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How to write together?

Delivering a group work or writing a paper together can sometimes be challenging. Every person is different and has other styles and ideas. Yet, the final product of your group work should be coherent and consistent. In a paper, for example, you should avoid sudden changes of style and the argumentation should be easy to follow throughout the entire text. In group works, you should always make sure to keep an overview and everybody should use the same layout. Yet it is also a bad idea to write the entire text or assemble a herbarium together. There are two ways to make group works in a coherent way: the duo method or the revision method.

The biggest paradox in a group work is that you can’t write everything together with the group but at the same time, you should also deliver a text that seems to be written by one person only. The most popular method is to divide chapters between group members so that everybody writes a different part of the text but this leads to sudden changes in style and crooked argumentations.

Instead of writing one chapter each, you can also write a chapter or a part of the text in a duo, which means that every chapter is written by somebody and then revised by somebody else. This last person mainly focussed on form: not only spelling mistakes and sentence structures that could be improved but also the use of academic language. Every group member should write and revise at least once. This way, your text will also have a more coherent style overall. 

Advantages

  • Well-balanced division of work
  • Smaller risk of sudden changes in style
  • Social control
  • Simultaneous writing and revising process

Disadvantages

 

  • Still a risk of sudden changes in style
  • Less control over the coherence of the argumentation and possible overlap
  • Revision is also done by group members that write less well

No matter how well-balanced the duo method might be, there is still a risk of sudden changes in style when using that method. If you choose to use the revision method, that risk decreases. Instead of working in duos, everybody works on different parts of the text and afterwards, the entire text is revised by only one group member. The revisor rereads the entire work and corrects any mistakes in terms of spelling, grammar and academic language and makes sure that the argumentation is clear throughout the entire text.

The revisor should take the task at hand very seriously. Revising also means rewriting specific parts of the text and reordering them with confidence. In this way, the revisor does far more than focus on spelling mistakes. A correct and complete revision of a paper is a task that should not be underestimated, which is why it  makes sense that the revisor only writes a limited part of the text (or even no part at all). This way, you make sure the work is divided fairly. 

Advantages

  • Hardly no risk of sudden changes in style
  • Strong control of argumentation and overlap
  • Talented revisor checks the entire text

Disadvantages

  • Final responsibility comes down to one person
  • Time pressure because the revision is the last step
  • Risk of unbalanced division of work
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