Conceptual Critique

To enhance your use of the Blackboard Discussion Board, I ask each of you to prepare and post an analytical treatment of one of the thinkers that we will cover this semester.  To do this, you will need to do three things:

1.  Select a thinker you want to analyze.  The list of available thinkers is noted below.  Send me an email noting the top three thinkers you'd like to examine.  I will allocate thinkers on a first-come, first-served basis.  The sooner you get me your list of choices, the greater the likelihood you will get the thinker you want to critique, but your choices must sent to me no later than Friday, 4 June.  After that date, I will simply assign remaining thinkers to the slackers who don't follow these instructions.

2.  Prepare your analysis in accordance with the "Concepts" posting, and use the "Scorecard" file to organize and present your critique.  Discuss how your thinker frames his/her analysis by noting how s/he "conceptualizes" --  conceives or defines -- each of the variables listed on the handout.  Some thinkers might not discuss, explicitly or implicitly, all of the concepts, but infer, if you can what their position would be.  On your "scorecard" note specific quotes and page cites to support your analysis.

3.  Post three questions or statements about your thinker that you think will help others come to grips with his/her analysis.  These questions should be at the end of your conceptual critique of your thinker.

Guidelines

1.  Send me an email noting the top three thinkers you'd like to examine.  I will allocate thinkers on a first-come, first-served basis.  The sooner you get me your list of choices, the greater the likelihood you will get the thinker you want to critique, but your choices must sent to me no later than Friday, 4 June.  After that date, I will simply assign remaining thinkers to the slackers who don't follow these instructions.

2.  Your analysis and questions must be posted one calendar day before we begin our treatment of the thinker.   Failure to do so will result in application of the late penalty noted in the syllabus.

3.  Your analysis should be posted as a new thread, with the thinker you are critiquing in the subject heading of the discussion thread.

4.  Your critical conceptual analysis should be well-developed (1-3 pp), and contain specific citations to relevant quotations and page citations.  Just fill in and flesh out the cells in the scorecard handout/file and post that on Blackboard as directed above.

5.  I expect all students to comment on these postings, to elaborate and critique them, on the discussion board.  Half of your participation grade will be based on your Discussion page postings.

6.  While you will not formally present your thinker to the class, I will call on you frequently as the first person to comment on his/her thought when we discuss it in class.

*denotes student who expressed no preference as to thinker.

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