I’ve been assigned a unique group project as part of my Systems Analysis class in which we must get in contact with a project leader of an IT division who recently developed a system. We must interview him or her and gather as much information as we can about the company, the system itself, and how the system development process went. It’s a group assignment, and there’s no way out of my group.
I’m not saying I don’t want to work with my group, but I can’t work with them. You see, one of the students there has a friend who did the same project last year with a different teacher, and he gave us his copy of the entire project. My group wants to simply skip the major part of the project (the interview and everything) and use the copy of the project that’s already complete. Of course, this would be cheating, but it would save us a lot of work.
The whole group has decided on this, except for me. I simply don’t want to cheat because… A) It’s wrong, B) The professor will find out because he is the department head, and when the presentation comes along, my group can only really talk out of their asses for so long, and C) Cheating would destroy the entire purpose of the assignment, which is to get in contact with a project leader and learn from real world examples what a systems analyst is supposed to do. But to the guys in my group, it’s all about passing without learning anything.
I haven’t told the guys in my group yet, but I want to email the professor and request that I be taken out of this group. I absolutely KNOW that if we were to go through and cheat, he would find out, because in the end, the professor calls the program managers and thanks them for taking the time to work with us. I’d like to request that I leave the group and simply do the project on my own, but that would mean I’d have to rat my group out. What do you think I should do?
Suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thank you very much in advance.
Tell the Professor and ask for anonyimity. DO NOT tell your group you’re telling him. If you can’t get anonyimity, just gut through their hatred/apathy anyway. Something like that isn’t worth risking a degree on.
There are ways to do it without ratting. You can tell your professor you want to leave your group but leave the details open. You can cite “strong personal reasons”, for example. See if you can switch to another group without being forced to do an entire project by yourself.
Doing the project by yourself is hell, cause that’s what I did for my lazy ass group 2 semesters ago. As for the interview part of the project, I’m pretty sure most of the people in your class would make up an interview by themselves (that’s what I did…) rather than going to the company that they’re researching on and do an actual interview.
I’d go with that. Actually, scratch that, I have done that like a million times and ended up doing the whole project alone (Granted, I can’t compare my assignments to yours, but I’ve gone over several 100 pages long essays by myself). Don’t worry about your classmates hating you, they’ll have other things to worry about when your professor finds out what they did.
Tell your prof that you don’t want to work with your group for personal reasons. If he won’t let you leave without an actual reason, tell him your group is planning to plagiarize, and you cannot convince them not to. If you can’t, go to the next highest level, because he’s forcing you with a group that will cause you to fail.
If you can’t, then simply don’t hand in your copy, and don’t go up for the presentation. That way, while you may be getting a 0, you aren’t plagiarising, and you won’t get kicked out.
I’m not adding more advice (but good luck with whatever you choose, Dalton ), since everything I’d say is there anyway. Why are so many people so fucking lazy? How hard is it to meet a person and ask questions? Geez.
Arghldkgfhkdjfghkdhjffgsa.
edit - I am very pleased to see that a number of people here possess a certain degree of integrity.
Tell your group you won’t go along with their plan. If they agree to abandon it, good. If not, tell them you’re leaving the group, and that if they use the premade project, you’ll inform the professor. Nothing productive comes of sympathizing with cheaters.
Could the professor ask for some sort of progress update from the groups, such as asking for a submission of the interviewee’s name and when the interview will take place (for confirmation purposes)? That way, the professor could speak with the interviewee beforehand to make sure everything’s cool. If that’s not already done, would it be possible to attempt to persuade the professor “anonymously” to consider it? That way, it’s not ratting someone out - it’s offering an out before the cheating happens. Is there enough time for that?
), since everything I’d say is there anyway. Why are so many people so fucking lazy? How hard is it to meet a person and ask questions? Geez.