Discuss (v.) & discussion (n.)
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Why hold the discussion on an online forum?
Apart from the fact that ours is a reading and writing class, there are several solid reasons for holding at least some of our discussions online.- It practices response writing for fluency. Unlike in more formal academic writing, the goal is not to do research, but to quickly communicate your own ideas on topic or in response to an issue. You should still write complete sentences organized in paragraphs, but we are not looking for a carefully planned piece of work that was extensively reviewed and revised after it was first written and posted. Response writing is not academic writing.
- This sort of response writing is common at universities today. As part of their assessment, students are often expected to participate in online discussion forums that explore issues raised in lectures, seminars, or tutorials. This sort of response writing is a common component of academic work.
- Brainstorming and sharing ideas independently of face-to-face group discussion typically produces a wider and more thoughtful variety of responses, which is good for the group. See, for example, the articles on this in the Harvard Business Review by Art Markman (2017), Andrew O’Connell (2010), and Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic (2015).
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Rogers and Zemach's questions
and some notes
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| Click them to see images full size |
- Have you ever seen dolphins or whales?
Your response to this question should be at least two sentences.
- Share what you know about whales.
Your response to this question, which is grammatically an imperative (an order), should be at least three sentences.
- Which do you think is more important, protecting whales or protecting jobs? Explain your choice.
As the imperative that is the second sentence in this question suggests, this is the most important of the three questions. A strong answer here probably needs at least five sentences.
I avoided numbers in the questions here so that you would not be tempted to number your answers. Do not number your answers. Just write sentences organized in paragraphs so that your readers know what you are talking about and what you say on each topic.
Remember
This is response writing. You do not have time to spend five minutes planning. You certainly do not have time to spend ten minutes checking your answer. Get an idea, and write it down in a sentence or two, or three. Then move on to the next idea. Quickly. The purpose is to clearly communicate your ideas, not to write a carefully researched essay. Do not waste time researching. (That means do not Google.)
At least one of the three questions probably does require you to think before you start to write. You have to take a side on question 3, and that means you need to decide which side you support and why, so it it probably a good idea to spend a maybe 2:00 minutes planning before you write.
You have 15:00 minutes to write your responses to the three questions. Go.
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Reference
- Chamorro-Premuzic, T. (2015, April 2). Why brainstorming works better online. Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2015/04/why-brainstorming-works-better-online
- Markman, A. (2017, May 18). Your team is brainstorming all wrong. Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2017/05/your-team-is-brainstorming-all-wrong
- O'Connell, A. (2010, February 4). Sometimes, it’s better to brainstorm alone. Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2010/02/when-its-better-to-brainstorm
- Rogers, L. & Zemach, D. E. (2018). Skillful 3: Reading & Writing (2nd. ed.). London: Macmillan Education
1. Yes, I have. It was gray and it has a big body
ReplyDelete2. I know that is a mammals and the biggest mammals. Whales live in an ocean and pacific
3. I think protecting jobs is more important because I think the jobs are important to do something.
Although not often, I've seen whales and dolphins a few times in my life. The only times I've seen dolphins has been at marine parks. I think I was about ten years old when my parents first took me to a marine park in Australia. It was very exciting. They also had small whales there, but I much prefer watching big whales, which I've only ever seen on TV. The documentaries by David Attenborough have some great film of blue whales, which are amazing for their size.
ReplyDeleteWhat do I know about whales? Not very much really. They are mammals, like humans. Like us, they have hair, they breathe air through lungs, they have warm blood, and they give birth the same way human women do—well, not exactly the same way, but basically the same. I think blue whales carry their baby for two years before they give birth, which is much longer than the nine months for humans. Actually, I'm not sure about that. Maybe two years is for elephants and whales are even longer. Don't trust me on this.
What else? Whales are popular food in Japan, and in the past, we humans hunted many species of whale almost to extinction, but I think that their numbers are increasing again today, although Japan is still controversial because they keep eating whales. I don't think I've ever had whale meat. I wonder what it tastes like.
It's hard to say whether we should worry more about protecting whales or jobs for people. If we ban whale hunting, the people who do that will lose their jobs, causing problems for them and their families. Other industries will also be affected, but it would also be sad if whales went extinct. I think the solution is that we should worry more about protecting the welfare of people, but this can be done by taxing people who want to protect whales to provide other jobs and income for people who suffer because their traditional jobs are lost to protect whales. In other words, I think it is good to protect whales, but if we do that, we must also make sure that the lives of humans who used to depend on whale hunting do not become any worse. As a society, if we decide to do something good for nature, we cannot make some humans suffer to achieve that good goal, such as protecting whales.
When I was young, I had ever seen dolphins in a circus. When I grown up, I was traveling to an island I saw dolphins in the ocean.
ReplyDeleteWhat I know about whales is they get hunted by Japanese as a part of their food culture that they consume whales meat. This culture could cause whales to be extinct easily, and many countries anti this culture but it could not stop Japanese to abolish their culture.
As I mention about consuming whales meat in Japan, I support to abolish the activity because whales life is more important rather than a human job since it could affect to other marine life like a chain reaction that if one species is extinct resulting in another species may disappear. As result of the whales hunting, it could affect to the world ecosystem.
Actually, I just have seen only dolphins when I was a child, but I have never seen whales. The dolphins that I have seen they have gray blue skin and they live in the sea.
ReplyDeleteBased on my knowledge, I know a little of whales. Whales live in the sea and they is mamals animal types. They are the bigest animal in the world. Furthermore, they communicate each other by sending some echo.
I would choose protecting the whales is more vital than protecting the job. Relate to the video the whales can hear deeply sound and they can warn people through approaching behavior. Thus If we are safe the whales fist, the jobs could be safty as well.
1. I've never seen whales butI've seen dolphins before but. I saw them at the aquarium.
ReplyDelete2.Whale is the biggest animal. It lives at the ocean. They communicate by using their unique low frequency voice.
3. Protecting whale is more important. We need to take care the animals and protect them from the danger. Whales can be found rarely so if we don't protect them, they might extinct. The natures are more important than our job. If we don't take care of them,it will punish us in the future.
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