Potential Pitfalls in Collabo-writing

Potential Pitfalls in Collabo-writing

• Collabo-writers take time to gel as a group.
• Promotion and tenure committees may have trouble crediting collaboration.
• Few conventions exist for showing the equality or inequality of collabo-writers.
• “Free riders” may need to be dumped.
• Junior colleagues often feel overpowered by senior colleagues.
• Collabo-writing conflicts with individualism, low self-esteem, and
  competitiveness.
• New collabo-writers tend to choose “mirrors”—colleagues who share
  their interests and strengths—over complementers.
• Conflict is inevitable, and some handle it better than others.
• Partnerships fail unless each person does more than his or her share.
• Don’t be afraid to revise. An old Hollywood axiom states, “Nothing is
  written—everything is rewritten.”