II Jessica Kahlow II
You’re assigned a group writing assignment, and someone in the group delegates sections of the assignment to each person in the group. The end result is what sounds like five different essays because five different people wrote it. We’ve all been there. How do you make it sound like one person wrote it and not five different people? Do you go to the writing center? This is something many students wonder, and some students have reached out to the writing center for guidance. But, writers working on group projects are not always warmly welcomed into the writing center.
Many writers dread group work, despite it becoming an increasingly important skill for employers. As universities begin to focus more preparing students for the workforce, group projects are also gaining traction (Coffey et al. 148). Working in groups is not always easy, and students should be able to get writing support for both individual and group writing projects.
Coffey et al. (2017) stated that writing centers still need to consider whether they should “provide support for teams working on collaborative writing projects” (148). I initially read this and thought, “well, why wouldn’t we work with groups?” Then, I transferred universities and began working in a new writing center where helping writers with group work was not nearly as encouraged as it was in my previous center. Intrigued, I wanted to get a better understanding of why this difference occurs between writing centers.
It seems like the uncertainty in whether writing centers should work with groups stems from how they view group writing. They could see it as working with five writers on five papers or as working with five writers on one paper. With the central goal of writing centers being that they work to develop better writers, not necessarily better papers; either of these viewpoints could be plausible.
The first way to work with group projects would be to help an individual writer on their part of the group assignment. In this situation, the session would operate similarly to any other one-on-one session. The downfall of working with groups in this way is that we are only working with one section, so by the time the session is over; we have helped improve one part of a larger paper. Despite improvements to that section, the paper overall would likely still read as five separate papers. The advantage of working with group work in this way is that the writer of the section we worked on would learn strategies to improve that section, which they can then take back to the group and apply it to the other sections.
In addition to providing feedback on that section of the paper, writing consultants can also help writers develop strategies for working in groups. Since most, if not all, writing consultants have been involved in a group-writing project at some point, they will likely be able to give writers ideas for how to handle specific group situations that may arise.
The second way would be to work with the entire group in one session. Working with writers in this way is loosely supported in The Oxford Guide for Writing Tutors section on working with groups, which draws from team writing scholarship and recommends that consultants involve all group members in sessions. In this situation, the session would also operate similarly to any other one-on-one session. The difference is that instead of having one writer with one paper, there would instead be five writers for one paper. When asked to read the paper out loud, the writers could take turns reading through the paper. This would allow the entire group the opportunity to look at higher order concerns like organizational inconsistencies and flow. It would also allow them the opportunity to see later order concerns, like formatting inconsistencies and differences in word choice and tone between sections.
In group sessions where a consultant is working with the entire group, the consultant would essentially take on the role of the moderator or facilitator. Techniques and practices such as agenda setting, asking questions, and ensuring writer accuracy apply to both one-on-one and group sessions. Furthermore, Coffey et al. found that group sessions “involve unique team dynamics, calling for the consultant to develop and fulfill the role of facilitator, helping writers negotiate team dynamics” (149). The group members know the project better than the consultant; the consultant would just be there to guide them along the way, based on their prior experience working in groups and observations they notice about the paper as a whole.
A potential problem when working with a group of writers would be that the consultant might end up having five mini-sessions with each writer instead of working with the group as a whole. This could be problematic because the consultant would not be able to dedicate an appropriate amount of time for each writer. And, at the end of the five mini-sessions, the paper would still sound like five different people wrote it. Problems like this could be avoided by making it clear in the agenda-setting stage that this is not going to be how the session is structured.
To me, being collaborative means being flexible enough to work with writers on group projects and individually. Writing centers are writer-centered, not paper-centered. Unfortunately, not all writing centers are willing to work with writers on group projects, citing lack of resources to provide training. I argue that the same writing center pedagogy we use for individual work also applies to working with writers on group projects. Regardless of whether the writing center views group work as working with five writers on five papers or as working with five writers on one paper, they should be open to helping writers with group projects.
Usually, when writers leave the writing center, they feel more confident about their assignments or projects. When they leave the writing center after working on a group project, they should also feel more confident about their projects. When working with groups, part of the writing center’s responsibility should also be to help the writer think about the project in a more positive light.
Works Cited
Coffey, Kathleen M., et al. “Consulting with Collaborative Writing Teams.” Writing
Center Journal, vol. 36, no. 1, Jan. 2017, pp. 147–82.http://search.ebscohost.com/
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Fitzgerald, Lauren, and Ianetta, Melissa. The Oxford Guide for Writing Tutors: Practice
and Research. Oxford University Press, 2016.
Excellent article!