DISCUSSION 4 -- COLLABORATIVE WRITING
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Topic_DISCUSSION4--COLLABORATIVEWRITING.pdf
6/24/2021 Topic: DISCUSSION 4 -- COLLABORATIVE WRITING
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This is a graded discussion: 25 points possible due Jun 26
DISCUSSION 4 -- COLLABORATIVE WRITING 13 13
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Share a time when you worked on a writing in a collaborative environment and the work turned out perfectly. Discuss what reasons you believe contributed to the success of this project. What challenges, if any, were present. Did those challenges contribute to the success of the project because of the effort required to overcome them?
Submit your response (in APA format for any references used) – 15pts.
Reply to two (2) other posted responses for full points – 5pts. + 5pts. for each reply.
Total possible points = 25
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(https:// Joy Everson (https://sjsu.instructure.com/courses/1424294/users/4253321) Saturday
In my Engr 10 class, there were multiple group projects, but one stands out in particular (the wind turbine assignment). It is to this day one of my fondest college memories. My teammates ended up being more than just colleagues, they became my friends. We would dedicate group time to our projects and work collaboratively over food and drinks. We'd make jokes here and there and we'd take breaks together and laugh about our mistakes and felt comfortable going to one another for advice. What could have been negative (setbacks, mistakes, and just the overall challenge of working with and depending on others) was instead experienced in a positive light. Everyone just got along so well to the point that the project didn't feel like an academic responsibility. It felt like we were all buddies hanging out and having fun experimenting with our curiosities. At one point, we ended up having to stay up all night in my apartment's study room with coffee to finish the project. It ended up being a proper 16 page research paper and a 20 slide slideshow that I am still proud of. I think the greatest challenge of collaboration isn't the content, it's the interactions. Being open and honest with teammates about one’s knowledge and capabilities, learning about one another's lives to bond, and retaining the element of fun are
6/24/2021 Topic: DISCUSSION 4 -- COLLABORATIVE WRITING
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all so powerful in motivating people to work together. I think groupwork challenges are just opportunities to learn more about one another and become even more successful. All experiences (good, bad, difficult, easy) are lessons that help us grow as people. A life without challenges isn't much of a life, in my honest opinion.
(http Dang Minh Nhu Nguyen (https://sjsu.instructure.com/courses/1424294/users/4487496) Yesterday
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Hi Joy, I love how you and your friends stayed positive to finish the project in such long time. I mean sixteen pages of researching paper, and twenty slideshows sound exhausted, bravo to the team! From what you've wrote, I could definitely feel that you all is going to be good friends. In addition , I totally agree that being open and honest towards your team members, though sometimes this can be a challenge, is one of the most powerful move to encourage the team in working their best together. I personally do not like face challenges, but I also have to admit that nobody can live their life to the fullest without facing any trouble.
(https:// Dang Minh Nhu Nguyen (https://sjsu.instructure.com/courses/1424294/users/4487496) Yesterday
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Discussion 4: COLLABORATIVE WRITING
During the summer of 2019, I was placed in a group with three other people to work on a coding project using the Python programming language. We ran into a few issues, the most serious of which being a disagreement in preferred coding languages. We didn't know how to code in each other's languages and, to make matters worse, we didn't know anything about Python, two had no prior experience in the field. Our group's leader developed a plan for each member, detailing who is responsible for which task(s) and when we will meet. We spent time together doing language research, learning, and studying. We also brainstormed project ideas, the group members and I genuinely criticizing each other's for improvements in the end. After a week, we were able to complete the project with a game that could endure for ten minutes. It's incredible to me since I can hardly get a program to run, but with the help and support of the other group members, who all came from different backgrounds than mine, we were able to develop something we'd never done before. We were able to overcome the difficulties thanks to the team's unity and dedication. We valued each other and strived to improve as a team. No one was left behind, and we've all learned something afterwards.
(http Andreah Cruz (https://sjsu.instructure.com/courses/1424294/users/4474232) Yesterday
Hello Dang!
I find that which language to use is such a big problem in a school environment. It's weird since SJSU is mainly focused on Java, so for the most part people like me only
6/24/2021 Topic: DISCUSSION 4 -- COLLABORATIVE WRITING
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know Java. I would understand why some people would want to do python since from what I remembered it's one of the easiest languages. I can also see your perspective when you said it's hard for you to run your code since I find coding pretty difficult to understand on my own as well. Unfortunately, the past coding teams I've experienced were horrible since everyone just relied on others to know what they're doing so I couldn't ask many questions.
(http Mary Markart (https://sjsu.instructure.com/courses/1424294/users/4472810) 11:48am
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Hi Dang.
Working on coding projects as a group can be quite difficult. It seems like your group faced struggles early on, but were able to divide and conquer the work efficiently. I worked on a Java project with a group and I know that it can be very difficult to develop a game. It's admirable that your group was able to provide each other with constructive criticism. I would be interested in trying out your game sometime!
(https:// Yatning Tam Belmonte (https://sjsu.instructure.com/courses/1424294/users/4487366) Yesterday
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I took a class called Introduction to Industrial Systems, as a final project of the class we were put in groups to design, build and program a mini bottle filling and storing system. We were given metal sheets, wood boards, wires, relays and etc. The final step of the project is to write a user manual with illustration. The project turned out very successful, the three of us all made contributions in areas we were good at. I went to art school and am very good at drawing, so I did the illustration part. One person had experience working with industrial systems so he drafted the manual, the other person did not mind doing the editing and making everything look pretty. I did proof reading and made suggestion for improvement and simplification. There wasn't too much challenge to write the document, everyone was fairly efficient because it was a fun and fulfilling project.
(http Andreah Cruz (https://sjsu.instructure.com/courses/1424294/users/4474232) Yesterday
6/24/2021 Topic: DISCUSSION 4 -- COLLABORATIVE WRITING
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Edited by Andreah Cruz (https://sjsu.instructure.com/courses/1424294/users/4474232) on Jun 23 at 7:21pm
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Hello Yatning!
That was pretty smart of your group to put certain people in areas they were great at. That's pretty close to a work environment since we wouldn't put someone who knows finance to do the work of a software engineer. I'm a software engineer, so when I look back at group projects, it was pretty difficult since everyone just split the work evenly and I would be doing the same job as another person. With this, I had to do self- research despite the other person knowing his category pretty well. I hope I can implement this in future group projects if I can!
(https:// Andreah Cruz (https://sjsu.instructure.com/courses/1424294/users/4474232) Yesterday
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The last time that I wrote a collaborative essay was a couple of years ago in my communications class and we were in a group of 3. It was meant to be a persuasive essay about abortion. Regardless of whether it was this project, I firmly believe that communication is a must in any collaborative environment. Since our communication was good within the project, we were able to finish it effectively and efficiently. Communication allows everyone in the group to understand what they’re doing and their approach to the project (Bass, 2019). If we know each other roles we could either avoid re-doing someone else’s role or help out anyone in the group that has questions. In the group I was in, I was able to give feedback on how we can write certain areas better and vice versa. I believe the only challenge I ran across was starting the assignment. However, once we started to get a flow going it was pretty easy to keep writing. I wouldn’t say this contributed to our success because not starting sooner just postponed us a bit back. However, it did help everyone in the group to understand how long writing takes so we were able to get an understanding for future assignments. Although we knew how long future assignments would take, it did not really help the case of procrastination within students. Considering everything I enjoyed my time with the group and procrastination wasn’t such a big issue.
References
Bass, A. (2019, July 2). Why Is Team Communication Important When in Teams? Career Trend. https://careertrend.com/why-is-team-communication-important-when-in-teams- 4233172.html.
6/24/2021 Topic: DISCUSSION 4 -- COLLABORATIVE WRITING
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(http Mary Markart (https://sjsu.instructure.com/courses/1424294/users/4472810) 11:42am
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Hi Andreah.
That is a very loaded topic to discuss in a persuasive essay. I agree that the hardest part of a project is getting started because it's so easy to procrastinate when a big project is due. I have trouble getting an assignment started when it is worth a lot of my grade and I feel overwhelmed. It seems like your group had very clear roles and responsibilities which contributed to the success of the essay. Despite the topic being quite controversial, it seems that your group tackled it well.
(http Olivia Sanchez (https://sjsu.instructure.com/courses/1424294/users/4470677) 2:11pm
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Hi Andreah! I agree that communication is big when working in group projects. I don't think any type of group work can be successful without communication. Like you mentioned in your discussion, communication helps each group member know what they're doing in the project. I once had to do a group project with two group members who weren't good at communicating. We ended up getting a poor grade, because our project was lacking a lot, since both members did similar topics. It is lesson that I learned. Going forward with any group projects, I try to make sure that I communicate with my group members, so that nothing is unclear.
(https:// Mary Markart (https://sjsu.instructure.com/courses/1424294/users/4472810) 11:33am
When I worked as a manual quality assurance tester at a cybersecurity company in 2018, I led a project rewriting over 800 test cases. As the leader of this project, I worked with a team of three coworkers. I had worked with these individuals for a few months and determined their strengths and weaknesses for the test cases and divided the work based on their ability. Each member had a daily goal and I provided a spreadsheet for them to log their progress. Despite careful planning, occasionally one of the writers would not know how to complete a test. In this case, I would walk through the test with them. The goal in writing a good test case is to imagine the individual reading it has no knowledge of how to complete the test and walk through the preconditions and steps in as much detail as possible. This means that sometimes someone learning the test for the first time has better
6/24/2021 Topic: DISCUSSION 4 -- COLLABORATIVE WRITING
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knowledge of how to write it since they have just seen how to complete it. After a month of this project, we completed all the test cases and future testing productivity was increased, and training new hires became a lot more efficient.
(http Olivia Sanchez (https://sjsu.instructure.com/courses/1424294/users/4470677) 1:52pm
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Hi Mary! Being a manual quality assurance tester is a big position, but from reading your post it seems like you were very successful in this position. I think as a leader, you did everything needed to have a successful project. Determining the strengths and weaknesses of each group member is a great tactic, that way you can place people in their appropriate assignment. With this course, we did something similar with our group project. We assigned our members to parts that they would thrive in. I also think it is great that you learned your member's weaknesses, because you were able to help people overcome their weaknesses by giving them more training in the areas they needed. There is a saying that a team is only as strong as their weakest member. Knowing strengths and weaknesses of members helped your project significantly, and I think this strategy would help any group project be successful.
(https:// Olivia Sanchez (https://sjsu.instructure.com/courses/1424294/users/4470677) 1:29pm
This past semester, a group project was the final for one of my math courses. The assignment was a presentation on a mathematician. I think in any group work setting, it is important that the group members work together to determine the structure of the project, and every group member does their part to make the project successful. In my group, we each determined what we wanted to talk about. Everyone had a say in the content of the project, and I think that was more efficient than having one person be in charge. We each were able to contribute our own creative ideas. It was also helpful that all of my group members, including myself, were on top of their section of the project, so our project was complete and well-done. We received comments from our professor and classmates that said that our project was engaging and well-organized, which in my opinion was the goal of our project. What also made our presentation successful, was that we were able to meet prior to our presentation day to review our project, and make sure that our presentation was organized clearly. This is key, because although each group member works on their own section, it is better to have a project that looks like only one person did it. By this, I mean that the project flows well with thoughtful transitions. When it comes to group projects, I believe that working together as a group is what makes group work successful.
6/24/2021 Topic: DISCUSSION 4 -- COLLABORATIVE WRITING
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