Ever been the only one in a project to really work on it?

FeoTakahari

So I'm supposed to be writing an eight-page paper with four other people. We decided to each do two pages on sub-topics, then determine how best to combine our work into a single cohesive paper. I had my part done last Monday, and everyone else said they'd have theirs by Saturday. The completed paper is due next Tuesday, and they're not responding to my emails.

This assignment is worth 30% of our grade. We are quite probably screwed.

Flyboy

That's a really long time to write an 8-page paper.  You should be fine, I think.  Push comes to shove, if it's a third of your grade I'd just write the whole thing yourself and if you're feeling ornery tell the teacher that your groupmates were worthless douches. 

Firebert

Yeah, eight pages is even possible in a night if push comes to shove (though it's very stressful).

Crimson

You already have a portion of it done anyway, with a week left, that's more than enough time. Assuming you don't have lots of schoolwork in between.

carbonmantis

I had something like this once; another fellow and I were given about a month or so to research and make a presentation on a topic and we agreed to do separate parts of it, but instead of working on it like he should have, he only threw his end together less than 48 hours before the due date. I opted to speak to the professor about it and I think he cut me some slack, but then again this was a community college with a pretty laid back instructor, so I'm not sure if that route would help you any.

 

If its just eight pages though I'd write it up and keep it as a backup, just in case alternative options fail.  

Bee

Yeah, eight pages is irritating but completely surmountable (and in your later years of classes, will be more along the lines of what you're expected to do yourself anyway).  If they're not doing their part, do it yourself.

And yes, most of the projects I had to do prior to my senior year ended up this way -- thankfully by then my teammates were serious enough to have lasted into the 400-level stuff and were used to pulling their weight.

FeoTakahari

To clarify, it's due the Tuesday that's two days from now, not the Tuesday that's nine days from now, and we're supposed to accompany it with a live presentation, in which all four of us should be involved. (If I had to, I could probably manage four more pages and a script for the presentation, but I'm not sure I have enough ideas to get it up to eight.)

InsanityAddict

Presentations are never the hard part, just sling what you've written onto a powerpoint. Also, try spamming the gits via Facebook if they don't respond to e-mails.

Bee

Yeah, that's still doable (as long as you hurry up and get off this thread and do it!), and again, not that far off what you'll be asked to do alone later on anyway.

The nice thing about presentations is that it's blatantly obvious when you're the only one in your group that got off their ass and got things done.  Like, even if you're not a good public speaker, it's still pretty obvious when you're actually knowledgeable on the subject instead of bullshitting.  Same for the essay, really -- writing styles are typically distinctive enough that a decent prof will pick up right away on whether the essay is a composite or solo work just based on consistency.