Group Projects

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lordxixor101

CAGiversary!
For those of you in college (either undergrad or grad programs) you know that group projects are a way of life. I'm close to finishing an MBA program, so I've probably been in close to 50 group projects total. So, I've seen all kinds of groups, all but this kind. How would you handle this (or is there anything I can do).

I'm in a Marketing project where you write a paper/do a presentation. We did both last week. Presentation was horrible. It was boring and long (suppose to be 25 minutes, group rambled for 40, my section was the only that hit close to the time alloted). But, the grade for that was ok. However, the paper was a mess. It was nice and focused on our topic "New technologies, focusing on the Apple I phone and Netflix) (say what you want about the topic, it's more interesting than any other ones that have gone so far, and wasn't my first choice, it was a group compromise).

But, here is the issue. I put together the paper for the group orginally, combineing everyone's sections. Suppose to be 15 pages, it was 25 when I started paring it down. I made cuts. The group didn't like the cuts I made. They decided to cut my section out instead and to keep eveyrthing else. So, it was about 20 pages (over the 15 alloted). The paper also lost all focus. I said this repeatedly to the group, got voted down 4-1.

Anyway, we get the paper back. Suppose to be an easy A. He gives A- to terrible papers, we got a B (in our profs books, this borders on failing). He points out all the things I do (literally, it was scary, he laid it out to the group the same way I did, so I had a read on what he was looking for). Anyway, we have 2 weeks to fix it.

I tried to take the project over to fix it. Instead, the group basically put the blame for this on me, and said it was my fault, that my topic didn't fit into the paper (I won't get into it, but basically the group was kissing all the members ass, the only reason mine was cut because I volunteered it if no one else would cut there's to get the length down).

I was dumbfounded by this. These are MBA people (and when you have bad educated managers in the future, I may have already seen them being made). Anyway, they are heading down the same path with the rewrite.

Having a B, I don't want to go to the professor. It's unprofessional, and I'm doing well in the class, it isn't worth pushing it now. But, I don't trust the group not to blow off my ideas and to go to the professor and say I didn't pull my weight.

I'm not sure what I'm hoping to hear here, but is there anything I can do, other than storing the original copy of our paper before the group butchered it and save emails to show that I did participate, if it becomes an issue?
 
Wow sounds like I could be more of an asset to the group and just generally more competetent in general than these clowns, and I'm still in highschool. Shitty to hear about that. You'd think at the end of an MBA people would be a little more professional.
 
:)

At this point, I'd trade all of them for you magiic and let you do as little work as you wanted. Normally, the biggest issue with the group is getting everyone to contribute. Everyone contributed in this one, just the group almost seems dead set on imploding the paper (and every class wants the same thing, I just don't see how these guys got A's in the past).
 
I dunno, I would go to the prof and just say you're having problems with the group members. I wouldn't ask for any pity, I would simply let him know that there are problems going on. Do this before they go to the prof themselves, which seems likely considering how much they're being assholes.
 
This happens in any field. In college film/video everyone wants their part to stay (whether they're an actor or a writer), regardless of how bad it is.

This is why in the professional film world, there is one writer, one director, and one editor. And there are no hard feelings when stuff gets cut.

I forget the quote, but it's something like "no great work of art was ever made by a group."
 
Sad to say, sounds like you're screwed. If it were me, I'd quit participating, since they aren't listening to you anyway. Let them hash out some awful rewrite and hope you aren't stuck with this group for future projects in the term.
 
What you do is you send the redone paper (who let's college students redo papers?) to the professor before the other assholes in the group bring in their version of the redone one.

I haven't done any true group papers because most of my teachers realized it would be pointless for my major. The only real group / pair project I had was with one woman and she dropped the class without tellnig anyone so I did it by myself. :)
 
If you have all the the emails where you tell them what you mentioned in the OP, and the prof. is the approachable type - i'd prob ask to meet with him to go over with what happened.
 
I really don't like group work.

We had a recent project in my business writing class. It was simple, really. All we had to do was make a set of instructions for anything. We decided to make instructions for assembling a table.

I work at a hardware store, so I took some table instructions out of a box and photocopied them to bring to class. I though it would be useful for us to have something to use as a reference. One of our members was in charge of writing up a rough draft; when he brought back his first draft, do you know what he did? He basically copied the thing verbatim. The only changes me made were absolutely subtle. The text formatting, the steps, everything was similar. It was a blatant rip-off.

How do you handle that? "Dude, you blatantly plagiarized. Re-do it." Of course I can't say that. If he was dumb enough to do it in the first place it wouldn't have done any good to talk to him about it. Instead, I ended up taking it home and completely re-writing it. It was an unnecessary burden.

And another one of our group members showed up once over the four class periods we have. He contributed absolutely nothing.
 
If you have two weeks, I'd submit the paper as you'd edit it with a note asking the prof what he'd give it in that state. If he's a decent guy and gets back to you and it turns out to be a higher grade, take the results to the group. Then it's a simple matter of telling them "we get this grade if we do it with your draft. We get this grade doing it with mine. Which do you want?"
 
Thanks for the suggestion.s

I'm with you Pujols, I also hate group work. But, Ford Motor Company has donated a lot of money to it over the years, and they felt that group projects were underrated, and there needed to be more. The school couldn't jump fast enough to add them. So, they are a neccessary evil at the moment. It's suppose to prepare you for the real world, but my experiences so far on real world projects is that you work and then give it to your boss. You don't all have equal say.
 
[quote name='lordxixor101']I was dumbfounded by this. These are MBA people (and when you have bad educated managers in the future, I may have already seen them being made). Anyway, they are heading down the same path with the rewrite.[/quote]

:lol:

Sounds like they've learned what MBA programs teach best - the six stages of a project.

1. Enthusiasm
2. Disenchantment
3. Panic
4. Search for the Guilty
5. Punishment of the Innocent
6. Praise and Honor for the Non-Participants
 
[quote name='lordxixor101']Thanks for the suggestion.s

I'm with you Pujols, I also hate group work. But, Ford Motor Company has donated a lot of money to it over the years, and they felt that group projects were underrated, and there needed to be more. The school couldn't jump fast enough to add them. So, they are a neccessary evil at the moment. It's suppose to prepare you for the real world, but my experiences so far on real world projects is that you work and then give it to your boss. You don't all have equal say.[/quote]

Well - if it got Ford to where it is today, it's good enough for me!
 
All I can give are my condolences...whenever a project is assigned, I choose to do it alone if possible. If not because I always get stuck in groups I hate, then because the group is so passive about communicating, has no motivation to come up with good ideas, and the project ends up being a complete fucking bore.

anyway, if it were me and I knew exactly what had to be done for the A and the constant compromise was holding me back I would either:

1. Find a way to stealth in the "real" copy. Of course, this is super risky. If you aren't 10000% sure you will get an A+, don't do it. Also, if your members find out before you hand it in...it could get ugly. The plus side is that you get to just agree with everyone while secretly making the paper good. High risk, but the joy of showing the completely changed A+ paper to your group is amazing...though they'll still get pissed at you even though you just helped them. Not sure if this would fly in grad school.

2. Go apathetic and just sit it out while occasionally throwing in your opinion when you see them screwing it up.
 
If you think approaching the prof is "unprofessional," then your only recourse is to keep trying to contribute to the group, and if they don't let you, prepare to get a bad grade. I would tell the professor that your input is not being taken seriously, show him your version of the paper (especially because if they do poorly again they may try to scapegoat you again, they may already have, and now in the eyes of the prof you look like an idiot with no cause for defense).

Sneaking the paper in would be a terrible idea, especially in a business course, because one of those vindictive groupmates would surely tell the professor and I think that would reflect poorly on you regardless of the grade improvement.
 
I hated group projects. They're a bunch of bullshit. The profs say its to ready you for your business career but there's no need to be prepared for working with a group of people unless you're socially retarded and cant interact anyway. The only way it prepares you is to let you know that no matter what group you'll be in there's always gonna be the asshole that doesnt show up for anything or do anywork; there's gonna be the go getter that does tons of work but doesnt share and tries to get the accolades themself; and then there's the floater (aka the sane person).
 
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