English 1006
Prompt #14
1 October 2013


Questions worth asking

Weighing the questions

This exercise has been, mainly, about seeing alternatives in the way things are said, and considering what different the writer's choices might make -- in how we understand the author's assumptions, and how we can see what the author expects our assumptions to be

Since Thursday, you've read the two "second choice" articles and asked at least one (in most cases, two) questions about the choices the writer of the article has made. What I'd like to do today is think about the kinds of questions which most clearly raised those issues (and the ones which raised the issues in ways that invite us to discuss them).

What I've done is to pull out all the questions, and I'm going to ask you to consider them in a slightly new context. I'm going to set up, in the usual way, eight groups, and I'm going to give each group a couple of copies of all the questions that got asked on the forum about one or the other of the articles, and a form to fill out. What I'm going to ask you to do is read through the questions and look for the two you think are most worth considering further, in that they meet two criteria:
There are lots of questions which select the same quotations from the article to ask about; in those cases you should consider what the question that's asked about the quotation is; or you might select one of the questions which are unique, in that the question is different from all the others in the focus.

You'll notice that this is not so much about answering the questions, but about coming up with the questions in the first place.

When you're done, fill out the form and sign it (legibly, please). We'll take the time that's left to talk about the questions groups have recommended we talk further about.

Again, because I'm not sure where we'll get with this, you should watch for a Prompt #15 later today.

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