Week 1 Discussion: You Do Have a Voice; You Do Have a Perspective: Explore a Topic and Viewpoints

  Generating Your Topic

First, please carefully review the course theme announcement your instructor has posted. Your topic must address the course theme, and you will find many topic ideas listed in the course theme announcement to help you get started brainstorming for your own argumentative topic related to the course theme. Next, carefully read this week's Lesson and textbook pages. Once you have completed and considered those readings, with the assigned course theme and your ideas in mind, you should have some thoughts about a possible topic you would like to write about.

Your ultimate goal for this discussion is simple: to generate several possible topics and to narrow to a focused topic you will write about for the course. This is a whole-class brainstorm workshop; we are all here to support each other toward the goal of finding a good topic.

Please answer numbers 1 and 2 below.

1. Think about the Theme and about Topic-Choosing

In one paragraph, please respond to the following:

0. Share your thoughts about the course theme. What were your initial reactions?
1. Which sub-topics in the course theme announcement stood out for you?
2. During the exploration of topics phase, which of the topic generation methods from this week's lesson worked best for you and why?
3. Finally, review the "What Do I Want to Accomplish" paragraph in the lesson and describe what you wish to accomplish.

Now (the fun part!), list three possible argumentative essay topics related to the course theme. Note that the sample topics in the course theme announcement are there to help you with ideas, but you may or may not want to write about one of those topics - it is all you and your passions now, as long as you are using the course theme. Be sure to work toward arguable statements, and remember that this is a low- risk way for us to brainstorm for and generate several ideas to arrive at your topic by the end of the week. Relax and tap into your passions!

Initial Post Citation and Referencing: All sources discussed must be cited and referenced in APA format. For pointers on APA citations, please refer to the Chamberlain Library's Citation and Writing Assistance website (noted in Required Resources).

Follow-Up Post Instructions

Respond to at least two peers. Please provide rich, substantive, constructive feedback that will help your fellow students develop their topics by asking questions, by pointing to possible opposing viewpoints (which is helpful, because, without opposing viewpoints, we do not have an argument), and by providing professional and personal examples. Help your fellow peers to make their topics arguable and narrow in focus. We are a team with the shared goal of landing on a good topic for our course essays. A respectful, professional tone is expected.

Note: If you see that someone has already received feedback from two peers, please choose to help a peer who has yet to obtain feedback. Check back regularly and reply to those who have responded to you, including any classmates and/or your instructor

Writing Requirements

• Minimum of 3 posts (1 initial & 2 follow-up)
• Minimum of 2 sources cited (assigned readings/online lessons and an outside scholarly source)
• APA format for in-text citations and list of references