WEEK 2 READINGS AND ONLINE CLASSWORK
READINGS:
1.
2.
3. https://www2.bc.edu/~bruyn/CivilRepublic/appendixb.pdf This is an excerpted appendix from A Civil Republic: Beyond Capitalism and Nationalism, by Boston College political science professor SeverynBruyn. It’s 38 pages long, including the references and footnotes. Do your best to make sense of it, even though there are numerous citations of thinkers whose work you probably are not familiar with. You’re developing that technique for reading academic texts, remember: read over, get what you can from it, think about it, go back to some passages that started making sense, and then spend some time critically assessing what it means and what you can synthesize from it. It’s good stuff.
ONLINE CLASSWORK ASSIGNMENTS
Discussion Board Prompt:
These online readings for Week Two of Research and Critical Writing are grouped loosely to provoke critical thinking about what is or perhaps what should be important. This material contains no direct instructions applicable to our class’s tasks for the semester, but as foundational reading, this kind of material – particularly item 3 on civil society, may be even more important than your assignment sheets and other writing exercises. As you lay out the course of your university education and acquire the subject and technical knowledge sets that you need for your future, you are also responsible for thinking about who, not just what, you choose to be in that future. You’ll always operate in a community of other humans – but what will you contribute to that community and to its humanity? And how does that factor into what, ultimately, is important to you?
First Post: In about 300 words, discuss what you think a person’s responsibilities (or privileges) might be if he or she is participating fully and fruitfully in a civil society (as you interpret “civil society,” informed by the reading). Include a quote or reference to a sentence or paragraph in the 3rd reading, the Bruyn excerpt.
Response posts: Respond to three of your classmates’ posts, minimum 150 words.
Due by:
Monday class:
This week only, due to holiday and delay of assignment: First post is due by Friday, 11:30 p.m.
READ the posts of all your classmates
Response posts are due by Sunday, 11:30 p.m, this week only.
Wednesday class:
First post is due by Sunday, 11:30 p.m., this week only.
READ the posts of all your classmates
Response posts are due by Tuesday, 11:30 p.m., this week only.
Journal Entry:
Obviously, we are working toward selecting a semester topic or research theme, but instead of thinking about all the “how-to” pages on the internet (I know you’ve looked!), forget for a little while the burden of choosing, and just write about what you are deeply interested in that you would like to know more about.
For example, if you’re interested in dancing ballet, don’t just describe your passion for it but write about what else you wish you knew about it. Or maybe you’re interested in what goes into designing and building a new rail transportation system, but wouldn’t know where to start looking for how they do it. In another realm, maybe you’re interested in sports management law, and you want to know how someone becomes a sports management attorney, and what the ethical and practical aspects of that kind of practice might be. Or you might be very upset lately about the unfairness of custody decisions in family/divorce court proceedings, and you could write about why you think things are wrong and what you would have to know about the system to form an opinion on how to change it.
In about 500 words (more if you get on a roll), just think and write about what matters to you.
Remember, there are no wrong answers here. I am looking for critical, inquisitive thinking.
Journal Entries are due the night before class, so Sunday, 11:30 p.m. for Monday Class, and Tuesday, 11:30 p.m. for Wednesday Class. Though this 2nd week had a holiday and an assignment delay, journals are still due as usual.
To make a Journal Entry: go to Journals in Blackboard, Click Personal Journal, and then Click New Entry. The same instruction will be up for all semester, and each new entry will be added to your Personal Journal.
Each Discussion Board and each Journal Entry this semester is worth 5 points. Completing the requirement on time will generally earn the full five points, but I do read them, and will sometimes deduct points for unenthusiastic or minimum-quality responses and journaling.