Group Work: B2+. Patrick McMahonЧитать онлайн книгу.
for your student university shop. It should be practical in nature, bear the university logo and be affordable to students to buy as a product to use or as a souvenir.
Brainstorming a new product for the university shop
1 If possible, make use of a flip chart or a sheet of A3 paper attached to the wall and a marker pen.
2 Appoint a secretary.
3 Agree a set time period (five minutes is about right).
4 Start making suggestions about new products; the secretary writes these down in large writing so everyone can see the ideas.
5 Group members should not comment on each otherâs ideas but just try to build on each suggestion.
6 At the end of the set time period, take a group rest.
7 Spend time reading quietly through all the ideas.
8 Through group discussion, cross out the least popular ideas and leave the most popular ones.
9 Agree on the best idea from the remaining popular ones. Try to include everybodyâs opinion and adopt one idea that everybody is happy with.
Brainstorm the task on page 31 on your own for five minutes, noting down everything that comes to mind. When you finish, think about the possibilities of each suggestion. Then you will be ready to make a final list of good ideas.
It might be helpful if you attach a piece of paper to the wall so you can brainstorm and make notes standing up. This helps many people to think more freely. Keep brainstorming for the full amount of time. Ideas build slowly, one idea leading to another; good ideas often come at the end of the process.
Now check the key for comments on this exercise.
Making a schedule for your group work
Glossary
deadline A deadline is a time or date before which a particular task must be finished or a particular thing must be done.
collate When you collate pieces of information, you gather them all together and examine them.
It is always important to finish your tasks on time. In order to do this, you have to understand what tasks need to be done, who is going to do them and when they need to be finished. One way of doing this is by using a Gantt chart. This can show the following information in graphic form: a list of sub-tasks, the date when they have to be done and who is responsible for doing them.
Look at the group assignment below.
For example: Conduct a survey among city centre shoppers to discover the strength of popular support for a new indoor shopping mall in the city centre. Present your findings in a written report of 2,500 words by the deadline given on the front of this sheet.
The first stage is to work together to write a list of sub-tasks for the assignment. For the group assignment above you might produce a list of sub-tasks.
1 Write questions for your group to ask the shoppers.
2 Design a survey feedback sheet to record answers.
3 Carry out the survey in the city centre.
4 Collate all the answers, in other words, put them all together and get some clear data.
5 Draft the different parts of the report: an introduction, a methodology section, a results section, a discussion section and a conclusion.
6 Add some charts to give a visual representation of the answers.
7 Review and edit the report.
8 Write a final draft of the report.
9 Print out, bind and submit the report.
Glossary
methodology A methodology is a system of methods and principles for doing something, for example for carrying out research.
The next stage is to allocate group members for the sub-tasks.
For example:
| Task | Group member |
| Write the questionnaire. | Everyone |
| Design the survey feedback sheet. | Adnan and Gisele |
| Type up, print out and distribute the feedback sheet. | Roberta |
| Carry out the survey. | Everyone |
| Collate data. | Taka |
| Write a draft of each part of the report. | Introduction: Adnan and Gisele Methodology: Taka Results: Roberta Discussion: All Conclusion: All |
| Add charts. | Taka |
| Review and edit the report. | All |
| Prepare the final draft of the report. | Roberta |
| Print, bind and submit the report. | Adnan and Gisele |
After allocating roles, you need to add the time when the sub-tasks should be done, as shown in the table on page 34.
| Task | Group member | To be completed on |
| Write the questionnaire. | Everyone | Monday, 1/10/12 |
| Design the survey feedback sheet. | Adnan and Gisele | Tuesday, 2/10/12 |
| Type up, print out and distribute the feedback survey sheet. | Roberta | Tuesday, 2/10/12 |
| Carry out the survey. | Everyone | Wednesday, 3/10/12 |
| Collate data. | Taka | Thursday, 4/10/12 |
| Write a draft of each part of the report. |
Introduction: Adnan and GiseleMethodology: |