How can I write a proposal document collaboratively?

When writing a document, most people’s common practice is to use a Word Processor, such as Microsoft Word or Open Office. However, when it comes to sharing that document with team members, many problems can arise. Typically, the author will send a copy of the document to the team members as an email attachment. Each individual will then work on their own copy and email it back to the author, who is then faced with the arduous task of evaluating the changes and incorporating them into a new version of the document, before the whole cycle begins again.

With this approach, a team normally ends up not knowing who has the latest ‘final’ version. This can be a real nightmare: people waste time and energy trying to find the latest version, some even may continue adding to a version that is not the latest, and valuable information can then be lost when the ‘final’ version is sent out. An alternative is for teams to write documents using Web-based tools specifically designed for use by multiple authors.

Online collaborative writing: our process for large writing teams

Following is the typical  scenario in which we are requested to mentor CGIAR colleagues in setting up a collaborative writing process:

“I need to start writing an important research proposal that requires edits or comments from more than 10 people distributed worldwide. What tools can I use to facilitate this process?”

To answer this question, this tutorial outlines a tested process for a team to write a proposal document collaboratively with Google Docs, an online collaboration tool supported by the ICT-KM Program under the CGXchange platform. Google Docs enables multiple people in different locations to collaborate simultaneously on the same document from any computer with Internet access.

There are many collaborative writing tools available: check out the Knowledge Sharing Toolkit articles on Online Collaboration Tools and Wikis for a broad range of options. Still, we believe that the process we suggest may be valid regardless of the tools used.

Note: as in every process, there are multiple actors involved. In this tutorial, we address directly the lead editor, that is the role in charge of managing both the content development and the collaborative process. In reality, it could be one or more people playing a lead role, but practice shows us that it is usually one person who makes the final decisions.

1. Planning

1.1. Create the general outline (template) of the document

To start,  we suggest that you (the lead editor/-s) start by writing the general outline (template) of the document with the major section headings. For example, let’s suppose the main outline for the proposal document will be divided into the following sections:

1. Introduction
2. Section A
3. Section B
4. Section C
5. Conclusions

If the document may become longer than 20 pages in its final form, and requires more than 10 writers, break it down into separate documents, i.e. one for the intro, one for each chapter, and assign a small number of writers to each.

In parallel, maintain the Master Document, i.e. the full complete version of the document, and provide only viewing rights to the writers, so that any of them has the possibility of viewing the full content in context.

This approach may be useful in case there are security concerns, e.g. the writers should not be allowed to write/edit any other section of the proposal but the one/-s they have been assigned. By creating separate documents for each section, you can set the access rights (edit or view) on a case-by-case basis. In general, while you limit editing rights, you should give viewing rights to everybody to maintain a good level of trust.

Note: if the document will eventually not be too long, involves less that 10 writers and all the writers are allowed to edit any section of the document, we recommend you create and share one single document with all the writers, instead of breaking it down into separate documents.

1.2 Assign the sections to the writers

Once you have finalized the general outline of the document, distribute the sections among the writers. You may create a diagram like in Figure 1 to show who will write what in relation to the Master Document:

Fig.1 - Role distribution diagram

An alternative is to prepare a table like the one below indicating the section title, names of the writers that will have editing rights on the section, lead section editor who will coordinate the section writers (optional- only if needed), deadline and the name of the person that should receive the draft:

Fig. 2 - Role distribution table

2. Set up the Google Docs Collection and the permissions

! Important ! Before you start setting up the collaborative writing workspace on Google Docs, it is important to ensure the writers are committed to using the same online tool so you can be sure that this setup will facilitate your work.

Three things to watch out at this stage:

• Anticipate how the process is going to work before sending them instructions;
• Clarify the benefits: one common version for all, revision history to track who made changes, faster contributions;
• Ensure they will have the right technical setup available: accounts, connectivity, time;
• Assign someone in your team (or reserve time for yourself) to provide help and support if needed.

If for some reason one or more writers are not able to work online or, at some point, send you attachments with ‘track changes’ on, the process of managing a collaborative writing  process with different tools may become so cumbersome to defeat the whole purpose of working on one single, real-time updated version of the proposal.

2.1. Create the Google Docs collection and documents

You (the lead editor-s) or someone you assign creates the collaborative writing workspace on Google Docs:

1. Login to Google Docs: CGIAR users can access the Google Docs from http://docs.cgxchange.org and sign-in with their CGIAR account. Non-CGIAR users can access the public Google Docs: http://docs.google.com (and create an account if they do not have one).

2. Create a Collection (Folder) on Google Docs: Create the Collection

3. Create the Master Document (Create new > Document), move it to the collection you created and add the content of the document outline (See Fig 3):

Fig 3: Master Document

Fig. 4 - Collection with section documents

4. From the Docs home page, create the section documents (Create new > Document) as separate blank documents. Note: if you already have a draft of the section drafted in Word, you can upload the document instead of creating a new one and make sure you add it to the collection you created above. (See Fig 4)

2.2. Collect the Google accounts and share

Prepare a list of the names and email addresses of the writers and ensure they have accounts to access the Google Docs on CGXchange:

• CGIAR Users: List the names of the writers that are from the CGIAR.
• Non-CGIAR Users: List the names of the writers that are not in the CGIAR (and don’t have a cg account) .
  • ! Important ! To collaborate with non-CGIAR users on documents, you must ask them to provide an existing Gmail account. If they don’t have a Gmail account, you should ask them if they have a Google account associated to their email of preference. If not, they can easily associate their email to a Google Account. Once they do this, they should send you their Google account so you can safely share the documents.

Once you have the final list of accounts:

1. Share the collection. Share the collection with the writers. To add CGIAR users, follow these instructions to find Contacts on CGXchange and copy and paste the email addresses of the non-CGIAR users.  Make sure you assign ‘Can view’ access on the collection to everyone because everyone should be able to view all the section documents.
2. Share the section documents. Follow these instruction to share documents with CGIAR users and follow these instructions to share documents with non-CGIAR users as per the detailed role distribution. Repeat this process for each document.

3. Communicate the guidelines to the writers

So far you have prepared the process and set up the virtual ‘workspace’ to write the proposal document.

At this point, it is key to communicate the writing process instructions to the writers.

Collaborative writing is at the same time a familiar concept and a scary process: people fear to lose ‘ownership’ of their contribution and freedom to express themselves. Add to this that some are unfamiliar with online writing tools, and you easily realize that your writers are going to want to be given clear, yet reassuring instructions.

You (the lead editor/-s) should prepare a message that includes (but not limited to) the following:

• Indicate who is the person ultimately responsible for the final version of the document;
• Provide guidelines for writing the document, including the information In Figure 2 so they understand their role and know who else is going to be involved in this process;
• Include a brief tutorial and instructions on how to log in and access the online documents (using some of the instructions and resources in this tutorial).

Note: It is important to set aside time to help the writers address any access issues, typically with usernames and passwords, getting around the interface, locating the documents assigned to them. If you need any help, you can contact cgxchange[AT]cgiar.org for assistance.

4. Start writing in Google Docs

Based on the schedule set for whole team, the writers start contributing to the online document.

This tutorial does not cover how to use Google Docs, its menus and buttons: if you have never used Google Docs before, there’s an ample range of how-to tutorials in CGXchange: you and your team can review the Google Docs Quick reference Guide for CGIAR or view the online Google Docs help which is always up to date.

Here are some tips on how to manage the collaborative writing process:

• everybody should work on one single version of the document. There should be only one ‘official’ working Google document for each chapter. Ensure the writers avoid creating copies of the chapter you have been assigned;
• when you give ‘editing’ rights to a writer, consider they will be able to edit any area of the document. Many will get into “wordsmithing” mode and focus on style instead of content. Make sure you give clear instructions about the goal of the writing stage when drafting the guidelines;
• some people may be concerned about not seeing the changes others have made to their content contributions: make sure they know how to access the revision history which has color coding of insertions and deletions:

Fig. 5 - Revision history in Google Docs

• in case the writers are not in agreement with the content changes, we suggest they insert comments whenever they disagree, instead of editing the text directly;
• reinforce the process: some people may easily fall back to good ol’ document attachments. Invite these people to edit in real time with you or someone in the team, or comment together on the document so that they can appreciate they can play “safely” in spite of the unfamiliar process;
• if some people have Internet connection problems, ask them to send the contribution to one focal point (the lead editor), which will then take care of incorporating any additions. Do not let these people send attachments to the whole team of writers!

Once the deadline for the draft is complete, your (the lead editor/-s) can:

• finalize the editing directly on the section documents, and then copy and paste the content to the ‘master document’.
• or copy and paste the final content from the section documents to the ‘Master document’ to finalize the editing there.

5. Export Document and Format

Note that while Google Docs is a great tool for collaborative writing, it is not so efficient for final document layout and advanced formatting. For the final formatting stage, you still have to export the document and use other specific word processing or desktop publishing tools (E.g. Word, Adobe tools).

Resources

• Useful Tips for Collaborative Writing with Google Docs and Google Sites
• Using Google Docs for Proposal Writing
• Google Docs Quick reference Guide for CGIAR
• Learn about Google Docs
• Google Docs help

Credit: This tutorial was prepared collaboratively with my colleague Antonella Pastore using Google Docs…many thanks Anto!

We want your feedback!

We look forward to your feedback on this tutorial. Did you find it helpful? Do you have any experiences of your own that you would like to share? Would you like to see more written about collaborative writing? Comments are very welcome and will help us finetune the next tutorials.