In English for academic purposes courses, group oral presentations are quite common but essay writing tends to be seen as an individual endeavour, albeit with scope for peer review. This article discusses action research reflecting on student perceptions of a framework to support students through a semester-long collaborative essay assignment in an English-medium instruction university in Macau. The framework presented incorporates collaborative and individual assignment tasks, assisted by information and communications technology, to support the collaborative process and facilitate the assessment of the individual within the group. Even though writing in a group may take more time and effort, it is viewed favourably by the majority of students due to the additional learning gains to be made by writing collaboratively, including the increased quality of ideas and the social interactions (face-to-face and online) required to come to agreement.