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Created: January 16, 2003
Latest Update: January 16, 2003
jeannecurran@habermas.org
takata@uwp.edu
Asking the Wrong QuestionOn Thursday, November 14, 2002, Anitra Shields, Sociology of Law (CSUDH) wrote:
Now that we are going to war what will become of us? Will our economy go down hill when we go to war? will this be a somewhat repeat of the Great Depression? the reason i say this is because on channel 11 fox news there was a report that the FBI doesn't know where the terrorist are and they of course can be any and everywhere in the U.S, and we don't know what's their target. If there is another big blow just like 911, what will become of us, and how will we survive?On January 16, 2003, jeanne responded:
Anitra, thhis is certainly a good beginning to meaningful evidence of your learning, but it takes on issues far too large for you to give any reasonable detail in support of your measurement. This is something I see often in student submissions. It's as though someone has taught you to answer a question or a critique with a question, a bigger question, to which there can be no answer.
You asked several such questions. If I put the list together, I could begin to see that you have either learned from our lectures or, and that OR is important, read the teaching essays on the site. Unfortunately, I can't tell precisely what you've done, because you don't give me adequate details or clues. What I do see is the impending war will have a major economic effect, but you limit that to a fear of another Great Depression. If that is a point you really want to make, and it must have come from somewhere other than our course in Sociology of Law, then you need to be specific in pointing out what similarities are likely to lead to the depression, and to our government's way of handling the similarities that could worsen any depression once it starts. That would tell me that you had learned something about the economic effects of the impending war.
You substantiate that you got this information from FOX news, which I would generally not accept as a scholastic reference, especially without any indicated attempt to back up that information at an academic level. Recall that with your comments you are trying to persuade me that you have indeed learned enough to be awarded a good grade. FOX news isn't going to cut it. And why would you stray so far from so much of the information available to you in lectures and on the site?
Because I see this pattern so often, I'm convinced that someone in the past has taught you this technique of posing really big questions. It doesn't work for academic comments intended to measure your learniing. I suspect it might be a good technique for cocktail conversation. It has the useful effect of always throwing the ball into the other's court, and of encompassing a topic so amorphic that no one could actually quibble over any ill-considered opinions expressed.
Also attend to the validity of your argument. I would tend to agree that at this point we have no evidence that the FBI knows didley squat about the terrorists and what they may or may not be about to do. But how does that tie in to the Great Depression? I would call this a giant intellectual leap in which you've left out any details that could help me see how you got from what the FBI doesn't know to the Great Depression.
For all of the reasons above, you need to redo this submission for a passing grade. Be sure that in doing so, you consult scholastic sources, and/or ask questions in class or in my office that will help you substantiate the points you wish to make. Make small points, over which I can expect you back up your opinions with lecture and reading materials. Also, it's a real good idea to conceptually link your comment to the course for which you intend it to be a measure of learning.
jeanne
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