Two lessons ago we did an essay in groups.
I found this an interesting excercise and it really broadened my way of approaching essays I think.
I found that the getting of ideas for the essay was much improved, obviously, due to the excess thinking power at the table.
But writing them down was hard because we all had different writing styles and often argued over words. This slowed us down and I think our essay would have been better if this problem hadn't arisen.
The result of the group task was something like a hybrid of all our styles. When I read it through after I could see evidence of my own input but other parts seemed completely unfamiliar. This essay was better than my own effort though, because some people had points that I didn't remember, and other people were also able to communicate the points more fluently.
Oh well...