Process Oriented Approach to the Teaching of Writing a Collaborative Formal Business Report by Culturally Heterogeneous Virtual

Teams

Zsuzsanna Bacsa Palmer

ENGL 895

Pedagogical Project Description

This collaborative project designed for heterogeneous teams of native and nonnative English speakers in an online Professional Writing course uses the process script approach to optimize communication and to create a learning environment where teams value cultural diversity and can apply this to the production of a unified business report.

Challenges to teaching culturally heterogeneous virtual teams

Cultural issues:– Time zones

– Language, World Englishes (St. Amant, 2007)

– Different assumptions about group communication rules (Grosse, 2002; Artiz, 2010)

Challenges to teaching culturally heterogeneous virtual teams

Virtual collaboration issues:– Difficult to build trust w/o face-to-face interaction

(Child, 2001; Grosse, 2002; Vogel et al., 2001)

– Poorly managed heterogeneous virtual teams often underperform similarly managed homogeneous teams (DiStefano and Maznevski, 2000)

Approach to solve cultural issues

Cosmopolitanism (Appiah, 2006; Hall, 2002; Canagarajah, 2010)– “cultural cosmopolitanism emphasizes the

possible fluidity of individual identity” (Held, 2002, p. 58)

Acknowledging that everyone’s identity is made up of influences of different cultures (national, special interest, or professional) and starting from the premise of “Varied Identities”

Cultural Cosmopolitanism as Realized in the Collaborative Writing Project

Each team member creates a blog with the title “My Varied Identities” to create shared understanding that each team member is different

At the same time establishing that similarities exist: Skype call to determine what each team member has in common with another team member

Collaboratively composing Team Contract in Google docs to establish shared goals

Approach to solve virtual collaboration difficulties

Process scripts:

– Help with scaffolding through defining the temporal sequence of learning (Neff and Whithaus, 2008)

– In a large-scale study, teams working with a process script outperformed the ones working without a process script and showed more favorable outcomes not only in terms of the final product, but also in their satisfaction with in-team relationships and communication. (Lowry et. al., 2004)

– Eliminate differing implicit cultural expectations about form and frequency of communication between team members

Sample Process Script (Lowry et. al., 2004, p. 84) (CW=Collaborative Writing)

Application of Process Script Approach

Step-by-step process defined in lesson planExample: Weekly Schedule:– Deadline 1: Tasks are assigned and agenda posted to Blackboard

(Wednesday night suggested)– Deadline 2: Each member posts his/her section to Google docs

(Saturday night suggested)– Deadline 3: Editor unifies segments and makes changes (Sunday

night suggested– Deadline 4: All other team members make comments and changes

(Monday night suggested)– Deadline 5: Administrator checks for tasks completed by deadline,

fills in the checklist part of the agenda and posts it to discussion board, Editor posts draft to Bb. (Tuesday night suggested)

– Deadline 6: Peer-review of an other team’s draft – team members use posted peer-review sheet to provide responses on Bb all class discussion board to drafts.

Application of Process Script Approach

Team roles and responsibilities definedExample:– Role: Team Project Manager

Responsibilities: Making sure weekly tasks are assigned and posting agenda on Blackboard, conducting synchronous meetings, starting discussion threads on Blackboard, holding members accountable, initiating role reassignment

– Role: Team Project EditorResponsibilities: Using Google docs to turn the sections posted there by team members into a unified document, editing, giving rewriting suggestions to members, acting on team member comments, final rewriting and transferring to Word document

– Role: Team Project Administrator / Brochure DesignerResponsibilities: Filling in agenda by checking for completion by deadline, posting checklist weekly on Blackboard, designing and writing text for the brochure based on the finding of the report and on the audience the group identifies (global or country targeted)

– Role: Copy Editor / Proofreader / Citation Responsibilities: Proofreading edited version for grammar and typos, and ensuring proper citation by pointing out to writers of each section if source is missing and by checking References for proper format.

References

Appiah, K. A. (2006). Cosmopolitanism: Ethics in a World of Strangers. New York: Norton Canagarajah, S. (2010). From Intercultural Rhetoric to Cosmopolitan Practice. Presentation given at the 6th

Annual Conference on Intercultural Rhetoric and Disocurse. Atlanta, GAChild, J. (2001). Trust: The fundamental bond in global collaboration. Organizational Dynamics 29(4), 274-289.DiStefano, J. J., & Maznevski, M. L. (2000)Creating value with diverse teams in global management.

Organizational Dynamics, 29(1), 45-63.Grosse, C. U. (2002). Managing communication within virtual intercultural teams. Business Communication

Quarterly, 65(4), 22-38.Hall, S. (2002). Political belonging in a world of multiple identities. In S. Vertovec & R. Cohen, (Eds.),

Conceiving Cosmopolitanism. Oxford: Oxford University Press Held, D. (2002). Culture and political community: National, global, and cosmopolitan. In S. Vertovec & R.

Cohen, (Eds.), Conceiving Cosmopolitanism. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Lowry, P. B., Curtis, A., Lowry, M.R. (2004a). Building a taxonomy and nomenclature of collaborative writing to

improve interdisciplinary research and practice. Journal of Business Communication, 41(1), 66-99.Neff, J.M. & Whithaus, C. (2008) Writing Across Distances & Disciplines: Research and Pedagogy in

Distributed Learning. New York: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.St. Amant, K. (2007).Online education in an age of globalization: Foundational practices for technical

communication instructors and trainers. Technical Communication Quarterly, 16(1), 13-31.Vogel, D.R., Van Genuchten, M., Lou, D., Van Ekkout, M, Adams, A. (2001). Exploratory research on the role

of national and professional cultures in a distributed learning project. IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication 44(2), 114-125.