This page offers guidance on how and why we have discussions. For the readings for the next discussion, please visit the Discussion Topics page.

Discussions take place approximately once per week (more often in intensive semesters like summer) in order to help students digest the information they have encountered in the lectures and course readings. You participate via small group chats in class.

In order to get credit for these discussions, each student reads the assigned article before class, brings a Discussion Memo page to class, arrives on time, discusses the articles with peers, completes the discussion memo (DM) during the chat, and turns it in to the professor. To save class time, please complete part 1 of the DM (in purple print) before class begins. That includes your name, section time, day number, date, checkbox, and article title. Do not complete the bottom part of the DM (in blue print) until you are in your group discussion.

For the discussion, the goal is a conversation (not reading notes verbatim, for example) and getting to know your classmates. What did you think of the article? Were there logical fallacies in the writing or message? Do you have a story about that issue in your own life?

For the “Terms” section, you should identify, define, and apply* at least one class term from our course that have already been explained in class. Do not use terms that have not yet been discussed. You can, though, use terms that were introduced prior to the previous week (you can use a term from Day 2 on your DM for Day 18).

*Applying terms means connecting the definition to what is going on in the article. If the article is about A, B and C, and the definition for the term you chose is “1, 2, and/or 3,” your application section should include something to the effect of: “In this case, 1 connects to A because …, and B exemplifies 2 because…” Here’s what that might look like in real life:
To sum up the problem: “Musk has a long history of bold promises but a spottier record of fulfilling them” (Hern, 2024). Although Elon Musk has been involved in many controversies and has failed to deliver on some of his promises, basing the success of Neuralink’s brain chips on this information would be an ad hominem logical fallacy, which is attacking a person’s characteristics rather than their arguments (Potasznik, Day 3). In this case, Musk’s well-documented personal quirks and failings do not indicate the quality (or lack thereof) of his company’s contributions to neurological health and science. Instead, to get a sufficient understanding of whether Neuralink’s recent implantation qualifies as a success, we should use multiple sources to try to get an empirical, unbiased understanding of its endeavors and potentialities.

If you came to class without reading the assigned article, you will join anyone else in the same situation and read the article together. Your DM will include your name and the date, and you’ll check the “I did not fully read the article before class” box. You earn partial credit for simply being in class, unless I don’t know who you are, which is why you still complete your DM.

In order to earn full participation credit, students must :

• Be present and engaged from the beginning of class to the end, including the entire discussion portion.
• Have completely read the assigned article before the class begins.
• Have brought the (mostly empty) Discussion Memo page to fill out during the discussion.
• Have completed a discussion and DM during the allotted time frame, and turned it in when requested.

Please review the syllabus policy on phone use, as especially during the discussions students are expected to be fully present and engaged. Using cell phones during this or any time in class will result in a grade deduction. I won’t ask what you’re doing. My assumption is what counts here, so make sure it doesn’t even look like you’re doing other things during class if you’re going for full credit.