First, one mode of communication is not good. We communicated via email. Many assumptions were made and they only caused some of us grief.
Second, what I found useful was no matter how organized you think you are and no matter how hard you try to communicate well with others, it is not as good as 1) in person, 2) over the phone, or 3) both. So, communicate in person, over the phone and via email to avoid any misunderstanding.
Third, don’t freak out at the end because it causes you to make BAD CHOICES, like taking over and not letting your coworkers/cowriters in on the fact that you are taking over and rewriting everything. When you are at the last stages of the paper (that means lots of rewrites by everyone and it has all been approved up to this stage) and you have instructions to edit or fix a few things, then that is all you should be doing!! There are exceptions, of course, like if you see a huge error, then you should bring it to everyone’s attention and fix it. But, and here comes the next one….
Fourth, NEVER attempt to rewrite most of the paper at the umpteenth hour!! Bad idea, because you WILL run out of time. In my case, my cowriter decided to change what I had done only to have to change it back again because I was right. That was a waste of time. Why not instead ask questions for clarification and avoid wasting the group’s time. Working together and not against each other is better
Overall, though, I think our paper turned out pretty good. But there was no need for all of the stress that some people put us through. We could have avoided it by doing only what was needed to be done at the last hour instead of reverting to trying to rewrite everything. In the end, the paper looked almost the same and just a bit better. Not sure it was worth all of the pressure we were put through!
Bottom Line: Keep the communication lines open all the time. Don’t try and take over because that leaves the group out and defeats the purpose of a group assignment.
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