type of source, you may have to include extra information that helps your reader locate the source.

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• Written Communication Guide:...

Written Communication Guide: Types, Examples, and Tips

9 min read · Updated on August 16, 2023

The power of words inspires change, evokes emotions, and fosters connections

We live in a world where the words you write hold the key to unlocking new opportunities. It doesn't matter if you're writing formal business correspondence or a personal letter to your best friend, writing has the power to take readers on a profound journey through your thoughts. 

The types of written communication are as diverse as the purposes they serve and can allow you to excel at work, engage academically, and be more expressive and eloquent. This written communication guide will lead you down a path to discover different types of written communication and will provide examples and tips to ensure that you write exactly what you mean. 

Definition of written communication

At its core, written communication is the art of transmitting messages, thoughts, and ideas through the written word. It serves as a bridge that connects individuals across time and space, allowing for the seamless exchange of information, emotions, and knowledge. Whether etched onto parchment centuries ago or typed onto a digital screen today, written communication has withstood the test of time as a powerful means of expression.

In a fast-paced world where information travels at the speed of light, written communication holds its ground as a tangible record of human interaction. Unlike its oral counterpart , written communication transcends temporal boundaries, leaving an indelible mark that can be revisited and analyzed. It's this permanence that lends written communication a significant place in personal correspondence, professional documentation, and academic discourse.

In personal realms, heartfelt letters and carefully crafted emails capture emotions and sentiments that words spoken aloud might fail to convey

Within professional settings, written communication takes the form of reports, proposals, and emails, each meticulously composed to ensure clarity and precision

Academia finds its treasure trove in research papers, essays, and presentations, where written communication serves as the cornerstone of knowledge dissemination

Yet, amidst this sophistication lies a distinction: written communication lacks the immediate feedback and nuances present in oral discourse. This difference demands attention to detail and precise articulation, to ensure the intended message is accurately received. The immediate feedback present in oral communication allows you to instantly adjust your rhetoric, but that opportunity isn't always present in written communication. 

Types of written communication

We've briefly explored the concept that written communication can be found in personal, professional, and academic settings. But its reach extends far beyond those three realms. Each type of written communication wields a unique power, catering to different purposes and audiences. Understanding the four types of written communication – formal, informal, academic, and creative – will empower you to communicate effectively across a wide spectrum of contexts. 

1. Formal communication

In the corporate arena, formal written communication is the backbone of professional interactions. This type of writing demands precision, clarity, and adherence to established norms. Written communication in the workplace encompasses emails, memos, reports, and official documents. These documents serve as a lasting record of decisions, proposals, and agreements, emphasizing the need for accuracy and professionalism. Examples of formal written communication include:

Formal business emails: These messages are structured, concise, and adhere to a specific etiquette. For instance, sending a well-constructed email to a prospective client introducing your company's services demonstrates effective formal communication. The tone should remain respectful and informative, reflecting the sender's professionalism.

Office memos: Memos serve as succinct internal communication tools within organizations. These documents address specific topics, provide instructions, or announce updates. An example of formal communication through a memo is when a department head distributes a memo outlining the upcoming changes to company policies. 

Business reports: Reports are comprehensive documents that analyze data, present findings, and offer recommendations. A formal business report might involve an in-depth analysis of market trends, financial performance, or project outcomes. Such reports are meticulously structured, featuring headings, subheadings, and references. A quarterly financial report submitted to company stakeholders is an example of formal written communication in the form of a report. The language employed is precise and backed by evidence, maintaining an authoritative tone.

2. Informal communication

Stepping away from corporate rigidity, informal written communication captures the casual essence of everyday life. Informal communication embraces text messages, social media posts, and personal letters. It encourages self-expression and authenticity, enabling individuals to communicate in a more relaxed and relatable manner. Balancing the informal tone while maintaining appropriate communication standards is essential in this type of communication. Some examples of informal communication are:

Text messages: Text messages are characterized by their casual tone, use of abbreviations, and emojis. The language used is relaxed and often mirrors spoken language, fostering a sense of familiarity and ease.

Social media posts: From Facebook statuses to Twitter updates and Instagram captions, these informal writing opportunities allow you to express yourself freely. The language is personal, engaging, and may include humor or personal anecdotes that boost your personal brand .

Personal letters: Although originally rather formal, personal letters have transitioned into the realm of informality. Letters written to friends or family members often showcase a mix of personal anecdotes, emotions, and everyday language. The language is warm, reflective of personal connections, and might include elements of nostalgia or shared experiences.

3. Academic writing

Within educational institutions, academic writing reigns as the conduit of knowledge dissemination. This type of writing includes essays, research papers, and presentations. Academic writing upholds a formal tone, requiring proper citation and adherence to established formats. The objective is to convey complex concepts coherently and objectively, fostering critical thinking and intellectual growth. Here are a few examples of academic writing:

Essays: Essays are fundamental forms of academic writing that require students to analyze and present arguments on specific topics. The essay is structured with an introduction, body paragraphs, and a conclusion, all aimed at conveying a well-organized argument supported by evidence.

Research papers: Research papers dive deeper into specific subjects, often requiring extensive investigation and citation of sources. They should be organized with specific sections such as an introduction, literature review, methodology, findings, and conclusion. This type of academic writing focuses on presenting original insights backed by thorough research.

Presentations: While presentations involve spoken communication, their accompanying slides often feature written content. Academic presentations might include a slide deck explaining the findings of a research study. Each slide contains concise written points that support the speaker's verbal explanations. Effective academic presentation writing ensures clarity and conciseness, to aid the audience's understanding.

4. Creative writing

Creative writing introduces a touch of artistry to written communication. Poetry, short stories, and blog posts exemplify this style. Creative writing explores the depths of human imagination, invoking emotions and vivid imagery. This type of writing encourages personal flair, allowing individuals to experiment with language, style, and narrative structure. While the examples of creative writing are vast, we'd like to share a few examples with you.

Poetry: Poetry is an artistic form of written communication that emphasizes rhythm, imagery, and emotions. In such works, words are carefully chosen to evoke feelings and paint vivid mental pictures, allowing readers to experience a heightened emotional connection.

Short stories: Short stories are concise narratives that capture a moment, an emotion, or a complete tale in a limited space. An example of creative writing as a short story could be a suspenseful narrative that unfolds over a few pages, engaging readers with its characters, plot twists, and resolution. Creative short stories often explore themes of human nature and provide a glimpse into unique worlds or experiences.

Novels: Novels stand as an epitome of creative writing, offering a more extensive canvas for storytelling. Novels delve deep into emotions, relationships, and the complexities of human existence, allowing readers to immerse themselves in fictional realms with remarkable depth.

Tips for improving your written communication skills

Believe it or not, writing is one of those skills that many people struggle with. The question of whether writing is a skill or a talent has long sparked debates among linguists, educators, and writers themselves. Whether effective written communication is something that you're naturally good at or something that you struggle with, everyone can benefit from some tips on being a better writer. 

Clarity: Clarity is arguably the cornerstone of good writing. It ensures your message is understood by eliminating ambiguity, confusion, and misinterpretation. Prioritize simplicity over complexity, using clear and concise sentences to deliver your message effectively. Avoid unnecessary jargon and convoluted phrases, aiming to convey ideas in a straightforward manner.

Understand your audience: It's critical to consider who will be reading what you write. Think about their knowledge, interests, and expectations when crafting your message. Adjust your tone, style, and choice of words to resonate with your intended readers. This ensures that your message is relatable and engaging, enhancing its impact.

Grammar and spelling: If there's one thing that will turn people off your writing, it's improper grammar and bad spelling. Maintaining proper grammar and spelling reflects professionalism and attention to detail. Proofread your work meticulously or use online tools to catch errors.

Practice and learn: Even if you're an expert writer, writing is a skill that evolves. Stephen King – the “king of writing” – asserts that every writer should read . Regular reading exposes you to diverse writing styles and perspectives that expand your knowledge of presenting the written word. 

Embrace the power of words

Through clear communication, tailored messages, and continuous practice, you can harness the art of written expression to connect, inspire, and leave a lasting impact. The power of words is always within your grasp.

Your resume is another place that requires exceptional writing skills. Let our team of expert resume writers unlock the door to your professional success by showcasing your exceptional writing skills on the most important career marketing tool you have. Send your resume for a free review today ! 

Recommended reading:

The Essential Steps of Your Communication Process

4 Types of Communication Style – What's Yours?

Improve your Powers of Persuasion With These Rhetorical Choices!

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