Important--Discussion Board Requirements

You are required to post at least 4 times to DB each week.

One longer submission in response to the weekly DB assignment.

At least two shorter responses to others' submissions.

At least one response to my weekly lecture which I post on Friday.

Please keep all discussion pertinent to the course material. This is meant to be an intellectual discussion of ideas rather than a chat room. You are welcome to contribute personal information insofar as it contributes to our understanding of the course material.

Some Important Introductory Information about Discussion Board Protocol:

Be on time: Working online, it will be critical for you to submit work on time. We all need to contribute to each discussion--on time--for the discussion to be effective. You will find in the Schedule of Readings and Assignments that I expect you to post your initial submission to DB by Thursday of each week (your Study Guides are due on Thursdays as well). Then by Saturday you will post two responses to each other (here you will meet the requirement of two posts). I will post my lecture each Friday, so in one of your two response posts, respond to the lecture in some way as well. (Note that Week 1 is an exception.  For Week 1, you have until Friday to post your first Discussion Board assignment).

Post regularly:You will be required to submit to the Discussion Board at least one quality post and two responses to others' posts each week, as well as a response to my Friday lecuture (for a minimum of 4 submissions per week after your initial post). You will be given extra credit for more participation than the required minimum.

Post thoughtfully: I look forward to many enlightening exchanges this term. I ask that you practice online etiquette, making thoughtful and considerate contributions to our class discussion. While some informal/personal exchange is fine to a degree, this is not a chat room, but rather a virtual classroom serving as a place to focus on issues relating to the course material.

Post as Writers in Discussion: I expect, of course, that the assignments that you post on DB will be written in clear, strong, and somewhat-edited prose. When you are posting responses and discussions to DB, we will all allow each other in DB to free our selves from fanatic attention to spelling and punctuation. While I expect you to write in complete sentences,and to follow the rules of Standard Written English, and I encourage you to quickly proofread your discussion posts, these posts are not meant to be essays but rather discussions in written text.

In other words, when I post responses and comments to DB, I type quickly as if I am speaking to you, yet I also take time to think about and plan what I will say. While I do reread my posts before submitting, I do not treat these posts as I do essays and articles, or as you will treat your essays, Study Guides, and other written work.

I am by no means encouraging prose that is stream-of consciousness and without complete sentences. We'll leave that to the novelists. We do want to be thoughtful and reflective in our posts, and we do want to generally write clear and complete sentences, with some fragments for effect or to communicate tone and voice, but we will not fault each other for the kinds of performance errors we all make when we type quickly. We want to focus on the quality of our ideas, rather than on fanatically editing for error. Such slavish concern for editing might keep us from thinking and discovering.

Also, some of us may at times say things that we later reconsider as we see what others say, and so we may, after reflection, write about our changes in thinking. This is wonderful! This is dialectic--arriving at truth through dialogue with others, transforming our ideas as we learn from others. This is what we are striving for.

I look forward to the dialogue!