Discussion posts are mandatory. They represent 20% of your final grade. You are required to complete ten postings over the semester. When properly written, each is worth 2 points. Late postings will be counted for 1 point.
Postings are due weekly.
The discussion posts are the major form of writing you will do this semester. You will answer a prompt about the week’s primary source readings in 2 paragraphs of at least 3–5 sentences each, and then comment on another classmate’s post in 1–2 sentences. The course TA and I will monitor the quality of the discussion posts and provide selective feedback over the semester.
Some guidelines to follow:
- The quality of posting in terms of content and writing matters. If your responses are overly general, or generic, or appear to be taken from online or a chatbot, we will be forced to mark down the final posting grade following a preliminary warning and no improvement.
- Discussion posts should reference a specific section of a primary source from a given week, such as a quote from Confucius, a Tang poem, or a Song painting. You should avoid talking about “Tang Poetry” as a monolith in one paragraph, as there are over 49,000 surviving Tang poems. By being specific and precise, you will start thinking like a historian.
- You may use the first person and share personal experiences in your postings as long as you follow the above instructions.
- You should distinguish between (most objective—externally verifiable with the senses) facts, inferences, judgments, and opinions (most subjective—based on one’s inner thoughts and experiences):
- Facts: Things that we know to be true based on evidence. Ex: Bees make honey.
- Inferences: Statements of the unknown based on the known, derived from reason. Ex: Fire can actually contribute to the health of a forest. (This observation can be inferred from examining historical records of forest cover).
- Judgments: A statement we would expect others to agree with if they had the same information and perspective that we do; an “argument.” Ex: People shouldn’t build in places with wildfire risk.
- Opinion: Preferences and feelings that aren’t necessarily based on fact or knowledge. Ex: I like taro ice cream.
- If you wish to share judgments and opinions in your postings, they must be in a separate paragraph from the paragraph detailing facts and inferences. The structure of a proper discussion post is thus as follows:
- Paragraph One: A discussion of the question prompt based on facts and evidence (e.g., a quotation) and any inferences you made from the reading.
- Paragraph Two: A discussion of your judgments and opinions about the readings that follows naturally from the first paragraph.
Prompts
The weekly discussion post prompts are listed below. For further detail, click on the links.
