Just write the introduction already!
Sometimes it's hard to be a good group member.
Why is it so hard to just write up your section of your group project? Sometimes you just can't bring yourself to write it!
This handy video explains why we procrastinate, and more importantly, it gives some great techniques to stop the cycle.
My favorite technique is setting a timer for homework time. I can focus on anything for 30 minutes at a time.
Oh No! Plagiarism!
Dear Group Work Guru,
I am freaking out. I am the editor of my team's group project and I am pretty sure that one of our group members plagiarized their section. What I am supposed to do now?
Help help help!
Sincerely,
Freaked out Frosh
P.S. Help help help!
Dear Frosh,
I'm very sorry that this is happening to you.
Plagiarism is a very serious offense in universities. It's serious enough to get you expelled.
Need Advice?
Do you have questions about group work? Do you have a group work question that has yet to be covered by our Group Work Survival Guide?
Add your questions and suggestions to the comments and we'll answer them in an upcoming post from the Group Work Guru.
A true story of group work
It's challenging to work with a diverse group of people. That's for sure.
An adviser here at Drexel told me this story about a group of students who had to figure out how to work together. Names and identifying attributes have been changed.
Stephen, Rashida, Ellen, and Jens were assigned to work together for a project that would take two full terms. They decided to meet each week at 7pm on Wednesdays to check in with each other to make sure that their project was on track and moving through the timeline.
Stephen, Rashida, and Jens found Ellen exceedingly difficult to work with.
Talking to a Social Loafer
This is how groups usually deal with a social loafer:
A) Discover that a teammate didn't do their part
B) Scramble to complete that teammate's part of the project to turn the work in on time
C) Ignore the teammate that didn't do the work.
Remember, people
Free Riders
When teams work well together, working in teams is really fun and rewarding. That being said, when you have a team in which a team member (or two!
