Revising With Others (Handout)
You will receive feedback on your drafts from peers as well as from your instructor. Your
group may decide to revise your whole document or parts of it. How should you proceed?
First, discuss as a group the feedback you’ve received and on your document(s). Then, you
need to decide how to revise your documents. See below:
Goals: Develop a group culture in which constructive feedback is encouraged
1. Build revision and feedback into the task schedule for the remainder of the project
2. Decide on a revision process - and stick to it!
3. Use tools that keep a history of revisions
Revision Method vs. Feedback Method: What’s the difference? How should you choose?
• Direct Revision Method: one team member drafts some text, and another member
implements the revisions, directly changing and revising the text of the previous author.
Several people share responsibility for shaping the text.
• Feedback Method: one team member drafts some text, submits it to others for feedback,
and then implements revisions based on this feedback. One person maintains primary
responsibility for the text.
• Choosing:
o See benefits and drawbacks of each method on p. 63 (Team Writing)
o Questions to ask: Does your team have… (see p. 64 of Team Writing)
! A writer who really wants to improve his or her skills?
! A member with both content knowledge and strong writing skills?
! One team member with content knowledge and another with strong
writing skills?
! A writer who has trouble accepting feedback?
Once you’ve decided on a method for revision, remember to set ground rules as a group!
• Clarify the state of the draft: Whenever writers hand off a draft to other group members
for comment or revision, they should provide a brief statement summarizing the state of
the draft and outlining the types of changes they believe the draft needs.
• Clarify the goals of revision or feedback: How close it the deadline? Does this
document need major revisions or just surface-level editing? Taking a moment to agree
up front on the goals of the feedback can help the team use its time for effectively.
Technology to Facilitate Collaborative Revising (see p. 71-78 for benefits and drawbacks)
• Email: Best for providing large, global suggestions for revision
• Commenting features in word-processing programs: Allows multiple group members
to make marginal comments without changing the text.
• Track changes in word-processing programs: Allows one author to completely revise
another’s text without anxiety because coauthors can see exactly what was modified and
can easily reverse controversial changes.
• Google Docs (“Drive”): best if several team members are revising extensively
• Wikis: allows team to focus on complex relationships among many separate docs
• How to select the right tool for your group? See Table 6.3 on p. 78 in Team Writing