A Definition
of
"to discuss"
To Discuss
When you are asked to discuss
something in the class forum, what exactly does "discuss" mean?
For our purposes here, discussing
a topic will mean having a back and forth, give and take, conversation among
class members about the topic or reading in question. It will mean having
a dialog, or "multilog," involving any interested parties in the
class.
So when you post a message in
a class discussion, your message might do one or more of the following.
It might:
- Simply summarize some of what
you see the author or lecture saying
- Pick out a salient point or
two that caught your attention, summarize it, and say what you think about
it
- Pick out something you have
a question about, quote it, and ask others in class what they think it means
- Respond to a question or comment
that others have posted
- Attempt to re-phrase some point
the author has made in order to make it more clear; then see if others in
class agree that you've caught the sense of the passage
- etc
Suggestions
(It is probably wise
to be careful about making negative judgments about a reading too hastily;
it would be important to understand the author well before being too critical;
but after you understand it, critiques are perfectly acceptable, as long as
they leave plenty of room for others in the class to disagree with you.)
It is probably a good idea, in
general (though not always), to include only one major idea, theme, or question
in a message. So you may want to post more than one message for more than
one idea.