Research For Position Paper

Hi, friends. For your research for the Position Paper, we'll focus our efforts on the Global Affairs Databases of the GW Library. Happy hunting!

Please select five official sources and post their citation information to your blog for Wednesday.

Position Paper Assignment Sheet

Students! I am proud to present your POSITION PAPER ASSIGNMENT SHEET! Let's do this.

Weekend Homework 1-23: Hunting for Conversations

Dear friends,

For your homework this weekend, please browse the CIAO Database using the keyworks you created in class, and identify three conversations within global aid/development that interest you. Write a paragraph describing each conversation, the different perspectives that people take within it, and the position that you feel most drawn to. Post these paragraphs to your blog, along with bibiographic info for the articles you browsed.

Have fun!
Anna

Online Class Activity: Quantitative and Qualitative Research

Hi, Folks,

Because I'm sick, please complete the following activity ONLINE (rather than in the classroom), and post your notes as blog entry. Do not come to class. I will not be there. I will be at home, grooving on my antibiotics and feeling sorry for myself.

Because this is kind of a big job, this will serve as the class activity for today AND THE HOMEWORK READING FOR FRIDAY. That means the blog entry will be due by class time on Friday. You're welcome.

First, please print, read, and annotate the USC Library Guides for Quantitative and Qualitative research/data. Of course, you'll need to bring a printed copy to Friday's class.

Then, please print, read, and annotate "Communication Accommodation in Intercultural Encounters" by Giles and Noels. Of course, you'll need to bring a printed copy to Friday's class.

Finally, please write a blog entry that addresses the following questions. It may be in the form of notes and lists (it doesn't have to be paragraphed, but it can be if you want).

• Write a precis of each USC article.
• Write a precis of the Giles article.
• Chunk the Giles article and write at least five one-sentence section summaries.
• What are five examples of quantitative information in the Giles article?
• What are five examples of qualitative information in the Giles article?
• What are the different roles that quant. and qual. info play in Giles' effort?
• How do quant. and qual. info interact with one another within the article?
• How might the Giles article, its purpose, and the quant/qual data that it shares be useful to folks studying Global Aid?
• How do Giles ideas relate to Hegel's ideas about the self and the other?

Again, you don't need to write this in paragraph form, but make sure to write down your ideas carefully, so that I understand your thinking.  You should write AT LEAST a few good sentences worth of insight/ideas/notes for each of the above questions. This will take a while-- that's why it double as your class work and your homework.

Thanks for being understanding about my illness. Stay healthy. Go team. I hate Winter.

Anna

Weekend Reading for 1/16: Sample Position Paper

Dear Friends,

Over the weekend, please review this sample position paper. Pay particular attention to the style, content, and formatting. You would be wise to use your written response to reflect generally on what a position paper seems to be in terms of content, goals, audience and style. Who writes position papers? What is their goal? What sorts of issues might a position paper address?

Remember, we don't have class on Monday (MLK Day), so the response for this is due Wednesday.

Have fun!

Anna

what to call that place we don't live in

Hey, friends,

Today we will take a peek at the think piece, "If You Shouldn't Call it the Third World, What Should You Call It?", from the NPR blog Goats and Soda. Looking forwarding to hearing what you think.

Anna

Blogger Troubleshooting

Hi, friends,

Looks like Blogger is being a bit buggy for some of you. The first thing you might try is creating the blog with your personal Gmail-- sometimes the GWU Googletools are cranky.

For general help setting up your blog, check out this guide.

Finally, if you'd prefer to use Wordpress or Tumblr or some other service, that's fine with me.

Good luck!
Anna

Intro Email Instructions

This week, I'd also like for you to write to me an email of introduction (due Wed). I'm looking forward to talking to each of you one-on-one, but this helps get the ball rolling.

Please write me a carefully proofread, paragraphed letter introducing yourself in relationship to the course topic and goals. Skip the basic personal stuff since we'll do that in class, and try and answer these questions:

• What (if any) are your personal writing goals for this course?
• What (if any) are your scholarly writing goals for this course?
• What (if any) are your professional writing goals for this course?
• What are your feelings about the course topic and title? 
• Do you have any preexisiting experience or hold any preexisting opinions related to the course topic?
• What are five questions about writing that you'd like to answer over the course of the semester?
• What are five questions about the course topic that you'd like to answer over the course of the semester?

Finally, please create your Blogger Blog, and share the URL with me at the end of this email.

Thanks for your patience during all of this start-up stuff! We'll get into the swing of things as quickly as we everly can.

Anna

Reading Response Instructions

For each item you read, you'll need to write a minimum 250 word blog response. If there is more than one reading assignment due on a given day, you should write 250 words or EACH item, although you may choose to combine them into a single response paper that integrates discussion of each piece (3 pieces due = EITHER three 250-word response OR one 750-word response).

So long as the writing is properly polished and proofread with complete sentences, clear thoughts, and proper mechanics, you may write whatever you like concern the reading in question. You may summarize it, discuss it, problematize it, ask questions about it, analyze it-- the list goes on.

You will turn in the reading responses by posting them to your blog. That's it!

Reading for the Week of 1-12

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Hi friends! Here is this week's reading assignments (click to download), along with the discussion dates for each document. You should write a 250 word response for EACH document, or a 500 word response that deals with both on any given discussion day. Remember to PRINT each of these, and bring the hard copy to the discussion day.

For Wed: Read Atwood, listen to Paul Farmer on Fresh Air

For Fri: Read Berenson and Stupart

Looking forward to hearing what you think!
Anna