Writing in Small Groups the 4color Way lays out how to build a Cooperative Inquiry group to create a super support group of writers. Conceived by pioneers in the field of participatory research, Cooperative Inquiry is a system whereby people interested in learning about a topic get together and form a question about the topic. Then they come up with a practical plan for each participant to go out and "test" the question by their actions. After the individual actions are complete, they meet back up, and each person presents what s/he did and what s/he learned. Then the group makes meaning from their combined experiences. These meanings are used as a basis for planning another action cycle, continuing in this recursive way for as long as the group chooses. The individual writer is always balancing what is going on inside the self and what is going on outside the self.

In this book, Cooperative Inquiry is combined with other approaches such as the unique 4color reflection process, shaped to fit the needs of writers, based on the author's doctoral research project and in her teaching writing at a California Community College.