Assignmen: Forum
Return to: Week 3 February...
You will be asked to write and post five (5) effective/successful Critical Thought Pieces (CTPs) during the semester. There are seven (7) CTP due dates. CTP #1 is required; thereafter, you may choose which additional four you attempt.
A CTP should be 500 words (two type-written pages).
FORMAT/PROMPTS FOR WRITING A CTP
1. Summarize at least three readings
What is author's main purpose is? (What is the key question addressed in the reading?)
What are the author's conclusions?
What facts, experiences, data, or other evidence does the author use to support her/his conclusions?
What are key assumptions that underpin the author's argument/thinking (what does the author take for granted)?
What is the author's "point of view" (what does the author look at and how does she/he see it)?
2. Respond critically to the readings
You can respond and demonstrate critical thinking in a number of different ways. Here are some suggestions for how you might respond. You do not have to do all of them, and it would be good to select different options for different CTPs!
a. Explain whether you agree or disagree with arguments made.
b. Assess the point of view of the authors and their purposes in writing.
c. Explain what is intriguing or controversial about one or more reading.
d. Identify something you think is missing (or wrong?) with the argument, evidence, or conclusions presented.
e. Compare a reading to one or more of the other readings.
f. Include meaningful passages and comment on them.
g. Relate the reading(s) to your own experience or to current events in the world around us.
3. Write three questions that can be asked to the class.
The questions required must also be "critical thinking" questions. In other words, don't write questions that ask for clarification of statements or ideas (about a date, event, or person you don't recognize, for example). The questions should be analytical questions that ask about conclusions/arguments, about the implications of the conclusions made, about the logic or evidence presented, etc.
I. What Is Women's Studies?
A. What is the relationship between women's studies and the women's movement? What is "mainstreaming"?
B. What is meant by the term "the personal is political"? How might this term have implications for men's education about women's rights?
C. What are the three "Waves" of feminism? What does the "wave" metaphor provide us?
D. What are the different types of feminism?
E. Explain how the strategies for change are different for liberal as opposed to radical feminism.
F. What is meant by global or transnational feminism and why is it important today? Explain how and why explanations for women's equality and strategies for change might differ between the global north and south.
G. Explain the politics of the movement from women's studies to women's and gender studies. Why might the "women" still need to be retained?
H. What does it mean to say that women's studies in its early years "lacked inclusivity"? How did Black women's studies come about?
I. What is the future for WMST?