IT Communication Assignment: Collaborative Writing vs. Individual Writing

Identify and explain at least three advantages and three disadvantages of the collaborative writing process. In what situations might an individual writing process be preferable?

There are situations when writing collaboratively seems to be much more beneficial to writing a major document than writing one individually. One advantage to writing collaboratively is “Collaboration offers wider expertise and skills than just one writer may possess” (VanAlstyne, 2005, p. 25). The fact that there are more people’s personal experiences contributing to a paper is beneficial in that there is that much more experience to write about. Another advantage is “A group will offer divergent opinions, raise more questions, and point out more problem areas than a single writer will” (VanAlstyne, 2005, p. 25). This advantage is basically summarized by the saying “two heads are better than one”; the more people you have, the more fresh ideas your group and your document will have. Finally, “Collaboration offers the opportunities for co-workers in business and industry to know and respect each other more intimately and thus work more productively. Differences in length of company tenure, gender, and multicultural concerns should be brought to light and worked out democratically toward a shared group and organizational goal” (VanAlstyne, 2005, p. 25). This advantage will benefit the paper in the fact that it is much more likely to be written critically and account for a larger percentage of the target audience’s concerns.

While there are definite advantages to writing collaboratively, there are disadvantages as well. One key disadvantage is “Unless the contributions of each are clearly appreciated, members may feel that they are just replaceable nonentities in the scheme of things, and the document will be of low quality” (VanAlstyne, 2005, p. 26). This is appreciable in the fact that one must stop and think of the entire group and take pride in a group effort rather than an individual effort. Another disadvantage is “A group may tend to emphasize getting along together rather than being critical of other’s opinions or concentrating clearly on the subject, which may lead to groupthink, the negative flip side of teamwork” (VanAlstyne, 2005, p. 25). I think that this is a very easy to accidently accomplish in today’s “politically correct” workplace; everyone is so afraid to step on someone’s toes or offend them that the document that the team is collaborating on to construct may suffer. One last disadvantage of writing collaboratively is “There may be disparities in the workload, and some people will inevitably have to work harder than others, causing resentments that must be addressed and mollified” (VanAlstyne, 2005, p. 25). I think that this is the biggest disadvantage to writing collaboratively; while someone might simply have high goals and is working very hard to contribute to the team, another individual could misconstrue this “sucking up.”

There are many times when writing an important document might be easier if it were written individually rather than collaboratively. A school assignment is a great example of a situation when individuality might be better. As a student, I do not want to be responsible for other’s ideas that I do not personally agree with but am forced to document as it would be a group effort on the paper.


VanAlstyne, J. (Ed.). (2005). Professional and Technical Writing Strategies: Communicating in Technology and Science, Prentice-Hall.