Group Research Paper Help

Nursing Students General Students

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So I don't need help with any technical parts of the paper or even the research what I need help with is group etiquette.

So we (a group on six first semester RN students) tuned in our article summaries Friday before last. Since then no one in our group has made any progress on our paper. Last Wednesday I set up a google doc that we were all supposed to uses to "pitch" the articles we found to be used as the literature review part of our paper (we turned in six summaries to the teacher and are to choose three for the review). This was supposed to be done by Friday night but no one has put anything in except for myself. I also set up a google doc with our outline that no one has so much as added their names to.

Long story short because of all this over the weekend I have basically made a rough draft for the paper. With a couple of hours worth of work it could be a final draft actually. My problem is do I present this to the group when we meet on Monday? Do I just keep pushing everyone along to do their individual parts? Or Do I just hold on to this rough draft just incase at the last minute what we have is a hot mess.

PS this paper is due in two weeks

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If you have 2 weeks why do you want a final draft now? I'm all for getting things done early, but you have 2 weeks. Maybe everybody wanted the weekend off. See what happens this week.

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Its not that I want a final draft now its that I want to see some movement. We don't even have a rough draft. Every time we divvy up some parts and comeback together to meet everyone looks at me like we didn't agree to bring our work on those parts. We made didn't have the Article Summary completed until the day of and I didn't get to look at it before it was turned in and it was not what was asked for and someone changed my citation to an incorrect citation. We have made no progress since then more than a week ago.

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2 weeks is more than enough time to get everything done. I feel like you are being a bit pushy and demanding. You have to understand that people have other commitments outside of school, and expecting someone to start working on a paper 2 weeks in advance is a bit overdoing it.

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Specializes in retired LTC.

To start off, maybe 6 members to the group might be top-heavy. Usually, the more members, it becomes more difficult to function as a group.

The likelihood is that members think there's room to slide a bit because there's so many others to pick up the slack.

I don't think it's unreasonable for OP to expect more response from group members. In group dynamics, someone usually emerges as a 'leader' and OP seems to be it. Task expectations were explained with timelines. SOME progress is expected. I really wonder if the others have done any more expected work.

OP does sound a bit 'driven'. But it seems like the 'group' is just passively hanging back and progress has to continue. And it is 'oh, so frustrating' trying to move forward!

I hate to say this, but I don't think OP will be getting too much support and effort from his group mates.

To OP - I suggest doing this one-on-one. Call (rather than text) to touch base with each member and get back on track. Be prepared (and not to be surprised) for a not-too-enthusiastic and lackluster participatory response.

I never liked group activities. I did like the 2 person project. It's a shame that all the group members couldn't somehow receive a grade based on their contributions to the final effort.

Good luck on your project.

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Group papers are the worst idea ever! I always have to pull the slackers along and end up fixing their poor grammar.

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