Collaborative Writing - Engagement Theory

Stephen M. Ritchie and Dona Rigano interviewed a science teacher who, as the head of the department, wanted to reform the education model of their schools. By comparing his belief system to the consents, concessions, negotiations, trade-offs and rejections that the teacher received on his ideas from the rest of the science teachers, Ritchie and Rigano were able to identify two levels of engagement between the team members in implementation. They are −

• Turn Writing
• Lead Writing

Turn Writing

This form of writing is more cooperative where authors contribute to different sections, bringing changes and additional modification, which are then checked, implemented and collated by the lead writer.

Lead Writing

Two or more specialists on a topic are given a text to compose, who then speak their thoughts and others bring amendments into it which polishes and refines the text. The final text is then written down by another team member acting as a scribe. When the topic is done with, one of these specialists will act as a scribe and other teammates who are experts in the current subject will voice their thoughts.