Discussion Overview
In this week’s readings and learning activities, you focused on choosing a topic, narrowing it down, and crafting a thesis statement. For this week’s discussion, respond to the following questions in at least two well-developed paragraphs:
- Tell the class about a community problem that you have some knowledge of and would like to try and improve. Who are the people in your community most affected by this issue (key stakeholders)? Who in the community is in the best position to bring about a change? What challenges have kept them from solving this problem already?
- Share your preliminary thesis statement. Use the brainstorming chart below to help you develop your thesis.
- In your thesis, be sure to identify your target audience, a concrete action the audience can take to solve the problem [solution], and a reason for action [problem/benefit].
- Example: The San Antonio School District [target audience] should provide every high school student with an electronic tablet [solution] because this will encourage more learning outside of the classroom, increase mastery of skills, and increase college acceptance rates [benefit].
- Do not worry about getting your thesis perfect this week. At this stage, your thesis is more of a hypothesis that needs to be tested and refined as you dig further into the problem you will attempt to solve.
- Finally, wrap your post up with an open-ended question.
| Identify the community problem you wish to address. | |
| Write a research question that could help you to understand the problem. | |
| Who is your target audience? | |
| What is the action that could solve the problem? | |
| What are the reasons that this solution is needed? | |
| Create an enthymeme with a claim (what should be done) + Because + the reason(s) this should be done. |
For an extra challenge in your peer feedback this week, try to determine the underlying assumption of your classmate’s thesis by using what you learned from the “Enthymeme section” of the Logical Argument Tutorial and then tell the class if you agree with the assumption or if you have some concerns with it. Those concerns can help your peers fine-tune the thesis statement. Hint: To determine the assumption (major premise), you can replace the “action” in the solution part of the thesis with “something” and the word “because” with “if.” The minor premise is the problem statement.
Example: The San Antonio School District should provide every high school student with an electronic tablet because this will encourage more learning outside of the classroom, increase mastery of skills, and increase college acceptance rates.
Major Premise: The San Antonio School District should do something if it encourages more learning outside of the classroom, increases mastery of skills, and increases college acceptance rates.
Minor Premise: Tablets encourage learning outside of the classroom, increase mastery of skills, and increase college acceptance rates.
REFERENCE THE READING:
Refer to and credit the unit reading concepts to help validate your ideas and give you practice with using and crediting source information. When you refer to concepts from the unit’s reading, be sure to use a signal phrase like “According to . . . [name of reading].” If you are directly quoting the reading or another source, be sure to use quotation marks and cite the source using proper APA in-text citations and full references. See the Purdue Global Writing Center’s Using Sources for resources on APA citation formatting.
WRITING EXPECTATIONS:
All discussion posts and responses to peers should be written in complete sentences using Standard English. Before posting, proofread for grammar, spelling, and word-choice issues. Be sure to respond fully to every aspect of the discussion.
RESPONSES TO INITIAL POSTS:
Respond to at least three of your classmates’ initial posts. Be sure to address your writing concerns and what you think they might also do to achieve their writing goals. Advance the discussion by asking relevant questions that motivate your classmates to continue the discussion. A strong response would be around 100 words. Also, refer to and credit unit reading material in your posts to help support your ideas.
