The art of writing Assignments - Part 2

MBA course work is all about groups and relative grading...You prosper or perish in groups. This group work opens people to a whole new world of free riding. "Free Riding" being an abstract concept is executed by different people in different ways. Before I get into that, let me tell you what is meant by Free Riding. Free Riders are those people who would tag along for the ride but would hardly move a finger to do anything. But as the group is graded as a whole, they get the same grades.

Now let's see the different approaches to Free Riding.

First there is the "I am not a Free Rider" approach.

These sort of people work very hard to look as if they are working. They will run around...shuffle papers...talk about timelines and appear worried. But they hardly do any work. They are really offended if someone hints about free riding.

Second category is the "I don't give a damn about grades" free rider.

These guys make their intent clear at the beginning of the assignment. Their usual statement goes something like this. "Dude....I don't care about grades.....I am not going to do a single thing on this assignment....if you guys are worried about grades, you go ahead and do the work". Their honesty is hard to deal with. As you are stuck with them in the group, all you can do is do the assignment and watch as they get whatever grades they get for free.

The first category of free riders are very deceptive. To an unattentive eye, it seems as if they are doing the whole assignment by themselves. It has often happened that 4 free riders of the first sort formed a group. Each one was left thinking that others are working hard and finally the assignment never got done. So it is in their advantage to seek out tried and tested Non-Free riders and form a group with them.

The second category is a necessary evil. They are often tolerated because they are good friends and atleast they were honest (brutally so..) about their free riding.

Although from individual work, the focus shifts to group work, the basic premises of assignment writing does not change. Here also there are Do-Gooders (DG), Do-No-Harmers (DNH) and We Don't Cares(WDC). The second category of Free riders come under the WDC category.

As MBA is a higher degree than B.Tech, the execution of assignments become even more last minute. Night outs become the norm and discussions are often called to start the midnight before the submission day. If it wasn't for the DGs in every group, the assignments would have never been submitted on time. I have had experiences where there were three of us in a group. All three were DNHs and we rarely submitted an assignment on time.

Whether it be B.Tech or MBA, if it is group work, the DGs are the driving force behind the group. They are the ones who crack the whip and sets the ball rolling. DNHs pull their own weight and go along with the flow without hindering it. The WDCs are the ones who act as the deadweight which arrests the group's momentum. If it was not for their contribution (or the lack of it..), assignments would have been submitted days before the deadline. (Oh the sheer horror....I can't even think of it..). Working in groups prepare you for the proffessional world...or so they claim...and it is the healthy mix of DGs, DNHs and WDCs in a class that makes working in groups worth it. You get to make deals, negotiate and sometimes even threaten people...what better to prepare you for the cutthroat corporate world?

The Art of Writing Assignments- Part 1

Assignment- The Merriam Webster dictionary defines it as "a specified task or amount of work assigned or undertaken as if assigned by authority".

In school days, we used to call it homework...take down a few problems dictated by the teacher with a cute "H.W" written on the corner of that page...These were meant to be completed during that day's study time...and it was almost always diligently done so.

Then we grew up..we went to college and we needed a new name for homework, as calling it by its old name made it look childish...thus we entered the era of "Assignments".

Anyone who has an Engineering degree knows how these assignments are tackled during the course of the semester.(Warning: The views below are written solely from the viewpoint of a boy and might not be always applicable to girls).

Before I get into the theory of tackling assignments, let me tell you about the demographics of any Engineering class..

Firstly, there is one category of people whom I'd like to call the Do-Gooders (DG)...these are the students who almost always take up the first two rows of the class (though there are exceptions....I'll come to that later). Their note taking capability is beyond belief....Even the forced jokes that the lecturers make to wake up the rest of the class, might find its way to their notebooks. They often get ridiculed for this fact, but all that is till the exam time draws near...once the exams are at your doorstep, these Do-Gooders obtain the status of the Hollywood superstars....Their notes which were ridiculed before are so much in demand that the photo copies of the photo copies of the notes are being photo copied.....Even during all this demand, these DGs never try to get even for the ridicule....they selflessly offer the notes and never do they utter a word to the tune of "You should have thought this before...."

98% of the Do-Gooders are Girls.

Next category is what I'd like to call Do-No-Harmers (DNH)...these are the people who populate the middle to back rows of the class and they are not as meticulous in taking notes as the DGs. DNHs take notes of the points that they feel are important and can be often found sleeping in classes which bore them to the hilt...When the exam time comes, they are most of the times happy with their own notes and do not bother others.

DNH population is often split 80-20 with 80% being boys...

The last category is called We-don't-cares(WDC). This category is almost always completely made up of boys and these guys rarely populate the class (coz they prefer populating the canteen or the juice shop instead). These are the guys who create the huge demand for the DG's notes.

So now, let's see how the assignment is tackled by various groups..

DGs find it difficult to sleep unless they complete the assignment on the day it has been given. Even if there is a week before the submission date, DGs would like to finish it off as soon as possible.

DNHs find it really difficult even to think about the assignments before the due date. Then on the day before the due date, they borrow a few DG's assignments and engage in honing their CP (copy-paste)skills....The CP technology is perfected by the DNHs to such an extent that no proffessor ever accused a DNH of copying an assignment....the original matter of a DNH's assignment would be spread across maybe half a dozen DG assignments....

WDCs rarely submit an assignment on time....if they do, rest assured that it was written for them by a DG friend....(Some DGs are always in a crusade to convert WDCs to DNHs....I've seen them succeed and I've seen them fail.....Oh the good old times)...

Let's move on....from the individual submissions in Engineering college to the group work in MBA...