Built around real group interactions, Team Writing is a flexible, hybrid resource that pairs videos with a brief print book. Based on research revealing major problems at all stages of peer group work, the book shows how written communication can help technical writing students contribute to team projects in a meaningful way — and provides strategies for dealing with the breakdowns that can derail a project’s success. Numerous examples highlight the kind of written communication that helps teams thrive. Short, Web-based videos depict student teams in action, going beyond the textbook to show what real collaboration looks and sounds like.
Joe Moses and Jason Tham Collaborative Writing Playbook: An Instructor's Guide to Designing Writing Projects for Student Teams supports writing across the curriculum by helping instructors overcome a key obstacle to assigning writing: the workload. The Playbook is for instructors who would assign more writing in their courses if they could create meaningful assignments that complement course goals. The Playbook is for instructors who would assign collaborative writing if they could account for individual contributions to collaboratively written content and use assessment criteria consistent with course learning objectives. Instructors can overcome the workload obstacles by identifying five learning objectives that writing and course content have in common: discipline-specific objectives for critical thinking, research, synthesis, genre/structure, and editing/peer review. By aligning writing objectives with course learning objectives, instructors can design writing projects, tasks, and peer review roles that support rather than distract from course content. Including collaborative writing throughout a course makes meaningful collaboration much easier to achieve than making collaboration a temporary activity, which can disrupt everyone's productivity. Joe Moses and Jason Tham present ideas for small and large activities that help instructors introduce collaboration at a pace that makes sense for them and sustains meaningful learning throughout a course. COLLABORATIVE WRITING PLAYBOOK has several unique features: Practical tools for planning and promoting productive teamwork. Roles for collaborative writing teammates that complement course-specific learning objectives. Structured activities designed specifically to support teammate interdependence and accountability. Templates for team charters, team planning, goal setting, and task coordination. A versatile, five-part structure-defined by instructors according to their preferences-for designing and evaluating team projects. What People Are Saying "Collaboration is a professional imperative. This Collaborative Writing Playbook provides an authentic, reliable roadmap for team writing built on design thinking. You'll be pleased to deploy it for team writing and all forms of collaboration." - Ann Hill Duin, University of Minnesota "Collaborative Writing Playbook revitalizes team-based writing instruction with a strong emphasis on modern career readiness. 'No team is automatically productive, ' write authors Joe Moses and Jason Tham, who roll up their sleeves to rally instructors navigating the difficult world of designing collaborative assignments with a bold but agile five-part structure. The book deftly serves as both a complete model and one that is easily customizable to a range of classroom scenarios. Highly practical and resourceful, Playbook specifies a set of adaptable templates for activities, checklists and guides to prompt instructors. Playbook is a must-have!" - Isabel Pedersen, Ontario Tech University "Collaborative Writing Playbook is a substantial, thoughtful, and insightful contribution to the discourse on collaborative writing. It is simultaneously a playbook, an instructor's guide, a textbook, a work of theory, even a guide for lesson planning and project design." - Jacob Richter, Clemson University Joe Moses teaches collaborative writing, research, and project design in the Department of Writing Studies at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. Jason Tham (PhD, University of Minnesota) is Assistant Professor of Technical Communication and Rhetoric at Texas Tech University.
Without words, apps would be an unusable jumble of shapes and icons, while voice interfaces and chatbots wouldn't even exist. Words make software human–centered, and require just as much thought as the branding and code. This book will show you how to give your users clarity, test your words, and collaborate with your team. You'll see that writing is designing.
Connecting with other people, finding a sense of belonging and the need for support are natural human desires. Employees who don't feel supported at work don't stay around for long - or if they do, they quickly become unmotivated and unhappy. At a time when organisational structures are flattening and workforces are increasingly fluid, supporting and connecting people is more important than ever. This is where organisational communities of practice come in. Communities of practice have many valuable benefits. They include accelerating professional development; breaking down organisational silos; enabling knowledge sharing and management; building better practice; helping to hire and retain staff; and making people happier. In this book, Emily Webber shares her learning from personal experiences of building successful communities of practice within organisations. And along the way, she gives practical guidance on creating your own.
Why you need a writing revolution in your classroom and how to lead it The Writing Revolution (TWR) provides a clear method of instruction that you can use no matter what subject or grade level you teach. The model, also known as The Hochman Method, has demonstrated, over and over, that it can turn weak writers into strong communicators by focusing on specific techniques that match their needs and by providing them with targeted feedback. Insurmountable as the challenges faced by many students may seem, The Writing Revolution can make a dramatic difference. And the method does more than improve writing skills. It also helps: Boost reading comprehension Improve organizational and study skills Enhance speaking abilities Develop analytical capabilities The Writing Revolution is as much a method of teaching content as it is a method of teaching writing. There's no separate writing block and no separate writing curriculum. Instead, teachers of all subjects adapt the TWR strategies and activities to their current curriculum and weave them into their content instruction. But perhaps what's most revolutionary about the TWR method is that it takes the mystery out of learning to write well. It breaks the writing process down into manageable chunks and then has students practice the chunks they need, repeatedly, while also learning content.
Writing on the Bus showcases the what, how, and why of using athletic team notebooks and journals. The book guides coaches and athletes, from elementary school through college, in analyzing games while thinking deeply about motivation, goal setting, and communication in order to optimize performance. Filled with lesson plans, writing activities, and step-by-step guidance, Writing on the Bus includes stories and examples from teams and athletes at all levels of sport. This book will work well as a supplemental text for college courses in the fields of coaching, kinesiology, and physical education.
From product documentation to menu labels to marketing emails, writing for the web can feel challenging-even insurmountable. But it doesn't have to be that way! Whether you're new to writing or looking to hone your skills, Scott Kubie's guide will empower you to get organized and get going. Learn to scope and articulate writing assignments, build a repeatable workflow, and develop methods for productive editing, collaboration, version control, and delivery. Don't struggle with writing-get the writing done.
Two New York Times–bestselling authors use personal experiences to teach how to work with a writing partner and what problems you may encounter. In a creative project, are two heads better than one? Writing partnerships can produce a remarkable synergy, building on each other’s talents to create work unlike anything the individual authors could do alone. On the other hand, unsuccessful collaboration can be disastrous and has ruined many a friendship. Kevin J. Anderson has worked on numerous novels and stories with dozens of collaborators, and many of those projects have become bestsellers and award winners. Rebecca Moesta has written books and stories with numerous other writers. In this in-depth book Anderson and Moesta describe various collaboration methods with frank recollections of their own experiences. You’ll learn collaborative techniques that will suit any sort of writer, as well as the pitfalls you may encounter. Includes a sample collaboration agreement to adapt to your own needs.
Incorporate writing instruction in your classroom as an essential element of literacy development while implementing best practices. Simplify the planning of writing instruction and become familiar with the Common Core State Standards of Writing.
Promote community in the classroom with this collection of simple class-participation games and exercises based on reading and writing. Students will write all alliteration sentences, create poetry, revise stories, and more! The activities challenge students by combining student interaction with problem solving. They can be completed in a short amount of time or expanded through multiple rounds, making it easy to incorporate them into your day-to-day lesson plans.
