Chapter . Case 1: Using the Measures of Excellence in Evaluating a Résumé
Case 4: Accommodating a Team Member’s Scheduling Problems
In your technical-communication course, you have been assigned to a team with two other students: DeAnna Omanovic and Jason Stokes. Your instructor, Dr. Robert Jenkins, likes to create teams of students from different majors. You have never met DeAnna or Jason.
Forty percent of your final course grade will be determined by your grade on three collaborative assignments: a research proposal, a recommendation report, and an oral presentation. The instructor believes that collaboration is an essential skill for college students and professionals alike, and he emphasizes the importance of learning to work effectively with others. In his syllabus, Dr. Jenkins describes his approach to grading collaborative assignments: each member of the team is to submit a self-evaluation form and a team-member evaluation form for each assignment. On the team-member evaluation form, each member scores every other member of the team on ten criteria, including such factors as attendance at team meetings, quality of the work contributed to the team, and quality of communication with other team members.
It is two weeks before the first collaborative assignment, the research proposal, is due. You email DeAnna and Jason and propose a meeting Thursday at four o’clock in the library to discuss procedures and possible subjects for your research proposal and the subsequent collaborative assignments. Both DeAnna and Jason agree to attend, but Jason does not show up. DeAnna tells you she received no communication from Jason saying that he would be late or unable to attend. At 4:30, you and DeAnna agree that you will try to get in touch with Jason to see if the three of you can reschedule the meeting.
You email Jason, asking if there was some confusion about the time or place of the meeting, but receive no reply. After dinner, you receive an email from DeAnna, relaying a message from Jason (Document 4.1).
You respond to DeAnna (Document 4.2), presenting a plan to give Jason a little time to work through whatever his problem is, while enabling you and DeAnna to do some productive work. She agrees with your idea.
Two days pass. You and DeAnna have not seen Jason in class, and he has not contacted either of you again. Later that day, you decide to phone Jason to see if you can get a better idea of what is going on. Jason’s wife, Andrea, answers the phone. She sounds distraught. Jason is at the hospital, where they took their son three days ago with a fever of 104 degrees. The doctors have managed to bring the fever down to 102 degrees, but they still don’t have a diagnosis. Andrea says Jason is very upset. He has missed a big assignment in his economics course and a midterm in his civil-engineering course. Andrea herself has not been to her job in three days; she and Jason have been at the hospital almost around the clock since their son was admitted. As Andrea is apologizing to you for Jason’s missing the meeting, she starts to break down.
Your cell phone rings. It’s DeAnna, who tells you she went to Dr. Jenkins’s office after class today to complain about Jason because he didn’t even have the courtesy to respond to emails after missing the meeting. She told Dr. Jenkins that she has had to work with jerks like Jason at the office and she’s not going to get a lousy grade in this course because Jason has decided to blow it off.
Download the documents below, and then begin your assignment.
Download a copy of Document 4.1.
Download a copy of Document 4.2.
Your Assignment
Once you’ve familiarized yourself with the case background and documents, complete the assignment below. Your instructor will tell you how he or she would like you to submit your work.
1. Draft an email to send to DeAnna and Jason proposing a policy for communicating with other team members when problems arise.
2. Draft an email for you and DeAnna to send to Jason and Dr. Jenkins proposing an approach to dealing with the fact that Jason is not able to participate in the collaborative assignments—at least not for a while. This approach should address the fact that although Jason did not communicate effectively with you and DeAnna, the situation with his sick son is causing him and his wife great distress. The proposal is due in one week, the recommendation report in four weeks, and the oral presentation in five weeks.
Reflecting on Your Work
Once you’ve completed your assignment, write a reflection about your work using the prompt below.