Ok, this is long (all my posts are long, I’ve noticed) and just me venting about something pretty minor. And I don’t swear enough.
Never Again. I am never volunteering to be the “leader” of a project ever again in my life.
For one class I’m taking, we were assigned a group project: compile an annotated bibliography on the major works of scholarship on Livy produced in the last 100 years. We should divide it up into date ranges, he professor says, and assign one person to compile the whole thing into one document in addition to researching their own portion of the bibliography.
Ok, it’s a class of ten people, I know them all, and I know that I’m the most computer-savvy person in the class, and also the one with the best temperament in general, to be the compiler. I won’t panic if the computer eats attachments so that they’re illegible, I won’t freak out at the idea of combining 10 separate Word documents into one. Not only is that not hard, but I actually thought (at the time) that I would enjoy getting to decide the font, formatting, etc. So when we met after class, I volunteered to be the compiler, no one objects. Well, except for my one fellow grad student who is a Certified Grade A Arrogant, Surly Jerk. He’s already muttering under his breath about how I’m letting the power go to my head. Because I asked for a list of email addresses. Well, I dislike dealing with him no matter what, so I brush it off.
Weeks pass, the project isn’t due for a while, despite the Jerk’s insinuations I am not a power-crazed slavedriver, so I mostly let everyone just do their thing. I sent out a couple of emails, one detailing online and library resources that would be of help in the project, and one describing what I had gleaned about the Professor’s desires for the bibliography based on a discussion with her. At this time I mentioned that for standardization purposes, we should all plan on citing everything in MLA format. This was waaaay back at the beginning of the semester, well before anyone could have started any but the most basic of research.
As you might have guessed, about a week before the project was due, everyone started emailing everyone, panicky, confused, wanting guidance. We decide on some other standardization issues and problems, everything settles down. Jerk never responds to any of the emails, so I ask him just to make sure he’s gotten them. He replies, in tones dripping with scorn “Yes. All 30 of them.” Well, I’m sorry we were trying to work out essential details of our project and there are ten of us and it took more than one email, asshole. Anyway. Moving on.
The project is due tomorrow. I have all nine contributions (not counting my onw) in my hot little hands. You know how many bothered to use MLA format? 3. Apparently, the real point of all those discussion emails was “Just format and arrange it however you please, because Melandry will be happy to stay up all night correcting it all to the format we’ve agreed on so that it doesn’t look like toatl shit.”
But that’s the thing, is even with the correcting I can do (and I’m not double-checking anyone’s bibliographical references for information their random-style citations didn’t provide that is needed for MLa format or anything strenuous like that, just underlining the right stuff, shit like that) it still looks like shit. This is the worst project ever. Everyone used random citations, everyone has their own random ideas on what constitutes a "major’ source on Livy (A school text with maps from 1904? How is that major?), and I am just waaaay too fucking controlling and perfectionist to deal with it calmly. I’m tired, I haven’t had dinner because I’ve been fixing this damn bibliography, I have a huge knot in my neck from all the sitting ath the computer, and all I have to show for it is a crappy bibliography. I should’ve known that with my strong controlling streak and perfectionism, this could only have ended well if I had done the whole damn thing myself. Let’s face it, not underlining the proper parts of a citations is not a big deal. And I’m not gonna correct my fellow students, or chastise them for their “failures” (which are all very minor, to be honest). But I will never, never again take charge of something that I cannot control fully. Right down to where they put the fucking periods, and how many spaces there are after each one.
P.S.
The bibliography is worth a whopping 5% of our total grade. Why do I even care?
