In the article “Writing Eyeball To Eyeball,” by Rebecca Ingalls, we observe the importance of group collaboration in college settings, and how group work leads to the innovation of ideas. Ingalls discusses strategies and steps that help a group succeed in its goals. Some of the main elements the author states are open-mindedness, willingness in communicating amongst the group, and having mutual respect for one another. Ingalls suggests that a group contract is essential in a group collaboration. The elements she incorporates in this group contract are understanding the project at hand, the communication process, meeting deadlines, ethics, and standards. I like the idea of a contract in a group project because it compromises each member to accomplish their part. Furthermore, working together brings a lot of ideas to the table and it helps students be prepared for the outside corporate world where the majority of jobs consist in working together. It prepares us to meet deadlines, respect each other, consider everybody’s ideas, and communicate accordingly with maturity.
Why I didn’t like working in groups
I didn’t like the idea of working in a group until I read this article because of past experiences I’ve had. In high school and community college, I had many group projects, but each time one member would always have an excuse for their lack of cooperation. I would always find it unfair for the other members and myself. We would do all the work and then those who didn’t do the work would still receive a good grade. This is why I have preferred to work alone for a long time because I’m the type of student that would do the other student’s part just for the sake of saving my grade. However; after reading this article I have realized that in college it’s much different. We are all adults with busy schedules, but if we are in college, we must take group projects/ homework seriously. At the end of the day, Ingalls is right because a real collaborative group work would always be willing to communicate and be cooperative among members. My biggest takeaway from Ingalls’s article is “The collaborative work that you take on now in college prepares you for the challenges of higher stakes teamwork that you will encounter in your professional life.” College prepares us for the professional world and taking responsibility in college is the only way we can be responsible in our future workplaces.
Don’t be afraid of failure
The article “Failure Is Awesome,” by Alexus Yeakel discusses how failure should not be taken as something negative because we learn from failures. The section titled “Failure Is Necessary,” is what resonated with me the most because failure makes us grow. Yeakel uses the writing process as an example, he mentions that just because we don’t receive good grades, students should stop writing. On the contrary, the author encourages us to never give up because we fail to get back up, which makes us resilient. Yeakel states, “Failure should be a normalized process in life.” Many students/people give up when confronting failure, but I agree with Yaekel, failure is awesome because it molds us into better versions of ourselves.
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