Our online discussions promise to be interesting, informative and also fun. They're a terrific way to explore the main subjects of our course in a way that brings the material you're studying to life. It's obvious that "hands on" engagement with a topic is the best way to study it in a meaningful way, and online interaction allows for more discussion-per-hour than any other format I know of. They also give you the opportunity to "listen" to whoever you want to and respond to the people with whom you'd like to discuss the subjects of the day.

You should post around four messages each week that we have live discussions. One or two of them should be fairly brief (three or four paragraphs) original essays that address ideas for that day's discussion, and the others should be replies to members of your group. Your original messages will be your most important vehicles for bringing together material from these sources:

class lectures and guest presentations

assigned readings from the course syllabus

articles that you find and read on your own that are related to the discussion subject of the day. I provide resources at this web site to help you locate articles (particularly on the "Internet Resources" page). You should make it a point to bring in ideas from at least one of your own readings in all the online discussions -- I'd say in at least six of the nine discussions that we'll have. In your original essay(s) for the day, you should identify the outside source that you've found -- giving the author, article title, source and issue number, and URL if it's on the web.

One good way to bring in outside material on your own is to find examples of how the problem or issue is being played out in one particular country or region of the world. If the subject is human rights, for example, you could discuss ways that this issue is being addressed in a country such as Indonesia or a region such as the Middle East today. There are lots of useful ways to bring in outside material. Just keep in mind that this is an important part of the course. It's our alternative to a term paper! Newspaper stories are one good source, but don't limit yourself to those. I'd say use newspaper sources occasionally but sparingly -- probably as fewer than half of your total outside citations over the course of the semester.

Overall, your initial postings should include enough detail to show that you've thought carefully about the subject you're addressing and that you've drawn from your outside readings and/or our class work in formulating your message.

You should post your first original essay within 15 minutes or so of the start of the day's discussion. That way, others in your group will be able to respond to your message if they'd like as the discussion is getting started. You may want to write the initial posting(s) ahead of time and either post them early or copy and paste them from Word. I recommend copying and pasting so that you have a permanent copy. That way, if there's a computer problem you won't lose your work.

The thoughtfulness and substance of your postings is more important than the number that you write each day we have a discussion. As I indicated above, a good rule of thumb is to consider four postings as a useful average number to aim for. Few postings wouldn't reflect a very high level of engagement in the discussion process, and if you post many more than four you won't have time to think through what you're writing as carefully as you probably should.

Overall, you should think of your discussion postings -- both your original essays and your replies -- as serving to illustrate how, and how much, you've thought about the discussion topic of the day. I'm looking for an indication that you've thought carefully about each discussion subject thoughtfully, with the benefit of outside sources. Please don't just talk off the top of your head, for the most part. Make it clear that you know more about the subject than you'd know if you weren't taking a course that focused on the topic.

These are important topics, and people who spend their lives studying them draw extensively on the work and ideas of others in formulating their own points of view. You should do the same -- which means, in part, that you should bring into your postings ideas and information from (a) the in-class lectures and presentations, (b) the reading that everyone is assigned each week, and (c) additional reading that you select from either the list that's given or from your own searching/research. You don't need to bring outside material into every posting, but it would be good to do it in at least a couple of them in each discussion. Thinking about the specific dimensions, below, should also help.

I assign grades in the message board discussions according to the following dimensions:

a) the extent to which your postings addressing the questions for discussion analytically, clearly and with good information, informed by our class material (lectures and readings). Please read the guidelines about analytical reasoning in the shaded box below.

b) the effectiveness with which you bring in material from outside sources that you find on your own and that comes from assigned readings and class lectures -- information that speaks to the theme of each online discussion. As a general rule of thumb, you should think of bringing into each day's discussion at least one article that you have read in addition to the article(s) assigned for that day's discussion -- an article that is related to the discussion topic for that day. (You'll find ideas about possible sources of outside readings on the "Internet Resources" page of our course work web.) If you use material that you've searched out yourself, be sure to give a reference to the supplementary articles that you discuss when you post your first message that mentions the reading, including the article's author, the title, and the source of the article (name of periodical, date, and the URL, if you found the article on the Web.) Of course, you can also bring in ideas from books if you'd like -- not just articles.

The quality of your sources is also a factor here. It's perfectly fine to use newspaper articles sometimes; there's a great deal of good and thoughtful analysis in newspapers. Please do think about the depth and value of the sources that you use, and be sure to bring into your discussions a substantial amount of analysis that is clearly challenging, leading-edge work. So while it's fine to refer to Time and Newsweek, I hope you'll also think of the outside reading feature as an opportunity to look into more specialized sources now and then...

c) the scope of your discussion postings during the day. What I mean here is the range of subjects that you address in your postings, from the spectrum of possibilities for that day's discussion -- taking into account the discussion theme. The questions that I give you ahead of time indicate something, at least, about the possible scope. Remember that a part of what you're doing here is showing your engagement with the discussion theme. Think of it the way a figure skater plans a performance -- working out a routine that shows the audiences as many sides as possible of the skater's virtuosity.

d) in your reply postings to messages from other members of your group, the extent to which you add useful ideas to the discussion and move it forward. Don't just say that you agree, or that you disagree, with a posting and leave it at that. In each of your reply postings, please go beyond the other person's initial posting by addressing one of these types of questions:

"Yes, but..."
"No, I disagree because..."
"Looking at it differently..."
"It's worth adding that..."

You can see from the above that I'm asking you to do something other than saying that you agree with the initial posting. Explaining how you disagree with the other person's essay, or how that person's ideas can be seen in a different light gets you into a real dialogue in this discussion. That's what I'll be looking for. Your reply posting should be two or three paragraphs long.

e) the thoughtfulness and insightfulness of your writing

f) your writing style (see below)

g) the timeliness and volume of your postings (that is, How much did you participate? As I noted above, I suggest that you think of four or so postings as good number for each online discussion.)

Please note: Your writing style (grammar and the formation of sentences and paragraphs) will be a factor in your message board grades. You should follow the general rules for standard writing in your postings. This means, for example, that you should write in complete sentences, capitalizing the first word of each sentence and the pronoun "I." Punctuate your sentences carefully, and spell words correctly. (You can run a spell check in Word before you post a message; just cut-and-paste the message that you are writing -- either from the message box to Word or from Word to the message box. It will only take a minute or so, and if you have problems with spelling, this kind of routine will help you immensely.)

Use a narrative writing style, with paragraphs and complete sentences. Please do not use an outline format. Capitalize the first word of each sentence, and also capitalize the letter "I" when it is used as a personal pronoun. PLEASE DO NOT WRITE YOUR SENTENCES IN ALL CAPS. SEE HOW UNPLEASANT IT IS TO READ?

Why are writing style and grammar important? Most companies that you may apply to in the future will expect you to write effectively, and in general, your writing skills will be important to evaluations of various kinds throughout your life. That's because writing has not only practical implications for how others see us (and how they see the companies we work for), but it is also tied to our ability to organize our thoughts for effective reasoning and decision making. It's a good idea for us all to continually work at improving our writing, because writing, as we all know, is a critical dimension of the way we communicate with others.