The task
You need to contribute to an online classroom discussion by stating and
supporting your opinion. This task measures your ability to develop ideas,
respond to others’ viewpoints, and write in an academic tone.
Amira, you are answering the question. You are not contributing to the discussion.
Your essays this week did not make a good contribution. You answered the
professor and stopped there. You did not respond to what a classmate
actually wrote, and you did not say why you agreed or disagreed. That is the
part the rubric pays for, and it is the part you skip.
First, what is already working. You are writing in good academic
English. Your sentences are clear, and you answer the professor directly
every time. None of this is a language problem.
If you tell me you cannot come up with ideas quickly, I believe you. That
is the real problem. The opinion is the easy part, so the opinion is what
you write.
The Steps inside the Academic Discussion practice exist for exactly this.
They give you a structure for finding an idea, one line at a time, instead
of sitting in front of an empty editor deciding what you think.
Your next seven days
- Complete every Academic Discussion question this week using the Steps.
- At Step 2, where you add your own new idea, send the sentence to the editor and read the check before you continue.
- And then write the same essays again, this time without the Steps.