Commitment-Driven Co-Authoring

Document Type

Contribution to Book

Language

eng

Publication Date

2014

Publisher

Palgrave MacMillan

Source Publication

Scholarly Publication in a Changing Academic Landscape: Models for Success

Source ISSN

9781137429148

Original Item ID

DOI: 10.1057/9781137410764

Abstract

In our experience collaborating—with each other and with others—we have come to see again and again that shared commitment is what really drives collaboration, what makes it possible. Lack of shared commitment (or voicing of, explicit agreement on, or even evident effort toward enacting shared commitment) seems to underlie co-authoring experiences that go awry. In this way, co-authoring is not about a procedural division of labor; rather, it is about expressing and trusting our shared commitment and learning the strengths of each collaborator so that we can draw on—lean into—each others’ strengths to move ourselves and the current project forward. Coming to a clear understanding of each aspect of the project is, of course, essential to our process. It is not that everyone necessarily does equal work, but instead equitable (fair, agreed-upon, and recognized as important) work, which means that everyone is fully acting from their strengths and embodying stated, shared, and agreed on commitments. In other words, no one displays an attitude of deferral or waiting for others to assign tasks; everyone has full agency and ownership over the project.

Comments

"Commitment-Driven Co-Authoring." Scholarly Publication in a Changing Academic Landscape: Models for Success, edited by Lynée Lewis Gaillet and Letizia Guglielmo. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014: 92-94.

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