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“If producing a written report, proof read. If preparing a group presentation, put all your ideas together into one poster, Powerpoint presentation – or one group website. And rehearse together as a group”
It is important to make sure your final submitted piece, whatever its format, has a cohesive and unified look and feel. Too many pieces of group work end up with a disjointed style - so it is worth considering how to best bring everything together.
Keeping your work unified as you work on it
Although this is a page on finishing strongly, you can make it a lot easier for yourselves if you think about some of these options earlier in the process. Some of these are more relevant to different assignment formats so pick what works for yours.
Decide on your writing style
Agree on a uniform tone (e.g., formal, conversational, academic) and writing style (e.g., active vs. passive voice). Having everyone follow the same style guide will make different sections feel consistent. Make sure you are using the same terminology for things too.
Standardise formatting and presentation
Decide on elements such as font size, headings and visuals. This includes ensuring consistency in how you style and label figures and tables.
Use shared documents
Consider working in a shared online space (e.g., a shared OneDrive document or folder) so all group members can see each other’s work in real time. This helps align content and formatting.
Create a knowledge bank
If you have a shared OneDrive folder, you can use it to share articles, links to eBooks and other research sources. This helps everyone draw from the same materials, preventing contradictory information or inconsistent arguments in your final piece.
Appoint an editor or review team
Designate one or two people to review the entire project for flow, tone, and consistency. This person (or team) can smooth transitions between sections, ensuring the project reads as a unified piece. They also need to ensure:
Fonts, text sizes and colours are consistent (this is obviously easier if you agreed them in advance and stuck to them as suggested above).
Tone, style and terminology is consistent - again, if you agreed this in advance it will make this less arduous.
If the project uses elements like graphs and diagrams, they follow the same colour schemes and styles.
If the project uses images, they have a consistent feel to them (not a disjointed mix of photographs, clipart, icons or drawings).
For presentations, there is a consistent template used (not necessarily a provided theme which can be limiting or badly designed) that ensures consistency in background design as well as other elements.
...but still do a final group review
There may be some decisions the editor may feel able to make unilaterally, especially if they involve substantially changing someone else's work or deleting work somebody else contributed. So, once the editor/review team have done their job, review the entire piece together again. Check for coherence, smooth transitions, and alignment with the assignment objectives.
Make sure each section complements the others. If one section feels out of place or redundant, be willing to rework it for the sake of the project’s overall unity.
How to practice presentations (if applicable)
- Stand up to practice it as if you were actually presenting.
- Make it flow by handing over to each other professionally:
"I'm now going to hand over to xxxx who will talk about...."
- Decide where the non-speakers are going stand/sit until it is their turn.
- Check your timings over the whole presentation and consider adding a little more detail or simplifying it if necessary.
- Practice delivering small sections of it without notes if you can (making eye contact for even a sentence or two per slide can make a difference to audience engagement).
