The Brick

Making unsupported claims and sweeping generalizations bedevils public discourse, as these mistakes are not welcome in academic work.  For that reason, we need a burden to remind all of you about NOT making such mistakes.  I chose a brick because it is heavy and serves as a handy metaphor. Pink-Floyd references to "another brick in the wall" are as optional as they are obvious, because whatever the old song by Roger Waters claims, you do need an education in our social-Darwinian system.

Think of a good academic project as a masonry building made of well chosen claims (bricks, lumber) and evidence (mortar and fasteners that bind the claims and make them strong). By itself a brick is nothing but potential, unrealized and not very pretty.

 I will award an actual brick, painted with instructions, that the recipient is to keep it in class until an unsupported claim or sweeping generalization, made verbally or in writing, gets qualified to my satisfaction with a blog post.

If the claim is never qualified, I will reduce the course grade by 4 points. You will earn the points back as soon as you correct, in a blog post, the generalization or qualify your claim.

Easter Egg: You can give me The Brick. You earn 1 point if you find me making such a mistake in writing.

Sometimes I'll provide an Easter Egg if you catch me making a really stupid typo. So far, CJ did on the front page of our syllabus, and he earned a point.