Assignment for Friday, November 8

Read Joseph Stiglitz's op-ed piece, "Equal Opportunity, Our National Myth," and Timothy Noah's "The United States of Inequality."

In class, we will finish viewing The Flaw, a film about the 2008 financial collapse. If you missed class, you can learn about the film here.

I will not be in class. You will finish viewing The Flaw, and then you will have time to finalize the topic for your final project. See the handout to the right.

Assignment for Wednesday, November 6

Finish revising the in-class essay. Keep in mind the following as you go through your in-class essay:
1. Does the first paragraph answer the question or address the prompt?
2. Identify examples from the book. Find the page number to cite the example.
3. Identify the main point in each paragraph. Do you have evidence from the book to support it? If the support is paraphrased, cite the page number. If there is no support, find a quote or paraphrase a relevant section of the book (and cite it).
4. Read each sentence carefully for clarity. If a sentence is not clear, make it clear.
5. Look over the essay's organization. Is it organized logically? If not, make it so. Move around sentences, paragraphs, and sections to improve the essay's logical development.

Assignment for Tuesday, October 29

Read and annotate chapter 5 of Sandel's What Money Can't Buy. In class on Thursday, October 31, you will write about the book.

Click here to read more about the Wall Street Journal reports on "janitors insurance." These reports are posted on the web site of one of its reporters, Theo Francis. These reports received the 2002 George Polk Award for Financial Reporting. The George Polk Awards are among the most prestigious in journalism; its judges "place a premium on investigative and enterprise work that is original, requires digging and resourcefulness, and brings results."

Click here to read a libertarian critique of these insurance policies that focuses less on their ethics than on the federal government's role in promoting them.

Assignment for Friday, October 25

Read and annotate chapter four of Sandel's What Money Can't Buy. 

Assignment for Wedneday, October 23

Re-read chapter three of Sandel's What Money Can't Buy. Pay close attention to how he criticizes markets. In addition, make a list of the five best gifts you've ever received, and a list of the five worst gifts you've ever received. Then, indicate for which gifts, good or bad, you would have preferred receiving cash. 

Narrative

Here are a few resources to help you with writing narratives. Keep in mind that stories can take many forms and, for the purposes of this class, you will be using them in the service of an argument.

The 22 Storytelling Rules According to Pixar 

Six-Word Memoir 

Your Brain on Stories 

Fox News Errs, and The New York Times Investigates the Shutdown's Origins

Here are a couple of items related to our reading and discussion of Blur. Reading and thinking about them in relation to Blur and Wag the Dog could help you think more sharply about the relevant issues you'll have to write about on Tuesday's in-class essay, but these are optional.

I just came across this piece about Fox News making just the kind of mistake Kovach and Rosenstiel take pains to discuss in Blur. The headline is somewhat amusing, but points to the all too real problem of rushing to broadcast and appealing to a narrowly focused audience. Because Fox News is in the business of the "journalism of affirmation," it makes a mistake typical of the "journalism of assertion." Don't just watch the video; read the article to the end.

This report from The New York Times reveals how the desire to defund the Affordable Care Act (pejoratively known as "Obamacare") became linked to shutting down the federal government. It's long and detailed. If you read it, think about how Kovach and Rosenstiel would assess its strengths and limitations.

Assignment for Monday, September 30

As posted on the assignment schedule, read Chapter 7 of Blur. You do not have a writing assignment due with this reading. Bring Pocket Style Manual and America Now to class.

Also, in class we will read and write about the government shutdown. Unless major new developments occur, we'll read the following pieces:

Everything You Need to Know about the Government Shutdown

House Republicans Plot Next Move as Government Shutdown Nears

Shutdown Stalemate

U.S. Shutdown Nears as House Votes to Delay Health Law

Government Shutdown Closer as House Republicans Pass Bill Delaying Key Parts of Obamacare

Maffei, Hanna Vote Against House Republican Bill That Delays Obamacare for a Year

Homework and Readings from Class

Here are the articles we read in class on Tuesday. Use them to practice analyzing news stories with Kovach and Rosenstine's questions about evidence:

From NPR: University of Alabama Moves to Integrate Greek System
From The Crimson White: The Final Barrier: Fifty Years Later, Segregation Still Exists

From NPR: Diplomacy with Iran: Deja Vu All over Again?
From The New York Times: Enigmatic Leader of Iran Backs Overture, For Now"

In Blur, read and annotate chapter 7 for Monday, September 30, and chapter 8 for Wednesday, October 2.

Lobbyists Look for a New Name

What timing--just as we were talking about whether lobbyists like being called lobbyists, this editorial discusses the possibility that the American League of Lobbyists (yes, even lobbyists have lobbyists) might change its name to improve its image.

Blur Mini-Essay

Click here for the topics for the mini-essay on Blur. It is due in class on Friday, September 20.

Fail More

Here's a blog post from Harvard Business Review that echoes many of Burger and Starbird's points on failing in The 5 Elements of Effective Thinking. It comes from an executive at PBS who succeeded in having his employees fail more frequently.

Materials from Friday's Class

Here's the invisible gorilla video we watched in class today:

Click here for the review of Daniel Kahneman's Thinking, Fast and Slow that we read in class.


And here is an interview with Kahenman summarizing some of the main points from Thinking, Fast and Slow:

Summer Reading

Welcome to The Senior Seminar! This is a new course at Manlius Pebble Hilll, and its purpose is to have you confront important issues in the world today, while also advancing your thinking, reading, and writing skills. Your summer reading assignment is posted to the right under Assignments and Syllabus. Check back periodically over the summer as I'll be posting materials and links that we'll use in the fall. Have a great summer!