If you are not collaborating consciously, you may want to listen to Doreen Pendgracs. She is a professional writer, editor and proofreader. Doreen recommends that you at least hire a professional proofreader to ensure your book is the best it can be. She is the Wizard of Words and author of a most helpful book on the subject of volunteering on…
Collaborative Writing Law 9. Editors, translators, and designers are collaborators, too
Writing teams need editors. Depending on the context, the project might need a translator and some graphic designers, too. In fact editors, translators, and designers are all key collaborators. They offer advice about how specific requirements are best incorporated into the final product. Depending on the kind of editing to be done, there are roles for editors…
Law 8. Collaboration is all about communication and shared goals
We are all familiar with collaboration that fails because of insufficient effort in one direction or another. Here is a a proposal that takes into consideration all the factors at play when a group of people collaborate. The formula I propose shows how to create collaborative success. Yes, there is probably a more complex or correct equation for what it takes to make…
Your collaboration tools may be useless
State-of-the-art collaborative tools are about as useful as a box of hammers (see photo) if no one is clear on the aim of the project. It is misguided to think that your team has a good collaborative environment just because everyone shares the same database, or that a specific social media tool is all you need to get…
Is your organization losing its mind?
Your team is compiling hundreds of pages to support your organization’s product. It takes months, sometimes years. So you can expect the faces at the table to change over time. Writing in organizations takes planning. If the team members take all the expertise with them, the collaborative writing project could be affected. And the organization might feel…
Model 3 – Collaborative teams
Of the three models of writing processes in organizations, collaborative teams are the most likely to produce successful documents. All the roles and responsibilities for producing the document are represented in a structure that supports the project: content specialists, writing experts, editors, designers, administrators, even contracting authorities who look after the final output. It is more time-consuming…
Model 2 – The writing shop
Our second model of writing process shows a group of writers working together to produce documents for the organization. On the surface it may seem that nothing is wrong with the writing shop model. One problem is that the shop may be just a collective of lone writers. Other characteristics of a writing shop is that they…
Model 1 – The lone writer: A lose–lose situation
The lone writer model is more common in organizations than you might think. Whenever work is sent to a single person for execution, either to someone in the organization or to a freelance writer (often the same person each time, since that person knows the organization very well), the lone writer model is being put into action….
Which writing process does your organization follow?
There are three main types of writing models that can be used to produce documents in organizations: Model 1. The Lone Writer, where one person does most of the writing for the organization Model 2. The Writing Shop, where a bank of writing specialists produce documentation Model 3. The Collaborative Team, where various writers and subject matter…
Law 5. Agree on practices and tools and track progress
A collaborative writer is someone who works with at least one other person to produce a text and achieve a common purpose. Now, a group of writers can produce a lot of text. To ensure that all those pieces go together well, the team should agree on practices and tools while tracking progress throughout the phases of…