Let's say you're working on a group research paper, and

[bicentennial_baby]

a group member submits their section. And then, while writing your section, you decided to essentially re-write theirs to your liking. Not changing a word here and there, but totally changing it and leaving fewer original sentences in than new ones.

Is that ok?

Because my group member just did that to my section, and I'm irritated. I mean, he did a fine job, but I could have done it myself if he had just given me his suggestions and criticisms.

:wtf:

I'm having a shitty weekend, don't mind me... x(

[CatholicEdHead]

1. That should not have been done without consulting you first

[bicentennial_baby]

4. That's exactly what I think

I'm not sure how to proceed. I'm fine with leaving it as he edited it, it's quite good. But at the same time, I feel like I should say something. I just don't want to fly off the handle.

[TZ]

2. You are right to be irritated

Thats HIGHLY unethical. I have never had anyone do that to me in group research without consulting me.
Its a subtle form of plagiarism if you ask me...

[bicentennial_baby]

5. Ok, so I'm not overreacting!

Yeah, I have to call him on it. I hate confrontation these days...But I should do it. He shouldn't have done this.

[drmeow]

6. It would only be plagiarism

if the other author was taken off the paper as an author.

[drmeow]

3. I certainly would not do it without

discussing it with the other author. Is the group member the lead author on the paper? If so, he's got more leeway but still should have discussed it with you. What section did you write?

[bicentennial_baby]

7. No, we're all equals on this, it's Undergrad...

I wrote the Introduction, and he wrote the Literature Review/Background.

Sigh.

[drmeow]

9. In that case

he's an arrogant ass and might be a dick if confronted. Have you dealt with him before? If you are not comfortable with confrontation, discuss it with the professor/instructor. See what they recommend.

[bicentennial_baby]

13. No, it's my first semester with him...But you may be correct

He definitely has the potential to be that way. I will email my Prof, we're pretty close.

Thanks!

[Pale Blue Dot]

8. He's an ass, and he'll have problems once he gets to the "real" world.

You're right: He should have made some suggestions and let you decide to take them or not.

Want me to punch him for you? I'd like to punch someone... :D

[bicentennial_baby]

10. Hehe, sure thing...It's making me more irritated the more I think about it...

He's one of the arrogant super-smart types. Doesn't take notes in class, totally nonchalant about everything. Except when he needed to borrow 20 pages of notes from me to copy when he couldn't keep up in our really difficult class.

And the way he did it, he sent me an email saying "I edited the Introduction, so make sure you read the entire document"....Ugh.

[LeftyMom]

11. I'd rewrite the rewrite.

My concern is, if your instructor reads it and "your" section sounds like his writing, that will probably have a negative effect on your grade.

[bicentennial_baby]

14. Good point! I didn't even think of that.

I'm on it. I'm emailing my Prof to get her advice.

[Nickster]

12. That's uncool, but I have to admit I had that urge many times myself. Group projects are so hard and

it's difficult for some people to value the input of others. I work on that weakness myself every day. Maybe he was fearful of confronting you about it? He might have thought he was helping you by re-writing it, I'm not condoning at all, just saying.

[bicentennial_baby]

15. No, I get that, but when I sent it to him in the first place,

I stressed how much I wanted input, suggestions, criticisms, and that I thought it needed a little work. So he shouldn't have felt in any way fearful.

[Nickster]

16. Well then it sounds like he didn't really care so much. Just try to remain calm and give him the

feedback as calmly as you can, let him know that you wanted to be given proper input and that his actions were inappropriate for the situation. Maybe no one has called him on it before and some straightforward feedback will have an impact. More often than not, I found that other students in my groups were more than happy to be left out of projects as much as possible and it always shocked my team leaders to know that I wanted to be active in the papers.

[I Have A Dream]

22. Is it possible that what he gave you was what he was suggesting...

in its place since you said that you were open to it? Maybe he just didn't make it clear that it was his feedback as you requested.

[harmonicon]

17. It's not so bad

You all should have possibly nominated one person to go over the whole thing and make the cohesive rewrite, but I do think some decision should have been made about it. I think it would have a lot to do with how the paper will be graded. Will you all share a grade or will you be graded on the individual sections based on who was responsible for what? If it's the latter, it shouldn't have been edited.

In my undergrad we had some papers like this, and I remember that at least once one person did a rewrite of the whole shebang to make the paper more cohesive. I can't remember if it was me or not, but it was discussed.

I don't think you should be too angry - if you think the paper is good this way, just find a polite but firm way of saying that you appreciate that they were dedicated to doing the work, but that you feel hurt that you weren't consulted before. There's no point in making an enemy over something when they may have just been trying to be helpful - and maybe they're just a socially awkward schmuck who didn't have a polite way to bring up their desire to have the paper edited this way... fuck if I know.

[bicentennial_baby]

20. That would be fine, were it the final stage, but it's only stage 2 of 4

And we're graded as a group, we chose that.

[swag]

18. In such a situation, group consensus is needed.

Consensus is hard, but the struggle for consensus is one of the most important aspects (and most hated) of group projects.

No solo gunslinging allowed.

[swag]

19. whoops

[Cabcere]

21. I'd say he definitely should have at least consulted with you first

:( I mean, I can see where he's coming from on the editing front (wanting to make sure it all flows together, etc.), but basically re-writing someone else's section that involved a lot of hard work on their part without at least running some ideas by them? Not cool in my book.

Sorry your weekend has been so crappy! :hug: