Preliminary Expectoration (cont.)

All,

Just as a reminder about the structure of posts: You can write about whatever you want, as long as it is relevant. In class I was asked if it can be a "opinion" piece. The answer is yes-and-no: Yes, you can write about something that interests you and might contain your opinion (which is normally something to avoid in philosophical papers). No, it still must be an argument based on the text. It must be academic and professional in structure. But you can think of your posts as "interests" pieces.

E.g., I was recently asked to give a paper on "Health Care as a Human Right." If my model were punditry, I would write an opinion piece and try to convince with rhetorical flourish. Hopefully my audience would have had a professor at some point so obviously awesome (and fit--let's not forget fit) as myself and recognize that as so much tripe. However, if my model were critical thinking and intellectual honesty, I could probably start with Locke and work from this early sense of rights to build the argument.

The point is that you can write on current events which interest you, you can write on personal events which interest you, you can write on anything that is relevant to the texts at hand. Just make sure that, at the end of the day, you have produced something that contains an argument.

As an aside, former House Majority Leader, Texas Representative, and GOP leader (known by those in his own party as "the Hammer") Tom Delay is on "Dancing With the Stars."

Holy crap.

-W.