Working in pairs, decide if the following statements are true or false.
(a) Most students react positively to the idea of group work.
(b) All the group members receive the same mark.
(c) Students in groups can normally choose who they work with.
(d) There are two main reasons for setting group work.
(e) Most employers look for successful team members.
(f) Group work in business school has no connection to team work in companies.
2 Making group work successful
Below is a list of suggestions for making your group work successful. The correct order
(1–7) has been mixed up. Working with a partner, put them into the most logical
sequence, using the table.
Analyse the task
Get everyone to discuss the assignment and agree on the best methods to
complete it. At this stage, it is important to have complete agreement on the
objectives.
Divide up the work fairly, according to the abilities of the members
Your group may include a computer expert or a design genius, so make sure that
their talents are used appropriately. It is most important to make sure that everyone
feels they have been given a fair share of the work.
Make everyone feel included
Nobody should feel an outsider, so make special efforts if there is only one male
student, or one non-native speaker, for instance. Make a list of all members’ phone
numbers and email addresses and give everyone a copy.
82 Part 1: The Writing Process
and backgrounds. So familiarity with teamwork has become an essential
qualification for many jobs, and this task provides students with an opportunity to
strengthen their experience of working in groups.Furthermore, working in groups allows individuals to achieve more than they
could by working on their own. A group can tackle much larger projects, and this
applies to most research projects at university, as well as business development in
companies. Therefore, by taking part in these activities students are able to provide
evidence on their portfolio and CV that they have succeeded in this critical area.