Option A, Review/Reflect:
Write a 1200 word assignment that reviews at least some of the important points from Kohn and possibly some of our other readings/videos from this semester, with the intention to identify ways that thinking and/or behaviors have changed/should change (your own, and/or others’). You might reflect on the most important insights you’ve had, and how these have affected your thinking, worldview, behavior, and/or other areas of your life. You might aim to persuade a specific audience to change its thinking and/or behavior in specific ways to reduce hate and/or increase connection by giving them specific recommendations for change, and the evidence-based reasons for doing so. Write, using the genre most effective for your audience, about the most important, compelling findings from your reading, thinking, discussion, and research this semester in a way that will convince the people who most need to know about these – whether those people are yourself, your loved ones, your fellow students, your local government officials, your past or present schooL.that’s up to you. Utilize logic, emotion, ethics, and your own and your sources’ credibility to move your audience toward change. I DO NOT want you to spend a lot of additional time locating sources this late in the semester, so aim to keep the scope of any additional research within time bounds of eight hours or less.
Option B, More(!) Research:
Some people are clamoring to do more research! So if this is where your heart lies, go for it. You may pursue a topic of your choice, as long as it ties back to a topic or issue raised during our course. One way to go with this assignment is to engage in primary research, research that you yourself perform by designing your own methods/procedures (observation, interviews, surveys, and/or other methods), collecting the data, analyzing your data, reporting your results, and explaining what you think they mean. Or you can continue to expand on the skills that we focused on for MA2 by pursuing a different topic, writing for a different audience, and/or using a different genre. I DO NOT want you to spend a lot of additional time locating sources this late in the semester, so aim to keep the scope of any additional research (i.e. data collection for primary research, or identification and reading of sources for secondary research as with MA2) within time bounds of eight hours or less. Aim for a minimum of 1200 words, and use a genre appropriate to whomever you want to report out to (for example, you could develop a presentation that you give to our class). FOR THIS OPTION, you may work with a group of up to four people, but you need to check in with me to confirm your group members by Monday, 11/21. If you are planning to collect your own data, spend a half hour of your research time reading through the Research Ethics and Methods page to help you with this part of your assignment.
Option C, Your Own Idea:
Your ideas for your final major assignment may not fit into either of the two options above, so don’t feel like you have to limit yourself to those two. Instead, explain to me what you want to write about, why, who you want to write to, and what genre seems like it would be the best one for your purpose(s). Your idea for MA3 will need to
• reference ideas/elements from Kohn
• use additional sources, including at least one scholarly source