Collaborative Writing Tasks

As health and human services students, we often hear about professionals collaborating with other health care team members in providing care for patients. We can carry those skills over to the writing process when we collaborate with fellow students.

Although collaborative writing can occasionally be a challenge, it can also create new opportunities and new ideas, since people of various backgrounds unite their energies.

Below, we’ve listed some advantages and disadvantages of collaborative writing, as well as how to pick a writing partner and the steps you can take to have a successful collaborative project.

You’ll have collaborative writing tasks throughout your time in the nursing program. Your first collaborative writing experience will occur in NURS 333, with a leadership interview, and you’ll collaborate on assignments such as case studies and poster presentations throughout your program. The Writing Center has an online workshop on how to prepare a poster presentation in the fields of biology and psychology-the same steps may help you.

The Advantages of Collaborative Writing:

• Collaborative writing can capitalize on people’s strengths.
• It motivates you to be committed to each other and the project.
• It stimulates you to creativity, new ideas, and new directions.
• The finished product may be better, and the time spent on the project might be less.

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The Disadvantages of Collaborative Writing:

• If the writers have a poor working relationship, writing together can be a challenge.
• Poor communication, lack of respect, conflicting personalities, and lack of flexibility can all contribute to a difficult working situation or poor finished product.
• Collaborative writing could take more time because of the need to match schedules.

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Questions to Ask Yourself When Choosing a Writing Partner:

• Is the person a good writer?
• Do your skills compliment each other?
• Does the person possess expertise that will benefit the project?
• Do you share mutual respect?
• Do you have similar interests?
• Who will be the first author?
• Who will do what task and when?

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The Steps of Collaborative Writing:

1. Come up with a general idea for the goals of the project.
2. Brainstorm together on topics/approaches.
3. Decide who the audience will be.
4. Come up with a specific thesis.
5. Create an outline and assign roles. (Who will do what tasks?)
6. Create a timeline for the project’s deadlines.
7. Write, with each individual doing their assigned part.
8. Put the pieces together.
9. Critique. Read, revise, and rewrite until everyone is satisfied with the final product. The product should flow; it should not be apparent to the reader that multiple people wrote it.