How to Start a Project

Sometimes when we're facing a big project with lots of components, or a long research paper with many details, we have trouble getting started. There are two basic reasons why we might have trouble writing the first words:

• The thought of organizing all that research and doing all that writing can be so intimdating that we avoid it altogether.
• There is so much to talk about that we don't know where to start.

Either of these problems can be overcome with a simple solution: just jump in somewhere. You don't have to start with a beginning!

Some students think that they have to start writing a paper at the introduction. In fact, you can start writing at any point. If there is some component of your research paper that you find most interesting, just write that part first.

No matter what type of project you're working on, if you're having trouble, just try to zone in on one part and jump right in. You will find it easy to organize all the paragraphs later. Just start somewhere!

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Group Writing Project

If you choose to add group members to the project now (which will enable them to access the writing project) select the link for "Collaborate," which is located on the top right of your screen.

This will take you to a page called "Collaborate on This Document." There you will see a box for inputting email addresses.

If you want group members to have the ability to edit and type, select As Collaborators.

If you want to add the addresses for people who can view only and cannot edit select As Viewers.

It's that easy! Each of the team members will receive an email with a link to the paper. They simply follow the link to go straight to the group paper.

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Leading a Group Project

Assess time needed for every task.

Some tasks will take a few minutes, while others will take several days. For example, choosing a person to draw the cartoon will take a few minutes, while buying the tools will take a few hours. Some tasks, like the process of researching the history of political cartoons, will take several days. Label each task with its projected time allowance.

On the display board, draw the first stage of a diagram for the project path to demonstrate this first meeting. Use circles to indicate starting and finishing points.

The first stage is the brainstorming meeting, where you are creating a needs analysis.

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Group Writing Project

Google Docs is an online word processor that is accessible by members of a designated group. With this program, you can set up a project so that each member of a specific group can access a group paper to write and edit from any computer with Internet access.

Google Docs has many of the same features as Microsoft Word. With this program you can do it all: select a font, center your title, create a title page, check your spelling, and write a paper up to around 100 pages of text!

You'll also be able to trace any pages made to your paper. The editing page shows you what changes have been made and it tells you who made the changes. This cuts down on the funny business!

Here's how to get started:

1. Go to Google Docs and set up an account. You can use any email address that you already have; you don't have to set up a Gmail account.
2. When you sign in to Google Docs with your ID, you will arrive at the Welcome Page.
3. Look below the "Google Docs & Spreadsheets" logo to find the New Document link and select it. This link takes you to the word processor. You can either begin writing a paper or you can choose to add group members from here.

Go to Next Page.

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