The Week 3 Reading Assignment and Lectures may be found in the Week 3 Lesson Module in Lessons. The Reading Assignments for each week may also be found in the Course Schedule located within the Syllabus. You will need to complete both the assigned reading and review the lectures for the week prior to completing the first weekly discussion of the course.
This post contains instruction components that are key to assignment compliance and avoiding point loss. It is important to read them thoroughly, including the “General Instructions” at the end that apply to all of the discussion forum assignments.
Discussion Forum General Instructions
Post Subject Title:
This may seem like a small thing but it will help all of us keep straight who is posting what to whom. When you complete your “Initial Post” each week, the one due by Wednesday at 11:55p, post it as a “New Conversation” under the Forum Topic. This is a link in the box to the top left. Your “Initial Post” should have a subject line “DF: Discover Sociology” followed by your first and last name.” The above is required to assist your classmates and your prof in identifying you as the author of the post.
When you are replying to a classmate’s post just click the “Reply” button in the upper right hand corner of that student’s post after you have read it. This way it is clear which is your “Initial” posting and which are your replies to others.
Substantive Post = Use of/Reference to text and Supplemental Materials
Each week lectures are available through Lessons and you will have assigned textbook chapter readings. For each discussion forum “initial post” (the one due by Wednesday at 11:55p), you must integrate content from the text and the lecture notes to substantiate and support your points. Evidence of having met this requirement must include source crediting both in the body of the post (in-text citations) and in a “References” list at the end of the post. Without these source credits, posts cannot be considered in compliance with the requirement. Your incorporation of concepts from the textbook and weekly lecture notes must not be just an exercise in scanning notes and textbook readings for something that can be hastily REPLACEed into a post in order to claim compliance with this part of the assignment. This also means referring to a concept from the week’s readings is not sufficient to fulfill this requirement. These parts of your post must be relevant to the weekly topic and fit logically with what you are saying in the post. You should clearly reference a concept, include a text definition for the concept (ideal) and/or a relevant quote from the text related to the concept (preferred in addition to the definition), and then clearly incorporate the concept into the logic of your discussion be it a point of analysis, commentary, relevance to the readings, etc. It is good to reference the lecture notes as well, but they should not be used as a substitute for the textbook.
Also required in the initial forum posts are supplemental materials, outside resources that demonstrate the application of the concepts from the textbook. This includes articles, videos, or websites that are from reputable sources. Do not use sites that are not fact checked or very basic sources like encyclopedias or dictionaries. Some examples are: Encyclopedia Britannica, Wikipedia, social networking sites and blogs, Yahoo Answers, Ask Jeeves, etc. Also include an APA-formatted citation for the source.
Discussion of outside source must include:
1) a link or attachment for the supplemental material,
2) an APA formatted citation for the source of the material,
3) a brief description of the material, and
4) a discussion about why it is relevant to the week’s assigned reading and/or your response
Question to the Class
In addition to the above requirements you are encouraged to close each of your “initial” posts with a question for the class. These questions should be related to the weekly topic(s) and must be substantive, scholarly and information seeking in nature, rather than an opinion with a question mark at the end or a yes/no style question.
Source Crediting
Whenever you reference someone else’s ideas and content in writing, it is required that you use APA-formatted source crediting through in-text citations and full references. Striking a good balance between the need to be conversational in dialog and the requirements of writing in a scholarly manner and providing proper credit for all publications used/referenced is where we want to be in discussion posts.
Lecture notes source crediting must be done using (Author’s last name, year) in the post body. Ex. (Jones, 2015)
In the “References” list at the end of the post, you also need to provide a full reference citation for the lecture including the following information in the format:
Professor last name, first initial. (Year). Lecture title [File format]. Retrieved from (provide URL).
Below is how the course textbook should be source credited.
When you paraphrase or directly quote content/ideas from another source, it is important that you give credit to that source. If you do not give credit to the source, you are committing plagiarism and violating the Student Code of Conduct with Academic Dishonesty. In-text citations not only give credit to the source for the idea, they also provide the reader with information on where to go to find more information if they found what you just paraphrased/quoted particularly interesting.
In-text citation format in the body of a post:
Paraphrase format
(Author last name, year of publication) Ex. (Chambliss & Eglitis, 2016)
Direct Quote format
(Author last name, year of publication, page number) Ex. (Chambliss & Eglitis, 2016, p. 231)
***APA formatting does not require page numbers for paraphrasing, only in the case of quotations.
Each time you include an in-text citation, you must also include a corresponding full reference for that source at the end of the post. This serves as a map for the reader. They go from the in-text citation, to the Reference list (ordered alphabetically by last name of author) to find out where to find the specific source you referenced. By following a specific format that you and the reader are familiar with, it is easy to locate the source.
Below is how to source credit the full citation in the “References” list at the end of a post:
Chambliss, W. J. & Eglitis, D. S. (2016). Discover Sociology. (2nd ed.). Los Angeles, CA: Sage Publications, Inc.
Wikipedia or other encyclopedias such as Encarta, dictionaries, blogs, newspapers, article abstracts, and About.com type websites that do summary work for you may not be used for any course assignment.
Minimum Length Post Requirements
By Wednesday at 11:55p ET a 200-word post (minimum—there is no maximum as long as your post is concise, focused, clear and relevant to the week’s topic) is required. This is your “initial post”. Also required are two 100-word replies to fellow classmates’ postings. You will notice your instructor is actively engaged in the dialog across the assignment week and are welcome to respond to instructor posts in the forums (all responses extend and make our dialogs interesting) but will want to note that responding to the course instructor does not count as your required reply to two fellow classmates. Replies are due by Sunday at 11:55p ET of the week following the Wednesday post (for example, for Week 2 your first post is due by Wednesday of Week 2 and the replies are due by Sunday of Week 2). Note: for Week 1 only, both the initial post and replies are due by 11:55p ET on Sunday.
These are scholarly dialogues; although, we want to hear what you think and not just what published authors wrote, only stating opinion is not acceptable. The distinction here is the difference in posting personal perspectives only and posting personal perspectives plus scholarly ideas supported by the published writings of experts on the topic. You will see that in most of the discussion assignments that you are asked to both answer substantive questions which require you to reference the text as well as to weigh in with your opinion. If you ever find yourself writing an initial post that does not include a reference to the text (including crediting sources through in-text citations and full references) or outside source, you should revise your post.
Substantive Replies
Your responses to the postings of other students should be relevant and substantive. Constructive criticism and honest assessment of each other’s ideas is encouraged. They can suggest additional material, respectfully question what was posted, offer alternative perspectives, etc. Postings are expected to be substantive and in good taste (remember your Netiquette).
By “substantive,” this means comments that contribute something new and hopefully important to the discussion. Thus a message that simply says “I agree” is not substantive. If you feel very strongly about it and wish to be supportive of your classmate, you can certainly post such a statement anyway but please limit such comments. A substantive comment contributes a new idea or perspective, a good follow-up question to a point made, offers a response to a question, provides an example or illustration of a key point, points out an inconsistency in an argument, etc. Posts that reiterate what your classmate has already said or that don’t add anything substantive to the discussion (for example, replies of a “that reminds me of” nature that are largely only personal story telling). “Your post made me think of…” is a recommended way of starting a reply because it evidences that you attended to what you classmate said and continued the dialog. If you disagree with a point a classmate made, do so respectfully. For example, rather than saying, “I couldn’t disagree more…” you might begin your differing perspective by saying, “In reading your point(s) an alternative came to mind and I wondered what you thought of it…”. You should not always reply to posts with which you agree. Lively and illuminating dialog engaging with a variety of perspectives is how we best learn
Grading/Scoring
The “Initial Post” due Wednesdays weekly in response to the each discussion question is worth 8 possible points. The two replies required weekly are worth 2 possible points. A total of 10 discussion forum points is possible per week.
See Appendix B in the syllabus for the grading rubric and scale.
For Week 1 only, all posts are due by 11:55p ET Sunday of Week 1.
From Week 2 forward, your initial discussion is due WEDNESDAY by 11:55p ET and your responses to other students are due SUNDAY by 11:55p ET.
The post This way it is clear which is your “Initial” posting and which are your replies to others. appeared first on Homework Aider.
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