For this stage of the project students are asked to research their topic and audience. They are encouraged to use a range of resources, including electronic and print publications, scholarly and non-scholarly works, as well as personal interviews, sureys and so on. All of the groups during my first semester engaged in both first and second-hand research resulting in higher quality information and production. Throughout the process students were to make periodic research posts recording their status. The purpose of this was multiple: it allowed for easy sharing of information among group members; it helped me to keep track of how their projects were progressing; and it helped them to keep track of the research they had completed, locations of sources, and research that still needed to be completed. These logs have proven beneficial throughout my teaching of professional writing. Students are required to use them for each project and from my perspective and from the feedback that I have received, they have proven helpful in increasing project efficiency.
I strongly recommend using a blog entry system for this. Other methods are likely to be cumbersome and less effective in faciliating collaboration.
