Q What do I need to do? Your task: Use what you've learned from class materials to provide an answer to the question(s) posed for this assignment. Your prompt: Suffering plays an important role in the philosophies of both Schopenhauer and Nietzsche. To demonstrate understanding of their work and to show how their philosophies and their views of suffering differ, answer the following based on what you learned from the assigned readings: [1] Why, and in what ways, does human suffering lead Schopenhauer to encourage compassion and renunciation? Be specific and use examples from the assigned text. [2] Why, and in what ways, does human suffering lead Nietzsche to call for a new mode of valuation and hope for the future? Be specific and use examples from the assigned text. Why am I being asked to do this? Writing exercises serve important functions, two of which are our goal here. First, writing is a way of working things out, a way of accessing and constructing your thoughts on a topic. Second, and closely tied to working things out, writing is a means of sharpening one’s ability to measure, critique, and analyze. What makes a great essay question response? A great response to the question is efficient, which is to say: accurate, focused, explicit, thorough, and succinct. What does this mean? Let's break it down: accurate - (adjective) free from error, correct in all details focused - (adjective) attentive to the question at hand (this means, for instance, leaving out examples from your life or experience, information gathered from outside research, or your own views if not requested in the prompt--everything included in your response should explicitly answer the questions posed in the prompt) explicit - (adjective) stated clearly and in detail, leaving no room for confusion or doubt thorough - (adjective) complete with regard to every detail; not superficial or partial succinct - (adjective) briefly and clearly expressed So an accurate, focused, explicit, thorough, succinct response is clear and detailed without dragging on. These are the components of an efficient response. efficient - (adjective) achieving maximum productivity with minimum wasted effort or expense How do I do it? First, note that this is not a formal essay assignment. You are being asked to write a short, direct response to a specific question. Given the length limit for your response, it is important that you make good use of that limited space. Don't include an introduction or conclusion. Get right to answering the question. For most students, the challenge will be learning how to provide a full response with a limited number of words. The best way to accomplish that is to plan properly. 1. How should I go about answering the question? An efficient method for developing a response to the discussion question is to follow these steps: [a] Write down a 1-2 sentence response to the overall question. [b] Once you know what your overall position is, think about why you took that position and begin to write down some of those thoughts in support of your main idea. [c] Add a bit of explanation about how those additional pieces of information/explanation support your position so that it is very clear to the audience how your line of thought is coming together. A final note: be sure that your response answers every part of the question. 2. What should not be included in my project? - Research This is not a research project. Your work will be graded based on how effectively it handles only the portions of text assigned in the class. Feel free to review secondary materials to help you better understand the texts (some of which I've included in the lessons), but that is a supplement, not a stand-in. The scope of your answers to questions posed in the prompt must be the reading assigned in class. - Summary You are only being asked to answer the specific question(s) posed in these instructions. Focus your prep time on that, and refer to the text to support your answers. - Quotations You may not use quotations in your response. The goal of this assignment is to demonstrate understanding of the text, and one of the ways to do that is to find your own language to discuss the text. - Anecdotes & Asides Unless the prompt for the assignment asks you to provide examples from your life, experience, or worldview, leave those things out. It's important to use your allotment of words to develop a response to the question(s) being asked. They're a limited resource that you don't want to use to add in reflections that aren't part of an explicit response to the question. 3. How should I format my answer to the question? When it comes to your work as a student, the goal of your communication through the assignments that you complete is always two things: to demonstrate that you understand what is being asked of you and to demonstrate that you can effectively complete the tasks (in other words, that you have the knowledge to answer the questions being asked). One of the smartest things you can do to contribute to this goal is to be intentional about how you organize your thoughts. Good organization can help make clear to your audience that you understand and have completed the assigned tasks. For this assignment, the easiest way to use formatting to your advantage is to separate the parts of your response to the prompt. For example, if the prompt includes two questions, signal to the audience when you are answering each by explicitly introducing each (e.g., 'In response to the first question....'). If, alternatively, the prompt includes only one question, but requires supporting evidence, make it clearer to the reader what your supportive evidence is by identifying them as distinct parts of your response (e.g., 'A is demonstrated in the text in the following ways: B, C, D.' Then go on to discuss B, C, and D in order). 4. How long should my response be? To earn credit, your answer to the question prompt provided here must be 350-450 words. When is it due? The due date can be found at the top of this page. How do I ensure that I earn credit for this assignment? To recap, the requirements for this assignment are: Post an explicit, thorough, and succinct 350-450 word response to the prompt by the stated deadline. So the requirements include quality [accurate, focused, explicit, thorough, and succinct] content [leave out general summarizing, quotations, and anecdotes] length [350-450 words] and deadline. If each of these requirements is met, you have earned credit for the assignment. PreviousNext