Page 39 Guidelines for Collaborative Writing

• Select collaborators carefully. Choose a combination of people who together have the experience, information, and talent needed for each project. 
• Agree on project goals before you start. Starting without a clear idea of what the team hopes to accomplish inevitably leads to frustration and wasted time.
• Give your team time to bond before diving in. Take time to know each other before being asked to collaborate.
• Clarify individual responsibilities. Make sure individual responsibilities are clear because you rely on each other.
• Establish clear processes. Make sure everyone knows how the work will be managed from start to finish.
• Avoid composing as a group. For longer projects, you will usually find it more efficient to plan, research, and outline together but assign the task of writing to one person or divide larger projects among multiple writers.
• Make sure tools and techniques are ready and compatible across the team. Even minor details such as different versions of software can delay projects.
• Check to see how things are going along the way. Make sure you check in with your group to assure things are going properly.