Collaboration and Argument Essay Example for Free

Collaboration and Argument Essay Boothe Collaboration and Argument Collaboration is defined as working collectively with others or concurrently to achieve a goal especially in a creative attempt to put together the right elements of success implemented to accomplish something. Argument is defined as controversy or the implication of expression through opinions for an effort to persuade; for the submission that provides support or is in contrast to some idea. Robert Ennis defines an argument as an attempt to support a conclusion by giving reasons for it. (Critical Thinking, 1995) Irving M. Copi, in his Introduction to Logic, defines an argument as a group of propositions of which one, the conclusion, is claimed to follow from the others, which are premises. Collaboration changes the research process because it is a group ideal instead of an individual ideal. Collaboration gives each individual on the team the ability to share creative and innovative thoughts and interact with others by sharing ideas through critical thinking, preparation and work practice with individuals in defined areas which provide an opportunity for each team member to strive for higher standards within the group. Collaboration can be an incentive for the better-prepared students to provide assistance and encourage the members of the team who are most likely not going to meet the goal, and the less-prepared students are likely to work harder so as not to disappoint the other team members. By having a team leader it shares the accountability for student success through frequent use of collaboration as an approach to improving instruction for an effective use of common planning time. Collaboration encourages diversity with a social support system in a more personal environment that will aid in the development of skills, time management and problem solving that can be used on the job and beyond. Collaboration can actually make it easier and harder when having to evaluate sources. The goal is find a way to get knowledgably team members to be productive an establish a formal process to perform work, develop distinct purpose, and assist in the process of better connections among team members. As a group you have to think as a group with one ideal and be able to comprehend and engage structure collaboration process while maintaining a strong affiliation among teammates. Provided that a time line has been created the work load should be evenly distributed for all of the team members and information should be shared willingly. Communication is very important so that all members can equally speak whether positively or negatively about the topic as well as listening to all of the group members. By analyzing different types of collaborative tasks each member can interoperate what is relevant by their own learning skills, strategies and personal experiences that would encourage conversation within the group that provides feedback and encourages questions, negotiations and open mindedness with the differences of each person’s creative and innovative ideals which will generate a good argument. In order for a group to produce their ethos for a team paper it is important that each member knows the definition of an ethos. Ethos, or a reputable position, is a matter of gaining the confidence of the audience by either the character or the author. Respect and trust are both valuable traits that are needed from your audience therefore giving you the authority on your topic so that the group is able to persuade their audience that their ideas are credible, or more credible than someone elses. The ethos for a team paper is produced as a group within the quality of the produced product. With the blended combination and disposition of the group they must be believable or convincing and be able to characterize the differences between fact and opinion based on sound logic and solid evidence that encourages trustworthiness or credibility prototypes within the group and while persuading your audience. Papers that are written collaboratively are created in a different form then papers that are written by an individual due to the fact that collaboration means to work with another or others on a joint project while individual means working independently. Collaborative writing refers to organizing and the planning of shared written documents during the process of team building. As a team you also have more members that can get the job done faster and even sometimes better. Collaboratively written papers start with preliminary discussions of an ideal then on to brainstorming as input is divided into sections so that participation can be achieved by each team member with open channels of communication within the allotted time line so that the assignment can be assessed by the group to provide the final draft. The independent working individually creates their papers differently by doing all of the work on their own with full control of their time limits, methods, process and style. They are responsible for their own argument. The downside is that they are not able to collaborate and get ideals from others and time restraints can be a factor on large tasks and when something becomes too difficult to handle there is no one to assist you. Collaboratively and individually arguments are written differently on the account of facts and opinions that are researched as a group and the individual argument is researched solely by the individual. The members of the group decide on which activities are to be completed as a group and which one should be completed by individual group members. Deliberation improves critical thinking by providing a constant consideration and synthesis of other viewpoints. These issues become the argument for the group. With respect for the other team members opinions will continue to simultaneously push the boundaries of the other team members’ experiences which will create a new mode of thinking, analyzing, criteria and judgment that often reveals new and unique approaches. Team members benefit from reflection and by verbalization. The peer coaching helps all the members, both the high and the low achievers, to become actively involved with the material. When it comes to independent study there is no one else that can incorporate other viewpoints into their own opinions nor or they able to incorporate communication or listening skills, but they are able to avoid conflicts enhance their own effectiveness and efficiency. When writing collaboratively, an argument that is determined by one’s own position should be decided by which side of the issue they are willing to take on or if they are prepared for both sides by matching up each team member’s ability and talent no matter what their strengths or weakness may be. When determining the fundamental quality of an argument it gives the team member the ability to understand the arguments of others and evaluate the quality arguments used to improve their skills. The person who represents knowledgeable information is factual and some team members may have difficulty evaluating arguments on the basis of their quality. By explaining skills that are important to overall argument and by the use of an evaluation the team may show an increased performance by the immediate feedback. By giving the team members the tools to evaluate the production of their own individual work could enhance their ability to find their position. It is also important that the individual who has his own argument is being respectful and open minded so that the team member has the ability to persuade and influence others on similar subjects and while gaining additional information from their team. When a team member supports an argument that they find not to be creditable the reason for that could be the disagreement of opposing viewpoints due to the lack of interest in the topic or a similar subject in which the member is not convinced of the views causing the team member to reject information that is incorrect or irrelevant. In order to avoid conflict within the team, the team member suspends judgment and avoids new solutions that may hinder statements that are not supported by research that could weaken the final paper. Individuals often have a strong emotional connection to the positions they argue in essays because of the all of the challenging research work that they have done to find credible resources. The individual could educate the other team members about their own experiences of encouragement, awareness and understanding of the argument. Depending on the position of each member f the team the discussion of the topic may not all be shared by the same similarly intense connection therefore the role of the team should be a peer review that encourages and contains constructive criticism; this method is used to improve one’s project and not to shoot down anyone’s work. Two common peer review methods are the inspection method and the walk-through method. Work is heavily analyzed throug h the inspection method. As each individual puts in their input and guides the conversation. Each peer then provides comments to help improve the quality of work. Constructive and respectful criticism provides useful feedback even though the team member may show strong emotion on the argument. The best methods of peer review used for evaluating the quality of an argument in a paper is more of a conversation designed to give constructive criticism through discussion and communications. Using groups to give feedback to other group members on specific questions about their own papers that they would like reviewed. Members are encouraged to write down questions at the beginning of the peer review and ask peers to take these questions into consideration while writing their review. This is feedback encourages students to have their work analyzed through questions and deliberations of their own. Advanced peer reviews encourage paper writing as a mode of conducting peer reviews. Self-Evaluations is the assessing one’s own work. When writing collaboratively, the best processes for making sure sections of a project written by different team members are logically consistent is to make sure that the directions are clear, uncomplicated and easy to understand in order to be rational. Write a short introductory paragraph that would introduce the reader to the topic and explain what it is and how it should affect people and also provide a brief history of the issue. The process for evaluating a team paper for plagiarism differs from the process of evaluating ones work is that group writing represents an exclusive challenge because each person has their own different passions, opinions and backgrounds towards writing. Whether the members of the team are not able to make the time lines and strive for the easiest route or intentional or unintentional copy an author’s work the team’s work could suffer. The team should be educated about plagiarism either by self detection or software programs. The team writing process that would produce the strongest arguments would be an argumentative paper that argues for a particular side that has opposing information or opinions that are debatable issues. In order to be most persuasive, understand both sides of the issue by having at least three reasons that support your point of view and two reasons that support the opposing viewpoint and it is important that the paper has a strong thesis statement and strong support for the position. Counter argument for why they are not valid reasons. The topics that are selected for individual argument papers differ from those chosen for team papers because a decision is made within the group on which person will do what work as an individual, but other factors should be considered such as time and how well the assignment can be completed. All team members have a vested interest in understanding the appropriate response. Conclusion Today’s research and teaching is no longer performed independently or in seclusion. Research and teaching shows that both collaboration and argument work hand and hand and can benefit others and help to address problems when we work in collaboration with those whom we research with. Collaboration provides specific guidelines that help all diverse backgrounds come together with ideals and experiences for solutions and understanding and that argument assists in providing the best reasoning to distinguish between facts and opinions through detailed observation.