Guidelines for Generating Discussion Board Prompts

As indicated in the syllabus, each of you is responsible for generating one discussion board prompt related to a specific course reading.  Since we have more only a few more readings than students, you should sign up as early as possible.

Prompts should be in the form of a question or a series of questions which can be used to start discussion about a particular story or poem. Since your goal is to generate discussion, you'll want to avoid yes/no questions. Instead, you might want to ask your fellow classmates how one work relates to another or how a work demonstrates characteristics of a literary movement or term. For example, if you signed up to post a question on Beowulf, you might ask the class to consider how the depiction of Beowulf differs from Homer's depiction of Achillies.  Or you might ask us to discuss if Beowulf represents the ideal Anglo-Saxon hero. You could also ask about specific changes between Homer's Iliad and aspects of the movie Troy (be sure to provide details for those who have not seen the movie).

Discussion Prompt Sign-up Instructions

• First, spend some time looking over the syllabus (and maybe glancing at the readings themselves). Select three readings of interest to you and email them to me (bhm@asu.edu) in order of preference. I will do my best to accommodate your first choice and will let you know via email which reading you will be responsible for.
• Once you have been assigned a reading, you'll want to be sure to have read it (in its entirety) at least two days prior to the date of your posting (that way you can email me with any questions you have--you can even run your potential discussion questions by me if you want).
• You are responsible for posting your question(s) to the discussion board by 9:00pm AST the night prior to the assigned reading date. For example, if you select chapters 5-7 of The Iliad , you would need to post your question by 9:00pm (AST), Thursday, 7/8. You would make your post by beginning a new thread in our discussion forum.

It would be wise to email me with your preferences early in the session, so you don't get "stuck" with a reading that doesn't interest you.. Also feel free to email me with any questions you have about this assignment.