2008 Woodie Awards
Group Projects
Ted Williams
Issue date: 3/14/07 Section: Back Page
Yes, it is that time of year again for group projects! Group projects are loved by students because they involve minimal effort and represent a large portion of your grade. More importantly, no teacher has the audacity to give any group project below a B-. Now I would like to take a moment to examine the idea of team building. You know, the question that every interviewer asks - "So, tell me about a time that you worked in a team to solve a problem?" Every group needs members to fill these roles:
E-mailer. This is the person who writes the awkward first e-mail to the group even though they really don't know any of the group members names and has to go on facebook to find their e-mail addresses.
Late Person. Always late to each group meeting and is the reason that every group meeting start 15 minutes late. This person also leads to awkward chatter amongst the other group members as they wait.
Dumb Person Who Tries Hard. Wants to take on lots of responsibility but everybody in the group knows that this person is not going to do a good job and work for 15 hours trying to integrate a video into power point when the video doesn't even matter. They are normally assigned meaningless tasks that just get them away from the real work that needs to be done. They also love to say how long a task took them to accomplish.
PPT Expert. If you have one of these in your group you are lucky. This person normally does the entire power point. They know how to make slides look fancy and can even do that animation deal that impresses people. Who knows, they may even be able to put in sound effects.
Bad writer. This is the person that always ends up writing.
Smart Person. This is the person that after all the pointless meetings and talking ends up doing all the work for the project. Sure they may assign certain roles or pretend to listen to others but they know that they will be the one doing the project and so does the other group members. These are the people that are going to do something with their lives while the rest of us are just free loading off of their brain power and ambition. Hooray - smart people, be in my group. Also, if you have one of these people in your group, you know that the professor can't give you a bad grade.
E-mailer. This is the person who writes the awkward first e-mail to the group even though they really don't know any of the group members names and has to go on facebook to find their e-mail addresses.
Late Person. Always late to each group meeting and is the reason that every group meeting start 15 minutes late. This person also leads to awkward chatter amongst the other group members as they wait.
Dumb Person Who Tries Hard. Wants to take on lots of responsibility but everybody in the group knows that this person is not going to do a good job and work for 15 hours trying to integrate a video into power point when the video doesn't even matter. They are normally assigned meaningless tasks that just get them away from the real work that needs to be done. They also love to say how long a task took them to accomplish.
PPT Expert. If you have one of these in your group you are lucky. This person normally does the entire power point. They know how to make slides look fancy and can even do that animation deal that impresses people. Who knows, they may even be able to put in sound effects.
Bad writer. This is the person that always ends up writing.
Smart Person. This is the person that after all the pointless meetings and talking ends up doing all the work for the project. Sure they may assign certain roles or pretend to listen to others but they know that they will be the one doing the project and so does the other group members. These are the people that are going to do something with their lives while the rest of us are just free loading off of their brain power and ambition. Hooray - smart people, be in my group. Also, if you have one of these people in your group, you know that the professor can't give you a bad grade.
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