it seems that some people write well on their own and others feel as if things work better when they write with collaborators. i’ve always felt that my writing style was clear enough to work on my own. the topics i choose to write about are narrowly focused, so it’s not as if there’s a lot of room to write in a tangent or get out of hand. but then recently i’ve been working on a big chapter for a handbook that after a while just seemed unwieldy. that is, until i asked a colleague to read it and respond.
she gave such fabulous responses that i made the changes she suggested and then asked another colleague to read it and suggest changes. that worked out beautifully too, and i ended up with a chapter that was really my own, but with tweaks and improvements that made it so much clearer and better organized. i’ve learned a great lesson with this process. when i think about my next article i’m going to include others earlier on in the process, just to see how things go!
