Topic:

Group work

This topic page includes introductory information, a list of readings, and questions to guide your
reading and prepare you for class discussion; it may also include an individual or group
assignment, which may or may not be graded.

Introduction
We will do only one graded group-work assignment this semester. The balance of the semester,
you will work with your group as a kind of mutual support team, but you will work on your own
writing projects. This topic sheet provides a basic overview of group work. Given our short
timeframes in this course, however, we cannot focus on group work as a central activity, even
though it is a very important one in the DP&TC workplace (and in fact in almost every workplace).

Readings for this topic

Read the following entries in Alred, Brusaw and Oliu (2015; ABO).
collaborative writing

Read Moxley, Managing Group Projects: http://writingcommons.org/index.php/open-
text/collaboration/manage-group-projects (Note the cutesy little video on that page is not
required viewing, and in fact, I found it a little insulting.)

Reading questions
While reading ABO, consider the following thoughts:
According to ABO, The team should . . . designate a coordinator who will guide the team
members activities, organize the project, and ensure coherence and consistency within the
document. I suggest that you consider these roles as being possibly divisible. For example,
one team member might be designated as the person who makes meeting agendas and
presides over meetings; another might make notes of the meetings, recapping at the end
what each person has agreed to do; a third might be responsible for following up with team
members a couple days before each deadline to ensure timely delivery; and finally one
person might be selected to be the coherence and consistency editor when contributions
of many team members are brought together.

While reading Moxley, consider the following:
Moxley advises that you select a project manager at your first meeting. Larson advises
instead that you do so at your second meeting, unless you are very short on time.
Discussing the project as a group without defining major roles up-front is a good way to get
everyone familiar enough with it to make their own decisions about roles theyd like to
play.
Even at the first meeting, someone should be the note-taker. This role can (and probably
should) rotate among team members from meeting to meeting.
Moxley recommends (tip 6) that you Write a research proposal and submit it to your
instructor. This is not required in this course unless your instructor requests it.
Moxley suggests (tip 7) that your instructor may want you to keep a personal, private log of
your interactions with the group. In fact, this is a requirement of this course. After each
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Topic: Group work

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class where there is group work or peer review, and after each meeting of your group
outside of class, you should write the date and time and a brief note about each member of
the group (including yourself): Did he or she contribute, offer to help a peer, speak up, etc.?
Try to find a complimentary comment to make about each, and a criticism to make about
each. You will summarize these impressions periodically in a memo to your instructor, who
will use them to help in assigning grades for group work and class participation.

Classroom activities for this topic

None.

Assignments for this topic

Usability assessment report (group project).

Works cited
Alred, G. J., Brusaw, C. T., & Oliu, W. E. (2015). Handbook of Technical Writing (11th edition).
Boston: Bedford/St. Martins.

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Topic: Group work

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