Assignment 6: Collaborative Writing Project Progress Report

Recently the class was assigned a group project on some community issue of our choice. There are three other members in addition to myself in Group 2. We chose to do our project on the urgent need to provide information to our community about ways to “go green” due to the recent events of the oil spill. While we can’t realistically do a lot about the oil spill situation we can start small by persuading members of the community to become a little more eco-friendly by making better decisions about how they can recycle most of their trash, compost, and conserve energy. As a Biology major this subject is very close to my heart and I believe 100% that a few small changes can turn into much bigger and greater changes for the environment. (Note: a friend sent me this picture)

A few days after the email was sent I sent an email to all the group members to get the ball rolling. At first we thought that an additional member would be in our group, Galina Matthews. However, I emailed to ask her and she said she was going to be in another group. Then there was four…Myself, Christina Lightsey, Kaye Lewis, and Brittany Martin. So far we’ve met once to discuss and plan everything that we are going to do and assign individual projects. We’ve only met once due to member’s time differences. However, just by meeting once I think that we’ve made a good plan for the project and set a good timeline down. We have also emailed each other through our eagle accounts and through blackboard. We also exchanged phone numbers. The project is due July 20^th, which gives us a little over a week to finish it. With the timeline that we have set I think we should be right on schedule for the due date. So far we’ve discussed exactly what the project is going to be about, how we are going to get that information to the public, and formed a rough draft of the proposal. The proposal should be in its final form by tonight. We also assigned projects for what everyone in the group will be responsible for. Kaye will research information on energy conservation and organize the proposal. Christina will do phone interviews with principals, business owners, and managers around the city of Hattiesburg. Brittany is going to organize a rough draft of the final report and also organize the final written report after we have all read it and given our thoughts. I am designing the website and brochure, and also doing some research. Kaye, Christina, and I will email Brittany our information by 8p.m. on Tuesday, July 13^th so that she can have the rough draft finished by noon on Thursday, July 15^th. We will then revise it if needed and send it back to her to make the final report. I have already begun the website and researching. When the website gets a little more polished I’m going to send the girls a link and password so they can go on there and look at it and make changes. I will start on the brochure tomorrow.

I think that overall the project is coming along great. I have done group projects before but never with people that I have never met before. That being said, having met two of the members in person we got along fine! Sometimes personality conflicts can be troublesome for group projects but I thought that we all were on the same page and got along great. All the members have expressed that they have no problem doing anything assigned. We haven’t had any problems with members not wanting to do their part. It’s actually been the opposite, which is great because for me in the past that was always a problem in group projects. The only thing I have been slightly confused on is the actual assignment itself. I took it as a project that focuses in on an issue in the community that should be addressed and then forming a solution. I wasn’t sure that for our project we would form our solution around providing the information for the community to get started or if we actually had to provide a service, such as a recycling program. We decided to provide the information but if our teacher says we need to form a “service” then we can add that in to the project as well. We look forward to his email saying if we can proceed or if we need to make revisions.