Working as a group can be a lot of fun and can create long lasting friendships.  It can also be a horrible pain if things aren't done properly.  Here are a few suggestions to help you work more effectively as a group.

I have frequently seen groups divide up tasks and then mainly ignore each other until it was time to put the pieces together.  They then had the dilemma that the pieces didn't match up as well as they had expected.

This makes it easier to get together.

One of you could work on the history and background, another could concentrate on one particular aspect of the phenomena, etc.  After everyone has done a significant amount of research, meet together to generate a thesis statement and an outline.  Then do more research and have each person write one part of the paper.  Meet together often to read each others parts.

It can be confusing if two people make changes to the paper --- then you have to figure out how to merge them.  Once the parts are merged into one paper, one student should be responsible for it.  They will print copies to give to everyone.  Everyone will mark changes that they think need to be made.  The group will get together to discuss the proposed changes, and then the editor will go back to the paper and make them.

One major fear that many students have on a group project is that one lazy student will bring down the grade for everyone.  I know how frustrating that can be.  Unfortunately this same problem will confront you when you work in groups throughout your career.  So you might as well learn how to deal with this right away.  If you have trouble with a member of your group, here are the steps that I recommend that you follow.

1. Confront them and politely let them know that you don't think that they are doing their share of the work or that their work is not up to your standards.

2. If the problem persists, come and talk to me and maybe I can help you work it out.

3. Just make sure that you have a good paper --- even if they don't contribute.  I've written papers before with "silent partners" or with people who did more harm than good.  But since I didn't want to put my name on a mediocre paper, I just had to pick up the slack for them.  It doesn't matter if someone gets credit for work they didn't do, what matters is that the paper you submit with your name on it is excellent.

I hope that this helps.

© Dallin S. Durfee 2004