Team Writing
Second Edition ©2025 Joanna Wolfe; Chris Lam Formats: E-book
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Authors
-
Joanna Wolfe
Joanna Wolfe (Ph.D., University of Texas at Austin) is Director of the Global Communication Center at Carnegie Mellon University, where she develops new methods for improving communication instruction across the university. She is the author of numerous scholarly articles on teamwork, gender studies, collaborative learning technology , technical writing, and rhetoric Her research on collaborative writing in technical communication classes won the 2006 NCTE award for best article reporting qualitative or quantitative research in technical and scientific communication.
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Chris Lam
Chris Lam is an associate professor of technical communication at the University of North Texas. He studies communication in team projects and examines the literature on professional and technical communication and its impact on the profession.
Table of Contents
Chapter 1: Planning Your Collaboration
Case study: The audit report team – A case study of misaligned expectations
Exercise 1.1: Analysis of the audit report team, Original scenario
Effective teams maximize productive conflict and minimize unproductive conflict
An alternate reality: the audit report team redux
Exercise 1.2: Analysis of the alternate reality
Effective planning for a written document involves three main components
1. Agree upon goals and deliverables
2. Identify and merge competing goals, values, and expectations
For Discussion: Competing goals, values, and expectations on the audit report team
3. Create processes and timelines that allow for substantive revision
Different stages of the project involve different types of collaboration
For Discussion: Collaboration types on the audit report team
Effective project management holds the different stages of collaboration together
Teams need to select from different families of tools
Exercise 1.3: Tools and Processes on the audit report team
Virtual teams have unique challenges
Summary
Exercise 1.4: Identifying competing priorities
Chapter 2: What Makes a Good Team?
Successful teams have high collective intelligence
Exercise 2.1: Reflect on your previous team experiences
Diverse teams have high potential, but require extra effort
Collective intelligence increases with equal participation
Equal speaking time
Equal information-sharing
For Discussion: Identifying unique perspectives on your team
Proportionate contributions
For Discussion: Participation on the audit report team
Successful teams have high psychological safety
Create psychological safety on your team
Practice active listening
Avoid complaining; set a positive tone
Create judgment-free zones where even mistakes are appreciated
Treat mistakes as learning opportunities
Seek out difference
Communicate about things that have nothing to do with work
Exercise 2.2: Psychological safety on the audit report team
Exercise 2.3: Creating psychological safety on Victoria’s team
Use positive, future-focused statements
Exercise 2.4: Positive, future-focused statements
Successful and psychologically safe teams are data-driven
Summary
Exercise 2.5: Analyzing your conflict management style
Chapter 3: Project Management
Exercise 3.1: Reflect on project management of a previous project
Projects can be managed to have more or less iteration of the phases
Exercise 3.2: Evaluating project management styles
Exercise 3.3: Selecting a project management style for your project
The project manager’s role at each project phase
The initiation phase
Define the project scope in a scope statement
Exercise 3.4: Draft a project scope statement
Understand the team in a team charter
Planning phases: Create and update the task schedule
Implementation phases
Monitor progress with regular check-ins
For Discussion: Sharing obstacles
Troubleshoot obstacles and team problems with early intervention
Notify stakeholders of obstacles by asking for advice
Assessment phases
Review the work and plan the next phase
Review team processes with informal surveys
Review team processes with organic data from the project
Callout: Accessing Document Revision Histories
Case Study: Is the problem individual contribution or something else?
Exercise 3.5: Collecting team data
The closing phase
Summary
Chapter 4: Getting Started with a Team Charter
A team charter records norms, processes, and roles
Sample team charter
Different kinds of teams have different kinds of charters
Prepare for the team charter
Exercise 4.1: Preparing for the team charter
Meet to develop a team culture
Balance individual strengths and weaknesses
Balance commitment levels
Build consensus around revision norms
Exercise 4.2: Building consensus around revision norms
Build consensus around communication norms
Exercise 4.3: Analyzing media
Build consensus around timeliness norms
Exercise 4.4: Merging timeliness norms
Develop troubleshooting guidelines
Responding to violations of the team charter
Summary
Chapter 5: Getting Started with the Task Schedule
Identify Major Tasks
Exercise 5.1: Define tasks
Define project roles
Options for defining unique project roles
For Discussion: Expert vs. novice review
Determine criteria for each project role
For Discussion: Experience vs. Motivation to Learn
Exercise 5.2: Define project roles
Define roles by interest
Define roles by tool sets
Assign roles
Practice strategies for breaking stereotypical thinking
Systematically consider each criterion separately
Callout: What if one person is most qualified for multiple roles?
Assign consulting or back-up roles
Consider rotating roles
For Discussion: Assigning roles
Plan milestone and meeting dates
Plan meeting inputs and outputs in advance
Schedule and assign individual tasks
Balance the workload
Troubleshoot project dependencies
Adopt appropriate tools for maintaining task schedules
Exercise 5.3: Draft a task schedule
Summary
For Discussion: Comparing task schedules
Chapter 6: Writing and Revising Together
Agree upon where you are going: Define criteria up front
Finding and analyzing model texts
Exercise 6.1: Finding and analyzing model texts
Analyzing your audience(s)
Exercise 6.2: Analyzing your audiences
Planning for accessibility
Use straw drafts to jumpstart your collaboration
Exercise 6.3: Straw draft
For Discussion: Straw drafts
Decide upon composing tools and processes
1. The ability to avoid competing versions of the document
2. Formatting capabilities
3. Integration with special tools
4. Internet access issues
Exercise 6.4: Deciding upon composing tools and processes
Decide upon revision processes and tools
The feedback method
The direct-revision method
Choosing a method
For Discussion: Deciding upon review and revision tools and processes
Make substantive suggestions grounded in shared criteria
Review project criteria
Focus on global changes in the early stage of a draft
Focus on language and formatting changes in later stages
Exercise 6.5: Practicing positive, future-focused feedback
Assign a team member to do a final edit for consistency and accessibility
Summary
Chapter 7: Running Team Meetings
Determine the purpose and structure of the meeting
For Discussion: Structuring meetings
Prepare for the meeting
Prepare and circulate an agenda
Require homework and pre-reads
Conduct straw polls or surveys prior to the meeting
Exercise 7.1: Plan a meeting
Structure conversations to increase equal participation
Establish no interruption rules
Use criticism-free periods to generate ideas
Establish turn-taking rules to equalize discussion
Be systematic about making decisions
Use polling tools
Use screens to focus attention
For Discussion: Structured conversations
Have good group etiquette during the meeting
Use additional strategies for virtual meetings
For Discussion: Virtual meetings
Follow up after the meeting
Update the task schedule
Distribute meeting minutes
Callout: Action items in meeting minutes vs. Task schedules: What’s the difference?
Exercise 7.2: Analyzing meeting minutes
Summary
Exercise 7.3: Troubleshooting problematic team meetings
Chapter 8: Troubleshooting Team Problems
Decide who to involve
Pick the medium
For Discussion: Selecting meeting
Phrase the communication to focus on solutions
Callout: Address problems early
For recurring problems, work to discover root causes
For Discussion: Role-playing root cause analysis
Troubleshoot problems with showing up and turning in work
Problem: A teammate misses a meeting
Problem: A teammate turns in poor-quality work
Problem: Your initial efforts are unsuccessful
Troubleshooting problems with personal interactions
Problem: My team doesn’t trust me to do good work
Problem: My team isn’t listening to me
Problem: Other team members are not committed to a high-quality product
Problem: My teammates do and say things I find disturbing or demeaning
Problem: My teammates are not open to revisions to their work
Summary
Exercise 8.2: Troubleshooting
Appendix: Sample Meeting Minutes
Product Updates
Authors
-
Joanna Wolfe
Joanna Wolfe (Ph.D., University of Texas at Austin) is Director of the Global Communication Center at Carnegie Mellon University, where she develops new methods for improving communication instruction across the university. She is the author of numerous scholarly articles on teamwork, gender studies, collaborative learning technology , technical writing, and rhetoric Her research on collaborative writing in technical communication classes won the 2006 NCTE award for best article reporting qualitative or quantitative research in technical and scientific communication.
-
Chris Lam
Chris Lam is an associate professor of technical communication at the University of North Texas. He studies communication in team projects and examines the literature on professional and technical communication and its impact on the profession.
Table of Contents
Chapter 1: Planning Your Collaboration
Case study: The audit report team – A case study of misaligned expectations
Exercise 1.1: Analysis of the audit report team, Original scenario
Effective teams maximize productive conflict and minimize unproductive conflict
An alternate reality: the audit report team redux
Exercise 1.2: Analysis of the alternate reality
Effective planning for a written document involves three main components
1. Agree upon goals and deliverables
2. Identify and merge competing goals, values, and expectations
For Discussion: Competing goals, values, and expectations on the audit report team
3. Create processes and timelines that allow for substantive revision
Different stages of the project involve different types of collaboration
For Discussion: Collaboration types on the audit report team
Effective project management holds the different stages of collaboration together
Teams need to select from different families of tools
Exercise 1.3: Tools and Processes on the audit report team
Virtual teams have unique challenges
Summary
Exercise 1.4: Identifying competing priorities
Chapter 2: What Makes a Good Team?
Successful teams have high collective intelligence
Exercise 2.1: Reflect on your previous team experiences
Diverse teams have high potential, but require extra effort
Collective intelligence increases with equal participation
Equal speaking time
Equal information-sharing
For Discussion: Identifying unique perspectives on your team
Proportionate contributions
For Discussion: Participation on the audit report team
Successful teams have high psychological safety
Create psychological safety on your team
Practice active listening
Avoid complaining; set a positive tone
Create judgment-free zones where even mistakes are appreciated
Treat mistakes as learning opportunities
Seek out difference
Communicate about things that have nothing to do with work
Exercise 2.2: Psychological safety on the audit report team
Exercise 2.3: Creating psychological safety on Victoria’s team
Use positive, future-focused statements
Exercise 2.4: Positive, future-focused statements
Successful and psychologically safe teams are data-driven
Summary
Exercise 2.5: Analyzing your conflict management style
Chapter 3: Project Management
Exercise 3.1: Reflect on project management of a previous project
Projects can be managed to have more or less iteration of the phases
Exercise 3.2: Evaluating project management styles
Exercise 3.3: Selecting a project management style for your project
The project manager’s role at each project phase
The initiation phase
Define the project scope in a scope statement
Exercise 3.4: Draft a project scope statement
Understand the team in a team charter
Planning phases: Create and update the task schedule
Implementation phases
Monitor progress with regular check-ins
For Discussion: Sharing obstacles
Troubleshoot obstacles and team problems with early intervention
Notify stakeholders of obstacles by asking for advice
Assessment phases
Review the work and plan the next phase
Review team processes with informal surveys
Review team processes with organic data from the project
Callout: Accessing Document Revision Histories
Case Study: Is the problem individual contribution or something else?
Exercise 3.5: Collecting team data
The closing phase
Summary
Chapter 4: Getting Started with a Team Charter
A team charter records norms, processes, and roles
Sample team charter
Different kinds of teams have different kinds of charters
Prepare for the team charter
Exercise 4.1: Preparing for the team charter
Meet to develop a team culture
Balance individual strengths and weaknesses
Balance commitment levels
Build consensus around revision norms
Exercise 4.2: Building consensus around revision norms
Build consensus around communication norms
Exercise 4.3: Analyzing media
Build consensus around timeliness norms
Exercise 4.4: Merging timeliness norms
Develop troubleshooting guidelines
Responding to violations of the team charter
Summary
Chapter 5: Getting Started with the Task Schedule
Identify Major Tasks
Exercise 5.1: Define tasks
Define project roles
Options for defining unique project roles
For Discussion: Expert vs. novice review
Determine criteria for each project role
For Discussion: Experience vs. Motivation to Learn
Exercise 5.2: Define project roles
Define roles by interest
Define roles by tool sets
Assign roles
Practice strategies for breaking stereotypical thinking
Systematically consider each criterion separately
Callout: What if one person is most qualified for multiple roles?
Assign consulting or back-up roles
Consider rotating roles
For Discussion: Assigning roles
Plan milestone and meeting dates
Plan meeting inputs and outputs in advance
Schedule and assign individual tasks
Balance the workload
Troubleshoot project dependencies
Adopt appropriate tools for maintaining task schedules
Exercise 5.3: Draft a task schedule
Summary
For Discussion: Comparing task schedules
Chapter 6: Writing and Revising Together
Agree upon where you are going: Define criteria up front
Finding and analyzing model texts
Exercise 6.1: Finding and analyzing model texts
Analyzing your audience(s)
Exercise 6.2: Analyzing your audiences
Planning for accessibility
Use straw drafts to jumpstart your collaboration
Exercise 6.3: Straw draft
For Discussion: Straw drafts
Decide upon composing tools and processes
1. The ability to avoid competing versions of the document
2. Formatting capabilities
3. Integration with special tools
4. Internet access issues
Exercise 6.4: Deciding upon composing tools and processes
Decide upon revision processes and tools
The feedback method
The direct-revision method
Choosing a method
For Discussion: Deciding upon review and revision tools and processes
Make substantive suggestions grounded in shared criteria
Review project criteria
Focus on global changes in the early stage of a draft
Focus on language and formatting changes in later stages
Exercise 6.5: Practicing positive, future-focused feedback
Assign a team member to do a final edit for consistency and accessibility
Summary
Chapter 7: Running Team Meetings
Determine the purpose and structure of the meeting
For Discussion: Structuring meetings
Prepare for the meeting
Prepare and circulate an agenda
Require homework and pre-reads
Conduct straw polls or surveys prior to the meeting
Exercise 7.1: Plan a meeting
Structure conversations to increase equal participation
Establish no interruption rules
Use criticism-free periods to generate ideas
Establish turn-taking rules to equalize discussion
Be systematic about making decisions
Use polling tools
Use screens to focus attention
For Discussion: Structured conversations
Have good group etiquette during the meeting
Use additional strategies for virtual meetings
For Discussion: Virtual meetings
Follow up after the meeting
Update the task schedule
Distribute meeting minutes
Callout: Action items in meeting minutes vs. Task schedules: What’s the difference?
Exercise 7.2: Analyzing meeting minutes
Summary
Exercise 7.3: Troubleshooting problematic team meetings
Chapter 8: Troubleshooting Team Problems
Decide who to involve
Pick the medium
For Discussion: Selecting meeting
Phrase the communication to focus on solutions
Callout: Address problems early
For recurring problems, work to discover root causes
For Discussion: Role-playing root cause analysis
Troubleshoot problems with showing up and turning in work
Problem: A teammate misses a meeting
Problem: A teammate turns in poor-quality work
Problem: Your initial efforts are unsuccessful
Troubleshooting problems with personal interactions
Problem: My team doesn’t trust me to do good work
Problem: My team isn’t listening to me
Problem: Other team members are not committed to a high-quality product
Problem: My teammates do and say things I find disturbing or demeaning
Problem: My teammates are not open to revisions to their work
Summary
Exercise 8.2: Troubleshooting
Appendix: Sample Meeting Minutes
Product Updates
A Guide to Working in Groups
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Are you a campus bookstore looking for ordering information?
MPS Order Search Tool (MOST) is a web-based purchase order tracking program that allows customers to view and track their purchases. No registration or special codes needed! Just enter your BILL-TO ACCT # and your ZIP CODE to track orders.
Canadian Stores: Please use only the first five digits/letters in your zip code on MOST.
Visit MOST, our online ordering system for booksellers: https://tracking.mpsvirginia.com/Login.aspx
Learn more about our Bookstore programs here: https://www.macmillanlearning.com/college/us/contact-us/booksellers
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Our courses currently integrate with Canvas, Blackboard (Learn and Ultra), Brightspace, D2L, and Moodle. Click on the support documentation below to find out more details about the integration with each LMS.
Integrate Macmillan courses with Blackboard
Integrate Macmillan courses with Canvas
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If you’re a verified instructor, you can request a free sample of our courseware, e-book, or print textbook to consider for use in your courses. Only registered and verified instructors can receive free print and digital samples, and they should not be sold to bookstores or book resellers. If you don't yet have an existing account with Macmillan Learning, it can take up to two business days to verify your status as an instructor. You can request a free sample from the right side of this product page by clicking on the "Request Instructor Sample" button or by contacting your rep. Learn more.
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Sometimes also referred to as a spiral-bound or binder-ready textbook, loose-leaf textbooks are available to purchase. This three-hole punched, unbound version of the book costs less than a hardcover or paperback book.
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Achieve (full course) includes our complete e-book, as well as online quizzing tools, multimedia assets, and iClicker active classroom manager.
Most Achieve Essentials courses do not include our e-books and adaptive quizzing.
Visit our comparison table for details: https://www.macmillanlearning.com/college/us/digital/achieve/compare
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Achieve (full course) includes our complete e-book, as well as online quizzing tools, multimedia assets, and iClicker active classroom manager.
Achieve Read & Practice only includes our e-book and adaptive quizzing, and does not include instructor resources and assignable assessments. Read & Practice does integrate with LMS.
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