Slackers in a Group Final Paper/Assignment in College - WWYD?

[russ tha g]

CLIFF'S NOTES:
I have a lazy group in my English class (they haven't contributed at all) and I want them to fail the course - prof said to let her know if you have freeloaders in your group.

The full story:

My technical writing class is basically one big group assignment. It was divided into three parts: 1. Proposal (5 pages), 2. Interim Report (2 pages), 3. FinalPaper (25 pages).

Assignment 1
We didn't divide the work quick enough and I got the professor to give us 10 bonus points to whoever turned it in a week early. To meet that deadline, Idid the entire thing myself. No big deal - I always do well on writing assignments and five pages went by pretty quickly while I watched the news.

Assignment 2
We divided it into three parts (three group members). I ended up having to do the entire thing. They added their parts... which were one sentence each - whichwere the only grammatical and spelling errors in the entire thing. Whatever, it was a short assignment.

FINAL ASSIGNMENT
We divided a 12 page section (only half of the paper) into three parts and said to send it to one another by LAST Sunday. I sent my four pages out Saturdayafternoon, the other guy sent me his 1.5 pages Sunday at midnight and the entire thing is one big error and says nothing. It was the most pathetic thing anEnglish speaking student could possibly write for an assignment in an English course. The third group member hasn't tried to make contact at all - even tothis day!

HERE'S WHERE I NEED OPINIONS
My plan is to do the entire 25 page paper and also print out a separate copy of that one "contribution" to show what douche bag 1 did (and howterrible it was), and then include a note explaining how this was the only contribution any one of them made all semester and the others contributions, ifthere were any, would have been in here, too. The prof. said to not let people ride coat tails like this, and to tell her about it.Personally, I would not have minded if they had not lied and said they were going to do something. I'm used to doing all the work, but IHATE people who can't keep their word. So, I want to screw them over and see them fail the course.

Any other ideas or opinions on how I'm handling the situation?

 

[s0lefunk]

Blackmail. If you can do a 25 page paper without them then do it. Be straight up with your group members about the whole situation. Tell them that since theydidnt put up any effort for the paper then they gotta put in to your pockets. If they dont agree then go to the professor.

That way, you still get that small sense of relief that you at least tried to help them one last time before they failed.

 

[f a y b a n]

Was there an assigned group leader? Did you keep in touch throughout to make sure work was being done or wait until the last minute before assignments weredue?

 

[i nasmatic i]

Do the work and then tell your professor what your team did (errr didn't do).

 

[rondomness]

Originally Posted by s0leFUNK

Blackmail. If you can do a 25 page paper without them then do it. Be straight up with your group members about the whole situation. Tell them that since they didnt put up any effort for the paper then they gotta put in to your pockets. If they dont agree then go to the professor.

That way, you still get that small sense of relief that you at least tried to help them one last time before they failed.

Good idea!

 

[dajoka004]

Tell the professor like it is. Trust me, it makes a huge difference. I had the same situation happen to me once (people didn't do their parts, and whenthey did, it wasn't something I could turn in). We were getting below 70s on our papers. I still got an A- in the class because I let the professor knowhow the group [didn't] work together.

 

[eye see soles]

Ditch that elitist attitude first.

Second, why didn't you tell the prof. throughout the semester that no one was putting forth any effort? Why wait now, the last week of the semester to tellher? I'm sure she could have accommodated you into another group.

The fault isn't on your shoulders, but to wait until the last week to vent is useless.

It shows a lot about your character if you are going through all of this to make your fellow classmates fail.

I thought you were in college. Leave the high school BS to high school.

 

[lazy b]

These threads always pop up at the end of the semester.

Tell the professor before you do what you have planned.

 

[grizzlyboy]

Originally Posted by s0leFUNK

Blackmail. If you can do a 25 page paper without them then do it. Be straight up with your group members about the whole situation. Tell them that since they didnt put up any effort for the paper then they gotta put in to your pockets. If they dont agree then go to the professor.

That way, you still get that small sense of relief that you at least tried to help them one last time before they failed.

I disagree. They could all turn on him and he would get in trouble.

I say just do it. Worry about yourself. I would bring copies of emails and other attempts to communicate with them as a reference. Also dudes lame attempt towrite something. Get my "A" and say screw them

 

[outbackbob24]

Blackmail. If you can do a 25 page paper without them then do it. Be straight up with your group members about the whole situation. Tell them that since they didnt put up any effort for the paper then they gotta put in to your pockets. If they dont agree then go to the professor.

Only reasonable solution if you ask me.

 

[thebachellor]

You got to hit them with the "Yo listen i'm not failing this project... let's do this" attitude.

If they still don't do anything, then by all means snitch.

People may say snitching isn't the "man thing to do", but freeloading off another dudes work is <<<<<<<< snitching.

 

[russ tha g]

I thought about the blackmail idea, but I threw it out the window because I don't think either of them have that much to offer.

No, there was no group leader. We would just discuss it in class. I can work well without having a specified dictator telling me what I need to do... I guessthat they can't. We, as a group, agreed to have our contributions sent in by last Sunday. I don't believe meeting up was necessary for a simple classlike this - not with email, video conferencing, etc.

I should have an elitist attitude if I'm the best working person in the entire class (A's on every assignment and doing assignments groups have hadtrouble with on my own). College is supposed to be competitive. If you can't keep up, you should explore other options. My character iscompetitive. my group mates' happens to be lazy.

My justification is that if they cared about the assignment at all, they would have done SOMETHING. I mean, this is 1/3 of their grade. I've proven to themthat I can get assignments done without them, but if they (obviously) can't do it on their own, you'd think they would at least send a random textmessage asking what's going on. The third member was assigned to take pictures of these locations around school that we were talking about in our paper...nothing from her.


Edit I tried the "we need to do this!" attitude on the first 5-page assignment because the prof said we'd get 10 extra points ifwe turned it in a week early - that is, I told her my group could turn it in tomorrow while all the other groups were still stressing over it. All that endedup happening was I had to do an entire paper by myself that night.

 

[D StaXX]

Don't blackmail them. That could lead to trouble.
I would just go to the professor and explain.
There's no reason they should get rewarded for your hard work.

Are you in law school Russ? Thought I seen you post in one of those law threads awhile back.

 

[y2kingsfan]

blackmail.

on a side note: i like how you put the cliff notes BEFORE the story. others take note.

 

[upstateboibeats]

yeahh man happened to me too. It was a 4 person group project....we had to analyze a business case, write a 20 page paper about it, then do a 45 minpresentation. ended up doing the whole 20 page paper with my friend because the other two didnt do #*$*. i hate group projects

 

[th3ownly]

ya man your just gonna have to tell your professor

 

[jawn piece]

DONT SNITCH..do the work and like it (i say this cuz im always one of the slackers in a group project)

 

[gunna get it]

I had a lazy cat in my Business management cornerstone class.
we had group project that ran the duration of the semester
every week, a different person was the group leader.
we went smoothly for 4 like weeks. 5th week, this cat no shows the day the project is due, ( since he was group leader that day, he was the one with the finalprojections

)
so he shows up next class, and was unprepared
the Professor took a letter grade off our entire grade for that week.
this one white chick was like on the verge of tears. One dude in my group told Prof, he want out the group cuz dude was killin our grade and not particiopating
I wasnt about to run to the professor and cry about it but I was forced to put snatch slacker up by his collar and show him he wasnt !%#*+@ up a grade in oneof my majors' classes
dude dropped the class right after

 

[bonafide hustla]

interesting read. i just had my final project last week in technical writing due and I was indeed the slacker. most of them cats were rhetoric majors so Iwas like

. I wasn't a complete bum though. I actuallycontributed

 

[sneakersruinedme]

Originally Posted by Grizzlyboy

Originally Posted by s0leFUNK

Blackmail. If you can do a 25 page paper without them then do it. Be straight up with your group members about the whole situation. Tell them that since they didnt put up any effort for the paper then they gotta put in to your pockets. If they dont agree then go to the professor.

That way, you still get that small sense of relief that you at least tried to help them one last time before they failed.

I disagree. They could all turn on him and he would get in trouble.

I say just do it. Worry about yourself. I would bring copies of emails and other attempts to communicate with them as a reference. Also dudes lame attempt to write something. Get my "A" and say screw them

i agree with him. also, check your student code of conduct first. in some schools, the blackmail route might be grounds for expulsion.

 

[ac4three]

I wouldn't blackmail them as that could undermine the legitimacy of your story and make you look bad. You should just tell the prof...

 

[s0lefunk]

Originally Posted by Grizzlyboy

Originally Posted by s0leFUNK

Blackmail. If you can do a 25 page paper without them then do it. Be straight up with your group members about the whole situation. Tell them that since they didnt put up any effort for the paper then they gotta put in to your pockets. If they dont agree then go to the professor.

That way, you still get that small sense of relief that you at least tried to help them one last time before they failed.

I disagree. They could all turn on him and he would get in trouble.

I say just do it. Worry about yourself. I would bring copies of emails and other attempts to communicate with them as a reference. Also dudes lame attempt to write something. Get my "A" and say screw them

Turn on him how? They are the ones piggybackin him the whole semester. I'm sure he has email correspondence to back his claims. Even if theprofessor was like "Oh, you tried to blackmail them? Shame on you.." that doesnt excuse the slackers from their assignments.

I mean, I agree there is the slight possibility that this could turn ugly but at the sametime, if I was one of the slackers, I wouldn't be thinkin"Alright, he finally slipped up" I'd be thinkin "Damn, dude is right. I didnt do anything, he got all the records.. even if I did try andflip it on him I still got nothin to show.. either we all go down or I pay and I pass"
I'd definately report them regardless though even if you dont decide to blackmail

 

[cbpresent]

I had the same problem with a group term paper last semester in a Media Law and Ethics class.

Tell the professor what the others are doing, or lack of doing and he/she will understand.

Your grade will not be affected by the lack of work from someone else.

 

[throwedindagame]

Just dont include their names on the project.

 

[luckyp90]

Whatever you decide, Tell them what your doing. Dont be shady and do what the guy right above me said.