Communication Assignments
There are four communication assignments in 6.1800. The first two focus on understanding and critiquing existing systems. The second two work together as part of a team project that requires you to design your own system to solve a real-world problem. This project will extend over the second half of the semester, and will be done in teams of three students, all of whom attend the same writing tutorial.
Press Release Assignment
System Critique Assignment
Project Part 1: System Enhancement
Project Part 2: Presentation
Project Teams
One goal of the 6.1800 writing tutorials is to give you the tools necessary to complete the communication assignments, including the team project. Many tutorials in the second half of the class involve a chance for you to do actual work on the project in class; thus, your teammates are required to be in the same writing tutorial as you. We will make no exceptions to this rule, except in the most extenuating circumstances.
We know that some students come into 6.1800 having selected their own teammates. Though we try to honor your preferences, there are hundreds students in 6.1800. We also have to keep the enrollment roughly the same across each section, to make sure staff have similar workloads. As a result of all of this, we cannot guarantee that we can put you in the same writing tutorial—and thus, on the same team—as your friends.
We will provide you with ample support throughout the class in collaborating with your team. For example, we will dedicate an entire tutorial to collaboration. Every semester, we assign many students teams at random; those teams perform just as well on the project as pre-formed teams do.
Working Together as a Team
Real-world systems are not built individually; it's always a team effort. Part of the design project is to learn to work productively and effectively in this setting. We will give you tools for doing so in the writing tutorials.
However, all teams run into conflict from time to time. This is the nature of people having different viewpoints, working styles, etc. In the past, you may have been told to just work through a conflict to finish the project, but this is not how teamwork is handled in the real workd, and it’s unlikely to be successful! In 6.1800, we aim to give you support to resolve conflicts within your team.
- Understand the issue: First, think about what is causing the conflict. Do you have a teammate who you feel isn’t contributing as much to the project as you are? Are you having trouble communicating with a teammate? Is your team disagreeing about the best design? Are you having trouble meeting regularity?
- Understand the impact on the project: Typically the most productive way to resolve a conflict within a team in a professional setting is to focus on the impacts of the conflict on the project itself. For example: if your team is having trouble meeting regularly, one possible impact is that your project won’t be completed on time.
- Think about what you’d like to be different: If your team is having trouble meeting regularly, how often would you like to meet, and how might your team be able to make that happen? It’s not up to you to solve the entire problem, but it is helpful to think about what you actually want to be different before talking to your team.
- Talk to your teammates: Have a conversation with your teammates, explaining your concerns and the impacts you believe they’re having on your project, and ask what you all might be able to adjust in order to move forward. Remember that you have a shared goal of completing the design project.
- Talk to an instructor: If you’re unable to make progress by talking to your teammates, reach out to one of your instructors (your recitation instructor, your WRAP instructor, or Dr. LaCurts). We all have experience in supporting teams through conflicts.
- Set up a regular, standing meeting with your team early in the semester. Since your teammates are all in tutorial together, you should see each other at least once a week there; you can use Tutorial 3 to set a time for your first meeting. Many successful teams meet once a week throughout the semester; some teams meet more, some less. Regular, shorter meetings are typically more effective than a single very (very) long meeting the day before the preliminary report is due.
- Have an agenda for your team meetings. It doesn’t need to be long, just a list of things to check in on. Many teams set up a shared doc so that everyone can add to it during the week.
- You don’t need to (and probably shouldn’t!) do all of the work on the design project while in the same room as your teammates. Your meetings can be a time to check in on how certain parts of the project are going, to brainstorm ideas, and to do other things that benefit from having the entire team there at once.
- All of you will have deadlines or other disruptive events (e.g., midterms). Early in the term, let your teammates know about big deadlines that you have ahead of time, so that you all can plan around them.