The role of writing in effective team projects: students and professionals differ

Abstract

This paper describes the results of an NSF funded study of 17 student teams in computer science and technical writing classes. Observations and interviews with students are contrasted with the practices of experienced professional engineers. The results suggest major differences between how students and professionals view the role of written communication in team projects. Students viewed teamwork almost exclusively in terms of verbal communication and rarely produced managerial documents such as meeting minutes and task lists- even when explicitly encouraged to do. By contrast, professional engineers see such documentation as essential to project success. Student teams also used ineffective strategies for coauthoring documents, often trying to write major sections of text synchronously as a group. Finally, student evaluations of their teammates' written contributions were often inaccurate. Recommendations for structuring classroom team projects are presented