Grace Ling Hui
BRIDGE THREE: COLLABORATION ASSESMENT JOURNAL
GROUP MEMBERS: Olive, Anjana
PHASE ONE: GRAND CENTRAL OBSERVATION AND INTERVIEW
- Roles of your collaborators and notes on their performance:
Anjana borrowed a recording mic from the equipment center. We interviewed 3 people all together and split the transcript to be done by each of us. Both Anjana and Olive were proactive in interviewing.
- Your role and notes on your performance:
I came out with all the interview questions. I did the transcript for 1 guy, named Gustav.
- Final outcome:
The final outcome was a decent compilation of all three interview transcripts.
PHASE TWO: ROUGH DRAFT OF STORY
- Roles of your collaborators and notes on their performance:
We did almost everything together. Anjana wrote the first part of the story, Olive wrote the second part. However, the draft seemed a little quick and too much of a draft.
- Your role and notes on your performance:
I came out with the storyline, the plot, and the structure. I also wrote the last part of the draft. It was a little difficult to write the last part since the first two parts seemed a little more of a sketch than a draft.
- Final Outcome
We had a draft, but it needed a lot of editing and improving in terms of the flow of the story and also the character development.
PHASE THREE: WORKSHOPPING AND REVISION
- Roles of your collaborators and notes on their performance:
Anjana was taking down the notes I suggested on improving the draft. We had to discuss a little bit before coming to a conclusion and agreeing that the story sounded a little like an old man trying to hit on a young man. It was not how we wanted the story to turn out. Olive was not in class during this session.
- Your role and notes on your performance:
I came out with ideas to improve on the story, for example, giving a nickname to the character and also introducing new objects to the story.
- Final Outcome
We did edit the draft a little. But it definitely needs to be more refined. I edited it and Anjana edited it again. And I had to edit her edit again.
PHASE FOUR: FINAL DRAFT
- Roles of your collaborators and notes on their performance:
Anjana wrote the first few paragraphs. It was a lot better this time as we discussed it while writing. We set the scene and there were a lot more descriptions. Olive had to call her Mom so she left halfway but she wrote a little bit of it.
- Your role and notes on your performance:
I wrote the rest of the story.
- Final Outcome
We got the story done, but I wished there could have been more input into the story from different people.
Summary
I like the idea of a collaboration, especially when people have different styles of writing and conveying a story, it can really put forth and interesting hybrid of narratives. At the beginning, it was really tough as we did not know where or how to even begin. As we discussed the storyline and the plot, we still could not write the story in a cohesive flow. There were a lot of abrupt moments as well as unpleasant plot twists. We then decided we really needed a structure and an outline. After we came out with that, it helped a lot more. We begin to have the story more properly constructed. However, there could have been enthusiasm from the team members that would have made this project a little easier. Towards the end of it, writing got a little sloppy but we just had to revise it over and over again.
I learned from this project to accommodate and adapt to people’s differing opinions. It is more challenging than I thought, to write a story with two other people. The clashing styles of writing can sometimes be an obstruction to the actual idea we were wishing to convey. However, we learned to work around it, after editing and editing, and editing again.
I also learned about the perspectives my team members had about my style of writing which I have never realized before. It was refreshing to be able to discuss new ways of writing especially when it comes to character development.
