Based on a two-year observation of a midwest hospital department of nursing, this study focuses on the composing processes of a group of head nurses writing regulatory prose. Transcripts of audiotaped writing sessions, interviews with nurses, field notes and texts were collected in order to illuminate the writing strategies that appeared in a discourse community which had both hierarchical power structures and interdependent social subgroups which influenced the work of composition. Writing in this setting became an act of negotiation among hierarchical forces and peer influences. Situated on the border between delivery of bedside care and nursing administration, this collaborative group extended the composition process beyond planning and drafting to activities such as building community consensus, publishing local texts, and arranging for future revision. Negotiating among various community subgroups and revising documents in light of those negotiations were primary activities of the group. The proposed model of negotiated composition ties socially constructed community discourse to organizational change.