Discussion Questions

welcome

You have, no doubt, noticed that much of your work in this class involves reading and discussing those readings. Discussion questions make up a sizeable portion of your grade, so you really want to do well on them; it can make the difference between a low grade, a passable grade, an excellent grade in the class.

The purpose of this page is to give you both a quick overview of how the discussoins work and also the information you need to get as high a score as possible for each discussion.

how it all works

Discussions take place on a PhP message board on Canvas. Canvas is a password-protected course management system (CMS). I'm not a huge fan of these business-model CMSs, but there is a layer of security and privacy there, and since the school has site licenses for Canvas, I don't see any reason not to use their message board, announcements, and gradebook features.

NOTE: I am not the Canvas administrator, nor do I serve as tech support to Canvas. Logons, passwords, general Canvas instructions are all made available to you once the semester begins. You can get some further information on Canvas in general here:

Canvas Tutorials

Since we are using only minimal tools, you won't need elaborate tutorials. Once you get on the Canvas page, you'll see some tabs. If you click on the DISCUSSION tab, you'll be on the message board. There are general instructions and tips ON the message board itself explaining how the board works.

Each week I will put up the new DISCUSSION thread. You'll click on Discussion 1, Discussion 2--whatever is appropriate for that week--and you will start a NEW THREAD to answer the discussion question for that week. The discussion questions themselves are available by clicking on the appropriate link(s) on the class SCHEDULE page, and I will duplicate them on the board itself. Be sure you start a new thread for your posting; otherwise, it will not count as your week's posting. To start a new thread, REPLY to the actually Discussion Question box (it will be the top box when you open that week's discussion) Responses are handled by reading other items on the board and clicking the REPLY button beneath those. Remember that you need to put up a posting no later than midnight of the due dates listed on the class SCHEDULE page; you have a couple of days to continue putting up replies.

Tip: I recommend you look at the board every day to see what's new. I typically visit the boards every day to read what's new; I also comment on several (not all) of the items as they appear.

getting maximum points

1/2 of your discussion points are based on the answer you post on the message board. The other 1/2 of the points are based on actual discussion (the responses you have to OTHER students' postings and responses).

So if you post a great answer but fail to respond to anyone else, you'll get 10/20. You need to put up a minimum of two substantive responses for each discussion to try to get full points. Feel free to put up more responses; it really is what keeps the class moving along. I will, though, only score your top two responses.

A weak posting and/or weak responses will get partial points. Editing and proofreading and clarity do count. I strongly recommend you compose your postings and responses in Word (or whichever word processing program you use), then save and edit (and save again). Then you can copy/paste your work onto the message board.

To get a full 20/20, your initial answer to the discussion question must be clear and thoughtful and well developed, about two meaty paragraphs, though some will be longer, with examples from the texts (which you quote and document), from personal experience, from outside sources to back up your observations). Your responses need to be thoughtful; they responses further the discussion; they give additional examples or present a different point of view backed up by examples or introduce a relevant tangent to the discussion.

Consider these as SHORT ESSAYS you are writing; they need to have a point and support; a typical posting should be about 300 words OR MORE. These are not informal chats; they actually take the place of in-class essays in the face-to-face class. A substantive response should be about 200 words OR MORE. Both need loads of detailed, concrete examples from the readings, outside sources, and/or exactly-described experiences.

Yes I do know that this involves quite a lot of writing and thinking, especially since you need to contribute new ideas and examples with each one. However, you could earn a "C" with a solid posting and just one substantial response. Consider the second (and beyond) response(s) as your putting in extra time and thought if you are trying for a "B" or an "A" for the discussion part of the class. This is, after all, the only way I have of evaluating just what you are taking away from the assigned readings.

law of diminishing returns

Simply put, if you copy what someone else has on the board (or if you copy your same responses again and again), you will not earn many (if any) points. Copying someone else does not show your thinking, and even slightly-reworded posts/responses are not going to actually extend the conversation. If something has been said two times, three times, twenty times on the board, it may just as well be "Blah, blah, blah" after the fourth or fifth time. The class gets nothing new form it.

To avoid this, look at new angles (remember you are reading closely); quote/document new examples from the reading; compare some idea to another work (book, movie, television show) or issue or possibly even a personal example; add some outside links or embed relevant media when appropriate; go off on related tangents. This is a discussion, like the things people have at get togethers; keep it moving and expanding so that others in the class can build on your new contributions.

Note: this is real incentive to get postings/responses up early in the week. If you wait until just before they are due, it will likely be hard to think of new things to add.

the "p" word is still in play

As I noted above, feel free to provide links to relevant outside sources, and also feel free to quote/document/give Works Cited information for any material you take from an outside source (maybe a literary reference book on poetry, for example), but most of the discussion must be you--your ideas, your thinking, your analysis. If you skip over to Snopes or Ask or Wikipedia or Spark Notes or whatever and copy/paste and pretend it is yours, you are plagiarizing. If you copy/paste most of your post/response and document it, well, that is not you. Expect a zero.

some samples to give you some ideas of what will earn you lots of points
note: this is not a topic you will be discussing

DQ0 - Sample of an excellent posting
(it would earn a full 10/10 points; remember that postings are worth 10 points; the other 10 points for each discussion are based on your two OR MORE responses):

When I first read Stephen King's claim that "we are all crazy" (93), I was angry. He can speak for himself, but how dare he say that I'm crazy. He punctuated this section with talk about alligators and dead baby jokes, and his argument seemed weaker and weaker. And in a time when terrorism is at the front of the media in the U.S., his stating that there "lurks inside us all an urge to hurl a bomb" (93) seemed highly inappropriate. It was the comparison between humans and hungry alligators kept quiet with food, though, that finally made sense. Many things make me angry. On the way home from work yesterday I was cut off by an Audi on the 110 freeway, and I was furious; the fool nearly caused me to swerve and get into an accident. Driving the freeways in Los Angeles is frustrating enough without people making it more dangerous still. I wanted to flip him off, to blow him up ("hurl a bomb"), but I'm civilized. Thank goodness we don't all carry weapons in our cars and just blast away when someone frustrates us; instead, we (well, I, at least) suppress the urge, push it down. But when enough frustrating things happen in a day that I feel like I just want to explode, I don't. I don't yell at the kids (though some people do) or lash out and get into fights (though some do). Instead, I turn on ESPN and watch football or basketball and YELL AT THE SCREEN! Of course the screen can't hear me, but I get out some aggression safely, without hurting anyone, without hurling the bomb. This is my form of release, what the ancient Greeks called catharsis; King is saying that for some, watching the monster tear down the city offers catharsis for some the way sports does for me.

NOTE: not only is this very specific, but it also offers concrete examples from the reading (documented and quoted) and from the student's personal experiences; it demonstrates the student really thought about the reading and demonstrated what the author was getting at; it is also clear and direct and carefully edited, and it invites further comment/examples from other students.

DQ0 - Sample of a weak posting
(the following posting would earn no points):

I agree with Stephen King. I love hore movies. U can't go to a movie theater ever without finding several hore movies and they are really good. Everyone loves 2 C a great explosion or a monster get his.

NOTE: this is far too short and has some editing errors (do not use texting/chat abbreviations, for example). It also does not demonstrate the student even read the article. There are no direct references (documented and quoted) from the article), and it is filled with overgeneralizations and unsupported personal opinions. "I agree" and "I love" and "really good" and "great"-these are all just opinion statements.

DQ0 - Sample of an excellent response
(this response would earn full points):

Although I am not a huge fan of horror movies, I have seen a few that fit this article. In George Romero's DAWN OF THE DEAD the zombies in the shopping mall are made up of different types of people that we come in contact with, and the ability to chop off the head of a telemarketer or blast away with a shotgun an inefficient clerk is something people may not want to admit, but it's something that I've felt after being put on hold by Time Warner Cable customer support for half an hour. Thankfully, most people suppress the urge to take a car and smash into someone who's just cut them off, but we can sit safely in the audience watching DEATH RACE 2000 and watch it happen FOR us with actors and props and sets. This same safety valve, what King calls "feeding the alligators" (94), probably accounts for many popular video games such as GEARS OF WAR for the X-Box 360. Blasting away aliens with an array of massively-powerful weapons allows some players to burn off stress and aggression vicariously.

NOTE: this response is fully developed, clearly written, supported with specific examples both from the reading and from outside the reading. It also opens the discussion by introducing a related topic (violence in video games), and it is not weakened by simple personal opinions; it is an attempt to understand the article the class read.

DQ0 - Sample of a weak response
(this response will earn no points):

Yeah, I agree with you. This is one of the best things I've read on the board. I too feel that horror movies are a kind of release valve.

NOTE: this response is very short and offers nothing new; it does not refer to the reading; it does not incorporate any specific examples; it uses "I agree" and "I feel" statements (neither is permitted). Do feel free to be supportive (that's a good thing), but always back it up with further examples and ideas.

a nice touch

Canvas makes it really easy to copy/paste pictures, embed videos, add links to outside sources. Consider doing some or all of these during the discussions to enhance your Post/Replies. No, pictures do not take the place of text, but they often make your discussions much more lively and interesting (and that often translates to more points :)

a couple more important notes

Late postings receive no points; I do, however, give you a couple of days to keep responding to new items on the board, so even if you miss your posting, you can keep putting up your three or more responses and try to get at least 10/20 for that discussion. Postings are typically due on Thursdays before midnight (if Thursday does not work well with your schedule, consider that you have a week before this to get up your postings; do not wait until the last moment), and you have until just before midnight Sundays to keep putting up responses.

NOTE: all due dates are listed on the course Schedule page.