Collaborative Writing vs Writing by Committee

Collaborative writing is a skill unto itself and is best practiced by a team (as in, it is team work). Writing by committee is a separate beast and without a doubt one of my greatest pet peeves and something I avoid getting involved in at all costs.

I subscribe to the notion that it is impossible to accomplish anything with more than three people at the table and meetings, especially committee meetings, are an instrument employed by people who feed their self-importance and try to mask the fact that they aren't doing anything productive by tying up other people's time. Cynical? Yes. But it is a direct result of having spent entirely too much time over the years being held captive in a conference room by someone whose greatest joy was the sound of their own voice and who, for the most part, had nothing useful to say. As a technical writer, there are few things I find more frustrating or less efficient than trying to create a written document in a committee meeting environment.

If you can relate to my cynicism, you may appreciate these strategies I employ to avoid the "writing by committee" process:

• Never start with a blank page - No matter what kind of written material you are working with, be it a policy, procedure, or an entire manual, you need to start with a working draft. Regardless of whether or not the entire committee must have input into the content, one or two individuals need to come up with a draft that is then presented to the group for feedback. In the case of a large document, this may simply be an outline or table of contents and progress to section or chapter drafts.
  

• Identify "The Decider" - Once there are more than three people involved in any project, it becomes almost impossible to achieve a perfect consensus and you can absolutely beat your brains out trying. Don't. Instead identify the ultimate decision maker, whether it is the committee chairperson, the chief officer of the organization, or a majority vote. Then, clearly communicate to your working group that, while everyone's input will be valued, the decider will have the ultimate determination in reconciling any differences. This simple and seemingly commonsense step will save hours of futile frustration.

• Use the Right Tools - When it is necessary* for multiple writers to directly contribute text to a project or even if multiple stakeholders just need to review it, it is important to use the right tools for the job. There are a plethora of collaborative writing tools available, but even the simplest word processing program can accomplish the job. The Track Changes and Comments feature in Microsoft Word is more than adequate to accomplish most simple collaborative writing tasks. It is not adequate, however, to use highlighting, different text colors, or other forms of formatting changes to make comments or track revisions. They make tools for this - use them.
  

• Establish the Style of the Project...and stick to it - By style, I mean writing style, as in a formal style guide (i.e. APA, MLA, Chicago Manual of Style, etc). For a writer, this can be another major point of frustration, especially when collaborating with non-writers. In my experience, career academics are some of the most difficult people to work with in this respect, but regardless of your working group, there is bound to be at least one armchair grammarian who will drive you to your wits' end. The best way to head off this problem is to clearly identify the style upfront and refer any questions to the style guide.