Week 4: More Thoughts About Thinking

Hello Class!

I appreciate your patience in receiving an introductory post this week; today presented the earliest opportunity to write to you so here it is. :-)

First, I want to thank you for continuing to improve your writing. The beginning of the semester presents some ambiguity and I know it's a balancing act for everyone to learn about course expectations. What I've noticed is that many of you are gaining confidence in learning ways to be successful with the coursework. GREAT job, and thanks for being open to improving!

This week, you've continued to read work from your classmates' blogs and you're continuing to study on topics about intellectual capacity through your textbook readings. You might have noticed by now that the human intellect has been studied in almost all academic fields. You can also make special note of what sorts of perspectives interest you most (for example, are you more excited when reading science writing or philosophical writing on the topic? more inspired by the psychological perspective or by perspectives from technology-related fields?). Learning about where your personal interests lie can give you insight about what sort of query you'd most enjoy pursuing when developing academic essays in the future, and perhaps also about what types of classes you'd like to take (or avoid!).

For Thursday's assignment, you'll be asked to include an image of artwork as a part of your written text. I recommend that you start with a quick google search or library website search for images of Frida Kahlo's work and view as many as possible before choosing the image that you'd like to feature on your own blog. You can save the image to your computer and then upload it to your blog post using the "Add Image" button (when you're composing your post, look for a small blue and gray box on the tool bar, next to a button marked "ABC"). Also, since the image is borrowed materials, be sure to cite your source at the end of your blog post using correct MLA format. You can find formatting directions at http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/08/ under the citation example that's titled "An Image (Including a Painting, Sculpture, or Photograph)".

To end, I'll leave you with links to just a few of our "Greatest Hits" from last week, so you can continue learning from each others' good work. :-)

Jessica, Jordan, and Hilary all had exceptional blog reviews for their peer groups. Thanks to all of you for caring enough about your classmates to be thorough, honest, encouraging, and attentive! Links are below:
http://jlchee.blogspot.com/2010/08/week-2-blog-reviews.html
http://jordan-english215.blogspot.com/2010/09/week-3-blog-reviews.html
http://hilpaige.blogspot.com/2010/08/peer-reviews-of-posts-824-826.html

I admire the posts by Morgan and Lauren from our 9/2 assignments, particularly because they display remarkable consideration for the article writer as someone who's investigation was valuable and reliable. Rather than reflecting at surface level about the discussion questions posed, they referred to ideas presented in the article and sought ways to understand it. Argument writing is not always about refuting claims made by other writers... sometimes we benefit to find agreement with certain stances and support them by using our own persuasive points or related data.
http://morganbpaulson.blogspot.com/2010/09/can-machines-surpass-human-brain.html
http://laurenspencereng215.blogspot.com/2010/09/robots.html

See, also, Ricky's post as a great example of writing that synthesizes information from a course reading into a brief, clear summation that includes excellent personal reflection and response: http://richardkriebel2.blogspot.com/2010/09/will-machines-surpass-humans.html

Thanks to all of you for producing great work last week! I look forward to reading more.

-AP