Project Charter
Producing Collaborative Documents
Project Charter
• This PowerPoint covers the following:
– Requirements of Project Charter
– Writing as a Group
– Professional Standards
– Concise Writing
Project Charter
• This projects asks students to work in groups in
preparing one proposal for a service learning
project
• Students must draw from each other’s design
notebooks in forming one idea and proposal
Group Brainstorming
• Treat brainstorming for the project charter as a
negotiation
• Look for an overlap between observations and
ideas
• Draw on the specific expertise of each member
• Make sure everyone’s voice is heard
• If the group decides to do something else, get
over it
• Choose what is best for the client
Group Writing Strategies
• Write everything together
– This ensures consistency
– This can be difficult with large groups
• Divide-up into sections
– This ensures that everyone gets a voice and is
easier with big groups
– Can produce uneven documents
Group Writing Guidelines
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Don’t make one person write the entire thing
Devise a game plan before writing the charter
Create an outline for the document
Develop standards that every member must
meet in composing
Group Writing Standards
• Create standards that address:
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Contractions
First and second person
Terminology
Length
Paragraph style
Citation style
Transitions
Headings and subheadings
Graphics and images
Fonts
Group Revision
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Everyone should participate
Check every standard to ensure compliance
Consider the relative weight of each section
Think about transitions between each section
Read the entire document out loud to check for
shifts in voice and tone
Professional Standards
• Remember that this project is a professional
relationship with a client more than it is a class
project
• Uphold professional standards throughout all
interactions with clients, including writing the
project charter
Professional Standards
• Professional Standards include:
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Voice
Audience Consideration
Document Appearance
Timeliness
Clarity and Conciseness
Specificity
Professional Appearance and Interaction
Professional Ethos
• Speak with a professional voice that uses the
terminology and style of the client
• Address and value the concerns and needs of
the client
• Provide relevant and reliable evidence to
support your conclusions
• Make sure your document design meets the
standards of the field you are writing for
Concise Writing
• The goal of concise writing is to use the most
effective words.
• Concise writing does not always have the
fewest words, but it always uses the strongest
ones.
• Writers often fill sentences with weak or
unnecessary words that can be deleted or
replaced.
• Words and phrases should be deliberately
chosen for the work they are doing.
Concise Writing
• Replace several vague words with more
powerful and specific words
– Wordy: Our website has made available many
of the things you can use for making a decision
on the best dentist. (20 words)
– Concise: Our website presents criteria for
determining the best dentist. (9 words)
Concise Writing
• Interrogate every word in a sentence
– Wordy: The teacher demonstrated some of the
various ways and methods for cutting words
from my essay that I had written for class. (22
words)
– Concise: The teacher demonstrated methods
for cutting words from my essay. (10 words)
Concise Writing
• Combine Sentences
– Wordy: Ludwig's castles are an astounding
marriage of beauty and madness. By his death,
he had commissioned three castles. (18 words)
– Concise: Ludwig's three castles are an
astounding marriage of beauty and madness.
(11 words)
Exercise
• Revise the following bit of text.
• The first group to “successfully” revise it
down to 125 clear and concise words
wins.
The End