As currently used, collaboration refers to a variety of interactive writing expe riences, making it difficult or impossible to assess research projects accurately or to use their findings effectively. This paper presents a definition of one vari ety of interactive writing based on intensive interviews with twenty collaborative writers. Shared-document collaboration involves collaborators producing a shared document, engaging in substantive interaction about that document, and sharing decision-making power and responsibility for it. The paper also describes a typology of shared-document collaborative groups: labor intensive, specialization, and synthesis. Throughout, conclusions are supported with examples drawn from the experiences of the writers inter viewed.

20school and at work, I feel it deserves careful attention and an approach that moves students gradually through more complex tasks. I have seen much improvement in my student's summaries with this sequential method, not only in accuracy, but also in sentence structure. I have also observed that their approach to cases has improved after the summary work. Students are generally more capable of determining what material to include and what to exclude in letters and memos, and their prose is far more concise than it was earlier in the term.

Oral communication skills are increasingly important for technical professionals. As new media allow for more fluid and more interactive communication in the workplace, engineers with good oral skills can benefit from video-conferences, on-line real-time "talk" and other "hot media." While the formal engineering report continues to be important, new media offer real advantages: In global market environments and in flattened organizational structures, efficient and coordinated decisions are essential to technical productivity. Skilled use of electronic media by engineers can be fostered by supporting oral communications in the engineering curriculum. Teaching the videotaped job interview is described as one such opportunity. A critical feature of that assignment is the high motivation that students bring to the task because they understand the potential for immediate benefits.