Collaboration

Students take Business & Technical Writing courses to help them prepare to work in office, R&d, and related workplace environments. When they do go to work, students will see that the ability to work in collaboration with others is highly valued. The following activities which have worked for other instructors teach students some of what they need to know to effectively collaborate.

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Instructors often group students in class and give specific tasks for them to complete. Often, these activities involve peer review of writings and require collaboration in order for revision plans to be developed. Look at Discussing Assigned Readings and Peer Review for strategies that have worked for others. Also, look at the "Pairs Project" on the Computer Lab Exercises page for a one class collaborative activity that has often worked well.

Collaboration activities in the Business & Technical Writing courses often extend over a period of a few weeks. The students need to have class time to do their work; it is not realistic to expect students to work exclusively or even extensively out-of-class on the collaboration tasks. Look at the Sample Syllabus pages for Technical Writing Essentials, Business Writing Essentials, and Writing for Engineers. The schedules will give a clear sense of the time needed (half or full class periods) for a collaboration project.

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Here is a project that involves analyzing, drawing, diagramming, writing instructions, and testing. This project does not require use of a computer lab. I have a portable Sony radio/CD/cassette. The radio and cassette buttons and dials are easy to use, but the five buttons for the the CD player are IMPOSSIBLE. Even the original user manual doesn't help very much.

User Manual: Electronic Device

I begin by telling students to bring a favorite CD to the next class (They then think maybe they'll be having fun!). I bring my Sony to the next class and then invite students to play a CD, but as soon as they make a mistake putting the CD into the player, starting the CD, selecting a specific track, etc., another student gets to try. After about 15 minutes the point is made: A good user's manual is needed. We then discuss the text chapter on "Collaboration" -- virtually every technical writing text has such a chapter or at least a section. Students are then grouped (4 seems to work best) and told to develop a small, easy to follow manual. Each group is given one (1) sheet of plain paper (and extras for trial and error work). The final manual must incorporate visual and text elements and must fit on that one sheet of paper (Both sides can be used. It can be folded if the team wants to do so.).

For the scheduled class times, the teams are allowed to work. I roam around and listen but try not to give any advice. I do talk to them about their working strategies and try to make connections to the text section on collaboration strengths/weaknesses. On the presentation date, each group shows its manual and demonstrates its usefulness. All class members complete a brief evaluation form. The team with the manual judged to be "best" gets an "A" for the assignment. Other teams earn grades that can't go higher than "B+" with me deciding on the grades, using the peer evaluation forms for input.

While my Sony is a great gadget to use, there are plenty of others that you might want to use -- Cell phone, VCR, Walkman, etc.

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This project does require computer lab time since that is where students will find routes and schedules for the buses. The project could possibly be adapted for use in a regular class. Before introducing the project, the text chapter on collaboration is thoroughly discussed in class. Such chapters (or at least sections) will be found in virtually all technical writing texts. Once the organization work is done, the project develops nicely as students learn to work together. While the teams work, I roam around and listen but try not to give any advice. I do talk to them about their working strategies and try to make connections to the text section on collaboration strengths/weaknesses.

The Rutgers University Bus System Users Manual Project

Here is a general introduction to the project:

Carefully examine the present bus system, including routes, schedules, number of buses, and coding. Then, create a users manual that conforms to the requirements on the handout. The information below, taken from the Writing for Engineers "Grading Criteria" web page, reminds you of things that need to be done to complete the assignment

User Manual (25 Points)

This assignment has the following required elements:

• The team must conduct some primary research.
  
  
• The team must keep a log to show time spent on the assignment and
  delegation of tasks.
  
  
• The team must make an oral presentation to show the finished user
  manual and demonstrate its usefulness.
  
  
• Each team member must speak for about three minutes.
  
  
• When the presentation is finished, the team must submit the evidence of
  primary research, the time/task log, and the user manual.
  
  
• All written work must be entirely free of errors in spelling, punctuation,
  grammar, and usage.
  
  
• All graphic work must have a clean, neat appearance.
  
  
• The manual must clearly be directed to the intended audience.

To earn an A (22-25 points), teams must entirely meet the established criteria. Class time will be provided for collaboration, though teams will also need to meet out of class as well. To get more details about this assignment, go to the User Manual web page.

Work at the B+ or B (18-21 points) level might have primary research that is too limited or a manual that does not address the specified audience well enough. There may be minor problems with the graphics. The oral presentation may not conform to the time limit.

Work at the C+ or C (14-17 points) level would be a result of having work that is incomplete (e.g., evidence of primary research; missing elements in the log), or writing that has excessive sentence level errors. The manual would not be clearly directed to the intended audience. Graphic work would lack a clean, neat appearance. These grades would be given to work that does not appear to have been carefully planned by the team.

________________________________________________________________________________________________

Here are the specific instructions for the project:

User's Manual Collaborative Project Teams

RUSE Corp. has responded to the call from the RneedsU Foundation for a user's manual for new students who must learn how travel on the Rutgers buses.

Imagine that we are a company of engineers and your manager has created teams. Each team will develop a manual, following these simple guidelines:

• The manual cannot exceed four (4) pages.
  
  
• The manual must have both text and images.
  
  
• The manual must enable the users to efficiently travel between the College Avenue, Cook/Douglass, Busch, and Livingston campuses.

Some time to work together is built into the class schedule (Check the class web page), but it is likely that you will have to arrange other meeting times on your own.

The finished manuals are due on Thursday, October 25, 2001. On that date, each team will give a presentation before the other teams. Each presentation will take at least 10 minutes but must end within 15 minutes. At the conclusion of the presentations, teams will vote for the best manual. That manual will be submitted to the RneedsU Foundation. Members of the winning team will receive a special reward for their work.

Team assignments:

Team A: Carol , Ahmed , Naresh, Sarah

Team B: Fitz, Nicole, Sam, Steve

Team C: Janet , Mark, Brianne, Dwayne

Team D: Mario , Kyriaki , Suzanne, Emil

Do you have any questions? If you do, now or at any time during the project, feel free to ask.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________

Here is a copy of the evaluation form (used by the instructor and peers):

USER MANUAL EVALUATION FORM

After each team's presentation (including your own), record a number a most closely reflects your evaluation of the manual.

Rating Criteria

1. Excellent manual in appearance and content; obviously
directed to the intended audience; directions are clear and concise.

2. Very good manual for the intended audience, but some aspects of the organization or directions might be difficult to follow.

3. Good general manual but likely to be somewhat difficult for the intended audience to follow independently.

4. Fair general manual but appearance is not as professional as a number 3 rating would earn.

5. Poor manual in organization, appearance, and usefulness for the intended audience. Manual does not appear to have been well planned.

Team Rating and Brief Comment

A _______________________________________________________________________________

B _______________________________________________________________________________

C _______________________________________________________________________________

D _______________________________________________________________________________

E _______________________________________________________________________________

 

(The team with the highest average rating earns an "A" while other teams will earn grades up to "B+." The grades other than the winning manual are determined by the instructor who takes the peer evaluations under consideration.)

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