PRP team writing strategies and software tools

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PRP team writing strategies and software tools

• Clay Spinuzzi
• Director, CWRL
• clay.spinuzzi_at_mail.utexas.edu

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the problems with writing long documents

• Coordination Getting everyone pointed in the
  same direction -- in terms of objectives,
  responsibilities, and effort.
• Cooperation Making sure everyone stays pointed
  in the same direction.
• Coherence Producing an argument that hangs
  together.

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the five-paragraph essay

• Introduction. Thesis sentence, forecasting.
• Point 1. Claim and evidence.
• Point 2. Claim and evidence.
• Point 3. Claim and evidence.
• Conclusion. Restate thesis, summarize.

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but the five-paragraph essay wont help

• This organization works fine for short,
  constrained arguments (composition assignments,
  letters of application), but not for longer
  arguments. It doesnt scale well.
• It leads to fragmented arguments.
• It provides no support for group argumentation.
• It provides no support for complex argumentation.

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the research report

• Introduction. Thesis and forecasting.
• Situation and Objectives. Whats wrong, and what
  does this report do about it?
• Methods. How was the situation investigated?
• Results. What did you find?
• Discussion (recommendations). What does it mean
  (to us)?

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but the research report by itself is only a
marginal improvement

• It sharply divides functions in the sections.
• In group projects, those divisions often mirror
  divisions of labor and chronology.
• Those divisions lead to silos the parts dont
  talk to each other.
• Coordination, cooperation, and coherence issues
  are dealt with intuitively.

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approaches to pulling together a collaborative
report

• This problem is typically handled through ad hoc
  means
• designating a chief editor,
• subordinating work to a chief author/architect,
• committing to multiple rounds of global
  revisions, or
• simply hoping for the best.

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• Hope is not a strategy.

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pulling together a collaborative writing project
takes work at three levels

• Strategic. Managerial involves initiation and
  planning of projects.
• Tactical. Project leadership involves planning
  and executing milestones.
• Operational. Team members involves controlling,
  executing, and closing steps.

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the strategic level (p1)

• Set objectives, the concrete aims the project
  will accomplish -- not just as a policy argument,
  but also as a policy document. (Audience,
  framing, limiting of claims and argument.)
• Set themes, the common threads that will bind
  together the different parts of the argument.
  (Objectives, assumptions, desired results)

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the strategic level (p2)

• Set standards of evidence, the standards that
  will govern what you can use to underpin your
  arguments. (Audience, disciplinary standards,
  assumptions)
• Determine the overall argument, based on the
  above. This argument may shift tactically during
  the process, but will strategically remain the
  same.

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the tactical level (p1)

• Adopt an organizational structure that will
  afford maximum flexibility and mutual oversight.
  Decentralize and core-dump.
• Set milestones that will move you to the
  strategic objective, working backward from the
  delivery date. Word these as concrete actions
  that move your team toward the objective. Make
  sure internal milestones lead external ones.
• Delegate milestones to team members during
  planning. These include both investigation and
  writing.

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the tactical level (p2)

• Maintain accountability by surfacing milestone
  status, progress, and concerns. Reevaluate
  progress periodically.
• Split and consolidate milestones when necessary.
  Retain tactical flexibility.
• Draft sections early, drawing from team
  interactions. (In early stages, writing is a
  byproduct of the investigatory work, not a
  separate set of tasks.)
• Work themes into the draft sections, monitoring
  conflicts and drifts.

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the operational level (p1)

• Establish and publicize style guidelines early by
  adopting a style manual, guide, or sheet.
• Establish and publicize organizational guidelines
  early by agreeing on paragraph-level organization
  (inductive, deductive) and chunking (long
  paragraphs vs. headings and bullets)

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the operational level (p2)

• Establish editorial responsibility (style,
  mechanics, organization) and aids (grammar
  checkers, checklists).
• Establish backup responsibility in case emergency
  strikes (e.g., someone gets hit by a bus).

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software for successful collaboration

• Collaborative project management (Basecamp, Zoho
  Projects, Wrike, JotSpot?)
• Collaborative document editing (Google Docs, Zoho
  Office Suite, ThinkFree Online, Ajax13)

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project management software

• Collaborative Everyone should see the emerging
  shape of the project.
• Central yet distributed This should constitute a
  central core dump of the groups work, one that
  distributes the work and makes it bus-proof.
  Make sure to back it up.
• STO All group members should be able to review
  the project at strategic, tactical, and
  operational levels, anytime.

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writing software

• Collaborative Allows all team members to access
  each document, anytime.
• Versioned Tracks changes and allows reversion to
  previous versions. (Email ping-pong creates
  versioning issues.)
• Commented Allows all team members to insert
  comments, either in-line or attached.

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parting thoughts

• Collaborative writing is not the same as
  single-author writing. Early agreement,
  deliberation, coordination, and mutual
  accountability are critical.
• Collaborative writing is the byproduct of the
  project. These projects are less about the
  writing (putting text on the page) and more about
  the policy objectives that are established and
  met in related efforts and media.

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• Questions?