Non-teaching Period. (No..not holidays) (Sophie)
Having a wonderful break…finally settling down to study. The weather has just been too amazing to stay indoors. I have been busy to say the least though…things are great. I just have SO MUCH WORK! Not only uni commitements but my Mentor has given me some more work to do with his latest business venture to keep me on my toes!
There is so much else I could say, but the point of my blog today is to discuss a slightly unusual thing that happened to me today. It left me a bit un-settled in the sense that I didn’t quite know how to deal with it.
Let me just put the situation forward to you. Now there is this person…and I am acquainted with them via a group assignment which we are currently working on with a few other people. Now this person up to this point seemed very nice, hard-working and intelligent…I had no fear of working with them because I believed they would not screw it up, in fact, I thought their presence on the assignment was a good thing and that they would contribute a lot.
So far so good,
However today…
Randomly out of the blue this afternoon, I receive a text message from this person….asking if I could ’email’ them my copy of an assignment (from another subject that is due in about 1.5 weeks) so they could look at it because they are “confused”….
Now I have no problem with talking things over with people. I probably should talk things over more with people as it is…but traditionally by nature, I am a person who likes to work alone and if group work is neccessary, only with people I can trust and believe in.
Now having someone blatently ask to ‘look’ at the assignment I put hours of hard work into…really rubbed me up the wrong way and has made me feel very uncomfortable in my attitude towards this individual.
I haven’t replied to her text message because in all honestly I don’t know what to say…but one thing is for sure – I am not comfortable about giving her my assignment.
For all I know she could copy it and I could be accused of plagerism (it happened to someone I know)….plus the main thing is that I just don’t KNOW her….I don’t know her motives or her intentions.
I may seem cruel and cynical to those reading this, but as someone who hopes I am not as naive as I may look….I relate to past experiences where people have tried to take advantage of my good faith (I went to one of the most competitive schools in the state and am well aware that Uni is just as competitive).
Still,
I wonder – what would other people do in such a situation? (Remember this assignment is worth a lot of marks and you have slaved away for hours on it alone with NO help).
-Sophie
u can discuss things over on the phone to help ur friend, but definately not sharing the work.
It’s always interesting when people put you on the spot like that. Considering rapport with this person doesn’t do back particularly far, and your obvious sentimental attachment to the ‘precious’ assignment, you can just tell her you’ve a policy of not giving out work, even to friends.
The fact that she made the request via SMS rather than in person shows she likely percieves you to be a resource. That said it’d be wise to be diligent handling the issue as it may affect the dymanics of the group for the assigment. You’d ideally avoid awkward situations like this where you’re success is in part contingent over the other person, because it almost compels you to be that much more accommodating to that other person as you’ve a vested interest in mainting good relations.
Until next time,
PXW
Wharton School of Business
University of Pennsylvania, USA
Which school were you at? I dunno much about many schools in Vic. , haha. Although i know some people from the more *competitive* Victorian schools, just like NSW.
Jim: I agree. Sharing your finished assignment just borders too close to plagerism/cheating/collusion for my liking.
Lara: Hi! I would probably prefer not to mention on the blog where I attended, but if I see you in person feel free to ask!
Dr. Waterstone: Thank you for your comment. It IS “interesting”…and very much “on the spot”. It’s a tactical move in many respects, attempting to surprise the person and make them do what you want without proper thought.
That she did it by SMS was damn right offensive!!! One of my pet hates is people who ask things that should be done in person, or at least by a phone call, via SMS. I definitely agree that it can indicate how a person feels about you -in this case, I definitely felt like an asset attempted to be depreciated (haha okay lame accounting joke).
I think I’ve handled the issue okay. Group dynamics are complicated things (partly why I hate them so much). At least in business…I think teams are a bit more cohesive because you’re all (hopefully) trying to achieve the same thing and were (hopefully) all hired because you ‘fitted’ in with the company culture. At uni, everyone has different wants, needs and expectations and there is no defining ‘culture’.
Until next time,
Goodnight and goodluck
hehehe
Oops! was going to say in that message not to post it publicly, or something along those lines but while i was thinking about typing it, didn’t even do so!!
*feels like a scary internet stalker now* :S
Good on you for not letting yourself be pushed around! I agree completely with the way you have handled it: I hate group assignments too because it never works out fairly. General queries about what exactly the question is asking are fine but giving your answers to someone crosses the line.
Also on the sms thing…technology has killed a lot of conversations that should happen in person, and sms can be a lazy form of communication. That being said, I hate the way I am so reliant on it!
Good luck with all the assignments and don’t work too hard.. I haven’t started the accounting or macro assignments yet (eek)! *procrastinates by writing comments on blogs*
xo Kim
I am NOT going to tip any names into the bucket, but I do think that at Uni there does exist a culture of help and collaboration to a certain degree, almost as though it’s something bad which is done for the right reasons, through a desire to help a friend or perhaps just both make head or tail of something. More than one time have I bumped into my mates in both 620-121 and 620-141 working together on supposedly individual projects and I guess that seems to be the accepted culture that this person is banking on, to “clarify” some things.
Ignoring the whole immorality of cheating side of it, I think it’s the unfairness of it that I find distasteful. There’s no offer of help from this person, nor is it a simple question about clarification or definition of something. There’s no get-out clause (ie you don’t have to if you don’t want to). I can understand why and how people get so desperate as to want to ask for help so blatantly but there’s ways to do it without breaking rules as fast as the Uni can write them and friends as fast as you make them.
xoxo jez
Lara: Lol! Don’t worry…I know we’ll meet soon enough for a chat in person!
Hi Kim!
I’m glad to know other people agree with my feelings towards the whole situation.
General queries is cool with me too, and I have helped people I know more than once in regards to that…but to actually just hand over my answers/essay…I’m not cool with that.
Yeah…technology does kill some things. But it does create a way for you to be really nice to someone – e.g sending a hand written letter or physically going to visit them means more these days than it used to.
Good luck with your assignments too!!!
xxx
Hey Jez!
I think a help and collaboration element IS important to learning and don’t have a problem with people who do it, but there are lines that can be crossed in regards to it. Like I think discussing ideas (to a general level) is okay but actually sitting down and writing assignments together, or working out ideas you will discuss paragraph for paragraph is probably going to cross the line.
The university’s tough stance on plagerism is also important because if two essays are very similar in nature due to close collaboration they could get caught out…so such close collaboration is a risky thing to do.
I get pretty pissed off about this whole thing though…like for example on the careers advertisement website, people have been advertising to PAY people to help them with assignments….and we all know what “help” means.
I just get antsy because I work my ass off to do things on my own initiative and obviously some people out there don’t do things alone and in some cases actually pay other people to do it for them. How does the Uni stop this? I mean people advertise to pay people on their own job search website!!!
Back to my own situation,
You are right. It was very distasteful, and I’ve never actually had someone so blatently ask for my work before which shocked me! Usually people are a bit more subtle!!
It is sad though because she’s lost my respect completely. 🙁
xxxx
Re the whole SMS thing…
I am an SMS addict (and one of the more fluent SMSists you’ll ever see) for a few simple reasons;
1) I’m rarely ever home
2) SMSes cost me about 13c a hit
3) Any calls from a mobile phone cost an absolute bomb!!!
SMS doesn’t have to be impersonal, used the right way. Just don’t use it to dump people, profess your love for them etc etc.