‘Tis the season for final papers, projects, and presentations. All college students know that some professors will always insist on assigning group projects, and they also know that group projects are the worst. If you were to poll any group of college students, a majority of them would answer that they would rather do the same project individually rather than in a group, even though that means they have to do more of the work. Since getting assigned a group project is inevitable, here is some advice to survive group projects, and even hopefully excel at them.
First things first, the standard advice: Don’t procrastinate. When in doubt, give credit rather than risk plagiarizing, and do your fair share of the work. However, sometimes group projects require more advice than just the same guidelines every teacher since elementary school tells their classes.
There are two keys to success in group projects: Communication and coordination. Make sure that everyone in the group knows what their responsibilities are, and be sure to remain in contact throughout the project to make sure that everyone completes the tasks they were assigned. Everyone should do an equal share of the work and keep the entire group aware of their progress. The worst-case scenario in any group project is when someone doesn’t do their part without any explanation.
Try to get together to work on the project in person if you can as well. As genius as Google Docs is (though at this point in the semester, many of us are likely to start crying if another one gets shared with us), it’s much easier to make sure that everyone is on the same page when you meet face to face. Meeting in person also holds everyone accountable for their share of the work and ensures that they are allocating time to work on the project.
Try to work with everyone’s strengths and weaknesses, as well as their interests. Whoever is the best editor should revise everyone’s work, whoever has the most experience with graphic design should oversee the graphics for the presentation, and so on. If everyone can choose to do whichever part of the presentation they are most interested in or feel that they can do well in, they will enjoy the project more and will be more inclined to put forth their best work. Just make sure that no one gets stuck doing more than their fair share because they are capable or interested in multiple areas.
Live and let live. Your group will be made up of people with very different personalities and work habits. This is the most frustrating part of group projects, but not everyone works the same way, and by college, most students should have figured out how they work best. All you can do is make sure that your portion of the project gets done on time. You can’t make other group members not procrastinate, or ask for help when they need it, or use better grammar. Encourage everyone to do their best and then step back and let them do it.
That said, put your best effort into your part of the project. Whether you are also graded individually or not, your hard work will shine through and your professor will appreciate that you took the assignment seriously, even if no one else in your group did.
Hopefully this advice will help your group projects go well. Though no one loves group projects, they will be required so often that it will help to have a positive attitude towards them and resolve to always give the project your best effort.
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