Guidelines for Discussion Papers
**TOPICS FOR ALL PAPERS WILL BE DETERMINED BY THE STUDENTS**
(WARNING: DON'T ASK THE PROFESSOR!!!
Discussion
Papers
The
objective of this paper is for the student to identify themes and questions for
the class discussion. These
papers are a requirement for the course and are one page in
length, typed using the formatting standards discussed in the syllabus. Discussions will be on the required readings (or
book) for that
**These papers should be used as a guide to lead a class discussion. You know you are finished with the paper if you are confident that you could speak for at least 10 minutes in front of the class on the discussion topic.
To Get You Started…(Guidelines for Discussion Papers)
When you
sit down to read, keep a pen and paper next to you and answer the following
questions. These questions should be the basis for your thought and discussion
papers.
·
The main purpose
of the article/chapter/book is
. (What was the author trying to accomplish?)
·
The question
that the author is addressing is
.
·
The most
important information in this article is
. (Facts, experiences, data, etc. that the author used to support
his/her thesis)
·
The main
inferences/conclusions in this article are
.
·
The key idea/s
we need to understand in this article is/are . By these ideas the author means .
·
The main
assumption/s underlying the author’s thinking is/are .
(Generalizations that the author takes for granted.
·
If we are to
take this line of reasoning seriously, the implications are
. If we fail to take this line of reasoning seriously the
implications are
.
·
The main point/s
of view presented in this article is/are . (What is the author
looking at? And how is s/he seeing it?)