Throughout my time in school, I’ve worked on many group projects and while some were easy to work with, others felt like a living hell. In “Writing ‘Eyeball to Eyeball’: Building a Successful Collaboration,” Rebecca Ingalls emphasizes how collaboration in writing, especially in academic and professional settings can work.. Ingalls notes that successful collaborations require strong communication, mutual respect, and shared goals. While I agree that these are important key points and can improve professional group projects. In academic settings, they don’t always work out as well. Her strategy can be beneficial when you’re working with a friend or a classmate you get along with. However, in my experience and from hearing others’ experiences, people rarely seem to enjoy group projects anymore.
When it comes to group projects/collaborations, you have to decide on a topic, set meeting times, coordinate schedules, figure out communication methods, and assign responsibilities for each part of the project. Despite all the planning, these things can go wrong because some people don’t respond to messages, skip meetings, or fail to complete their parts altogether. Ingalls writes, “If each group member pledges to allow for the thoughts and ideas of other members, you’ve gotten off to a promising start.” In my experience, though, this rarely happens. The group either clashes, or one person shares an idea that everyone else agrees to just to get it over with. I’ve dealt with this countless times: either I end up as the “leader” (which I hate), or someone else appoints themselves leader and ends up doing a poor job or being overly controlling. While Ingalls’ strategy can be helpful, sometimes working independently is simply the best option.
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